Strange Paradise — Everyday Street Photography on the Golden Gate Bridge, by Jake Ricker -- For over five years, Jake Ricker has visited the Golden Gate Bridge almost every day to take photographs. His project pays tribute to the highs and lows of the human experience that play out against San Francisco’s iconic red-orange landmark. -- “After I stopped being a SF bike messenger in September 2017, I was looking for something new to photograph that wasn’t in the downtown area. I had been a messenger for almost 10 years, and shot photos every day that I worked. It was the best way to see and capture new things, but it was time to change my backdrop,” he explains. “I had been thinking about the hundreds of photos of the Golden Gate Bridge I’d seen, and how they always looked similar—always of the bridge itself, always taken from the same four spots on or around the bridge. I realized I never saw photos of the people from the sidewalk, and I thought that the candid, street style of photography that I shoot would be an interesting way to show a different version of such a photographed place.” -- See more, and read the full story at lensculture.com -- Photographs by Jake Ricker @jake_ricker Essay by Joanna L. Cresswell @visionsofjoanna_