Travel, documentary & cultural photography by David C. Hill
Exploring places. Documenting change.
I’m David C. Hill, a photographer based in San José. For more than thirty years, I’ve photographed San Francisco—its architecture, neighborhoods, celebrations, and changing landscape—while continuing to document San José and the places I encounter while traveling.
State of Light brings those long-term projects together through photographs, writing, history, and video. Some projects follow places over many years; others begin with a walk, a building, or a detail that leads somewhere unexpected.
In Progress
A continuing record of San Francisco’s changing waterfront.
Pier 70
Returning to San Francisco’s industrial waterfront to document its buildings, public spaces, and changing landscape.
Potrero Hill Power Station
An ongoing photography project following the power station site and its place in the changing waterfront.
Yerba Buena Island & Treasure Island
An ongoing record of the islands, their landscapes, and the places opening along the bay.
Explore the collections
San Francisco, San José, travel, culture, and the natural world—photographed over an afternoon or followed across decades.
Architecture · History · Public life
San Francisco
Three decades of looking at a city in motion: its buildings, neighborhoods, public art, and changing waterfront.
Neighborhoods · Culture · Change
San José
The city I call home. The Alameda, neighborhood celebrations, and the everyday scenes that become a record of a place.
Travel · Architecture · Encounters
Beyond home
Photographic journals shaped by curiosity—historic spaces, street life, and time spent getting to know a place.
From the journal · San Francisco
A changing waterfront
Returning to familiar places reveals what’s changing. My recent photographs of Treasure Island join an ongoing record of San Francisco’s evolving urban landscape.
A closer look
Projects, process, and the archive
An ongoing guide
Mapping San Francisco
My photographs and historical context come together in a Google Earth guide to architecture, public art, and places worth exploring.
Slowing down
Back to film
Returning to the Olympus OM-2 after more than twenty years—a chance to reconnect with a more deliberate photographic process.
A family archive
Aunty Joy’s photographs
A collection of fifty travel photographs honoring one of my earliest inspirations, and the eye for detail she encouraged.
In the garden, macro photography has become another way of slowing down: watching pollinators, working close, and finding a photograph in a small detail.
Photography by Joy Thompson
A family photography archive
Aunty Joy’s photographs
Growing up, I looked forward to seeing Aunty Joy’s photographs from her travels. She was one of my earliest inspirations for wanting to become a photographer.
I’ve selected fifty photographs from her archive to share here—images from Paris, London, Mexico, and other places she explored.
Prints & photographic gifts
Selected work for your home
Selected photographs from these projects become prints and handmade photographic gifts at DHILL Studio.
© David C. Hill · State of Light
Independent photography · San José, California