about
“…Valerie J. Cochran, full-time waitress, secret shutterbug, and proprietress of the Your Waitress photoblog. Her gift is for taking familiar scenarios and faces you have probably passed on the street a million times and making you see them in a new way: protesters with their picket signs, buskers and spare-changers on the Avenue, skateboarders getting air…You see what Your Waitress has seen and you draw your own conclusions.”
—Best Local Blogger , Best of the East Bay Awards 2006, East Bay Express
bio
Ms. Cochran grew up in Missouri and arrived in the Bay Area on January 1, 2001. She currently lives and works in Oakland, california. Valerie has been shooting photography since she was a young girl beginning with Polaroids of her family. She took her first photography class at the age of 15 and studied for a few years at the Savannah College of Art and Design, although she did not obtain a formal degree.
In 2004, Valerie began her photoblog, YourWaitress.com as a reaction to the stereotypes of restaurant workers and to rekindle her creative muse. Her return to photography was documented in the early days of the website which has become a home to her now usual suspects of street photography and portraiture. Valerie’s images today explore the relationship between people and places in the urban landscape. She shoots only film photography with various 35mm, disposable, and toy cameras.
Valerie’s photographs have appeared in print publications such as jpg magazine and PhotoJournal Southwest. Her work has been featured in numerous other publications online including the bbc, photoblogs magazine, file magazine, flak photo, filmwasters.com, and sfist. In February of 2007, she self-published her first photography book collection, your waitress | 2004-2005.
all of the images are protected under international and united states copyright laws. please do not use any of the images in any form for any purpose without permission.
23 months
join valerie at her current photography exhibition, 23 months in old oakland.
opening reception:
friday, november 7, 2008
6-9 pm
part of the oakland art murmur’s first friday events
closing reception:
thursday, december 11, 2008
6-9 pm
mignonne
1000 jefferson street
oakland, ca 94609
510.444.5288
in old oakland short walk from 12th street bart