about
valerie j. cochran, chicago 2007. photo © brandon stone.
…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.
—from best local blogger 2006, east bay express
bio
valerie j. cochran grew up in missouri and arrived in the bay area on january 1, 2001. she currently lives and works in oakland, california. valerie become fascinated with photography as a young girl shooting candid 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.
on may 13, 2004 valerie began her photoblog anonymously as your waitress photos. today your waitress (or the short version, yw) is 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, instant, disposable, and toy cameras. the main camera is a canon ae-1 from the 1970’s with a 50mm f/1.4 lens. post processing is minimal as she strives to get it right in the camera.
exhibitions
assorted photographs - loose prints for sale, june 2010-present, blackbird east, oakland
monthly print show - group show, december 2009, collect annex, oakland
visitations - solo show, july-august 2009, boxed foods company, san francisco
23 months - solo show, november-december 2008, mignonne, oakland
picture the cure - group exhibit/auction for canadian cancer society, 2006, toronto
recent work - solo show, winter 2005, delta by skin, san francisco
publications
book - the shakey photo project, december 2009, contributor, blurb, usa
book - your waitress | 2004-2005, february 2007, self-published, blurb, usa
print - jpg magazine - cinesource magazine - photojournal southwest
online - the bbc - file magazine - flak photo - filmwasters - sfist
interviews - petapixel - photoblogs magazine
sociables and kudos
find yw @ - twitter - facebook - photoblogs.org - cool photoblogs
finalist - best american photoblog, 2009 photoblog awards
hall of fame member - photoblogs.org, february 19, 2007
winner - best local blogger, 2006 east bay express awards
license and usage
all photographs, templates and text from yourwaitress.com are subject to u.s. and international copyright laws. copyright © 2004-2010 valerie j. cochran. all rights reserved. no text or image may be reproduced, copied, stored, manipulated or used whole or in part of a derivative work without the written permission of valerie j. cochran. please contact ms. cochran with any inquiry to license or use the images. not all images are available for license or usage.