Family Love, 1993-2004
In 1993, Darcy Padilla met Julie Baird during a report at the Ambassador, one of those hotels in the Tenderloin district of San Francisco that serves as an annex to overcrowded hospitals. She followed her for 18 years until her death, bearing witness through her to poverty, broken families, drug addiction, AIDS, violent relationships.
From the back alleys of San Francisco to the backcountry of Alaska, Darcy Padilla chronicles Julie’s life through births and deaths, losses and reunions, small joys and great pains.
“I first met Julie on February 28, 1993. Julie was 18 years old, standing in the lobby of the Ambassador Hotel, barefoot, with her pants open and an 8-day-old child in her arms. She lived in the SRO (Single Room hotel) area of San Francisco, a place with cheap housing and small soup restaurants. Her room was filled with clothes thrown on the floor, in the middle of ashtrays and garbage. She was living with Jack, the father of Rachel, her first daughter, who made her HIV positive. She left him a few months later to stop doing drugs.” Darcy Padilla
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Hôtel Paul Delaroche
58 rue Saint Lazare, 75009 Paris
+33 1 53 01 85 85
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