The past few years my attention has been captured by the work that has come out of San Francisco State Art Department. Artists like Christian Maychack, Marina Schterenberg and now Jillian Soto, a photographer that is new to me and is fresh out of school this summer with her B.F.A. in photography, are from San Francisco State.

Recently Soto mounted a solo show at Farley’s Coffee Shop on Potrero Hill. Farley’s is conveniently located smack in the middle of two of our cities major art institutions CCA and SFAI grad studios. Hence you may run into artists like Bay Area pioneer of conceptual art, Paul Kos, or visiting artists from Berlin, Michael Stevenson (who was in the Venice Biennial representing New Zealand) and his wife, artist Cornelia Schmidt-Bleek, to name just a few.

Soto’s “Sweet Science” consisted of black and white photographs she had taken at an old school Oakland boxing gym. Soto curated vintage boxing posters as well as current posters from the local Third St. boxing gym to display amongst her photos. At first glance I was tempted to lump her photos into the category of hipster documentary style that you see in the work of Hamburger Eyes, which isn’t a bad thing (who doesn’t like to look at random pictures of risky youth) . After further observation I detected a consistent aesthetic vision that cradled her subject matter in every single photo, one that empowers her subjects. The photos are extremely up-front, as in a young woman boxer fiercely regarding you, guarding her reflective eyes. Another pose she simply regards her pretty face in the mirror, she could be anywhere, I would have never pinned her as a boxer.

Soto is adept at capturing a sense of pride within her characters as they are gearing up to fight and perhaps win or lose or bleed. You don’t see the machine like or freakish aspects of athleticism, no vulgar muscular displays but rather the emotions and character associated with competition. There is time in Soto’s photos for witty still-lifes with punching bags in the foreground and accumulations of posters and ephemera in the background. Even Oscar Wild made his way into one of the photos with his inspirational quote “Winning isn’t every thing but wanting to win is” pinned up next to a poster.

Soto does a thorough job of showing you what she sees with an economy of means that plays with details without deviating from her storyline. There is a romance going on with her subject matter that keeps the work sensitive, compelling and leaving you wanting to see more.