Almost every day for the past five years, Jake Ricker has walked the Golden Gate Bridge, taking pictures. His encounters with people in crisis have given his work even more meaning. Garvin Thomas reports.
If there is one thing Jake Ricker has learned about himself over the past 36 years, it’s that he has something of an obsessive personality. What Ricker never knows, though, is just what form his next obsession is going to be.
For the past five years, it’s been taking pictures on the Golden Gate Bridge. Every day for the past five years. Almost.
“Definitely six to seven days a week,” Ricker said. “I think this year along, I’ve only missed like three or four days.”
Now, it should be noted that Ricker does not take pictures of the bridge like the rest of us do: focusing on its architecture and iconic setting. Ricker is a street photographer, candidly capturing the people who flock to the world-famous landmark by the millions.
“There’s just so many characters in the city and there’s so many tourists and bicycles and car accidents and motorcycles,” Ricker said. “There are so many things that can happen at any moment that are all kind of condensed on this little strip of concrete over the ocean.”
But coming to the bridge every day over the years has exposed Ricker to the dark side of what can happen here. On his daily walks, he has encountered many people in crisis threatening to end their lives by jumping.
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In those moments, Ricker balances his humanity with his desire to chronicle the reality of life on the bridge. Ricker, who says over the years he has developed a good relationship with the officers who patrol the bridge, will alert them to any signs of trouble.
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He will then stay and engage with the person until the patrol arrives. It has happened, Ricker says, dozens of times.
“There were days when I had a normal job and I would take the day off from work (to come to the bridge) and then happened to stop someone from jumping,” Ricker said. “So, I just thought, ‘If I went to work that day, that person might not be here.’”
It was in that way that Ricker’s photography project turned into something of a humanitarian mission.
Still, Ricker is not heading out every day looking to save people; he just wants to take their pictures. It’s just that he instinctively knows when to do one and when to do the other.
“I feel like I was oddly prepared to be in this position,” Ricker said. “It was all meant to be so.”
Ricker doesn’t not know at this time how many days, or years, he will continue coming to the bridge. The entire endeavor has been a financial burden on him. He is thousands of dollars in debt and currently has more than one thousand rolls of film waiting to be developed once he can afford to pay for it.
Still, every day Ricker does choose to show up has the potential to be a fortunate one for someone in need.
“If it was my friend or family member out there, I wish someone would just talk to them and be there for them when they thought they didn't have anybody.”
