Oakland, CA - Mills College recently sponsored a major photographic project featuring a remarkable portrait of East Oakland's MacArthur Boulevard neighborhood. Photographers Heike Liss, Johnna Arnold, and Bob Hsiang roamed up and down MacArthur Boulevard capturing an intimate “portrait” of the East Oakland business district currently undergoing a major renaissance.

Typical of a contemporary Californian neighborhood, the MacArthur Corridor (also known as the Laurel and Dimond districts) is a short strip of commercial bustle between Seminary and Fruitvale Avenues. People of different races and ethnicities— black, white, Chinese, Vietnamese, Filipino, Laotian, Cambodian, Korean, Middle Eastern, Salvadoran, Mexican, Tongan—crowd the sidewalks and pursue their daily business. While most of the businesses show strain and wear, clearly harkening from better economic times, the MacArthur Corridor still boasts a dizzying array of mom-and-pop businesses. A local hardware store is located next to a classic luncheonette, followed by a trophy engraving store, an optometrist's office, a barbershop specializing in fades, and a karate school.

Using digital cameras, the three fine art photographers shot a series of “portraits” of the MacArthur Boulevard storefronts and business owners. Heike Liss took portraits of storefront owners; Bob Hsiang photographed store exteriors (architectural details, signage, and window displays); and Johnna Arnold captured the street culture (transportation, pedestrian movement, and objects on and around the Boulevard) through a series of images that evoke a sense of roaming the Boulevard. The results are breathtaking and vibrant, instilled with both an historical sense and a preservationist’s purpose through an artistic lens. The collection features sharp angles from afternoon shadows cast by bus benches, ghostly reflections of customers on laundromat windows—remarkable portraits of people spending their lives working along the Boulevard.

The MacArthur Corridor Portrait Project is part of an historical initiative sponsored by Mills College, with support from the James Irvine Foundation. Photographing the neighborhood has encouraged community members to discuss their concerns about development and to share local heritage with the photographers. The stories and photographic portraits will be stored in digital archives for public use at Mills' F.W. Olin Library and the Oakland Public Library’s Oakland History Room.

For more information, or to arrange an interview with the MacArthur Corridor Portrait Project, contact Patricia Wakida, MacArthur Boulevard Portrait Project Coordinator at 510.261.1573 or Nancy MacKay, Mills Oakland Living History Program Coordinator at 510.430.2028.

Mills College is a nationally renowned, independent liberal arts college offering innovative degree programs for undergraduate women, and graduate degree and certificate programs for women and men. Consistently ranked among the top 75 liberal arts colleges in the nation by U.S. News & World Report, Mills is also recognized as one of the country’s 20 most diverse liberal arts colleges. The Princeton Review selected Mills as one of 11 colleges for first-time inclusion in its Best 361 Colleges in 2005. Nestled in the foothills of Oakland, California on 135 lush acres, Mills provides a dynamic liberal arts education fostering women’s leadership, social responsibility, and creativity.

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