San Francisco Exposure Gallery was founded in March, 2003 by Bay Area documentary photographer Rick Rocamora and San Francisco Chronicle photographer Kim Komenich.

The gallery's debut exhibition, "Vietnam Inc." by Magnum photographer Philip Jones Griffiths, opened at the height of the 2003 United States invasion of Iraq. "It set the tone for the type of photos we want to show at Exposure Gallery," said Rocamora, "the photos are always timely and issues-based."

Rocamora and Komenich say the direction of the gallery is based on the words of documentary photographer Lewis Hine:

   "I wanted to show the things that needed to be changed, and
   I wanted to show the things that needed to be appreciated."

San Francisco Exposure Gallery is a project of the Tenants and Owners Development Corporation and New California Media. The gallery is housed in the activities room of Woolf House at 801 Howard Street in San Francisco, across the street from Moscone West convention center. The gallery's afternoon hours mesh well with the parties, mahjong games and meetings held in the room at other hours by the senior citizen residents of Woolf House.

"As far as galleries go, I think we are unique because we are topical and we can turn on a dime," Komenich said. "We're kind of a Life Magazine with walls. Our needs for exhibition space are met by TODCO and our non-profit status is underwritten by New California Media, so we don't need to raise money and we are free to show photos that need to be seen."

Since March, 2003, when it was founded as "A Home for the Spirit of Concerned Photography," San Francisco Exposure Gallery's exhibits have included "A Mother's Journey" by Renée C. Byer (2007 Pulitzer Prize/Feature Photography), "Operation Lionheart" by Deanne Fitzmaurice (2005 Pulitzer Prize/Feature Photography), "Denied: The Crisis of America's Uninsured" by Ed Kashi and Julie Winokur, and "Ashes of Eden" (an eight-year documentary photo project about the agricultural immigrants of California's Central Valley) by Pulitzer Prize finalist Matt Black.

The gallery is the site of a monthly "Photonite", usually held on the first Thursday. Photonites are sponsored by the San Francisco Bay Area Press Photographers Association http://www.sfbappa.org.
Photonite founder Jessica Lifland (jblif@sbcglobal.net) has produced more than 40 events at Exposure Gallery with guest speakers ranging from rock photography legend Jim Marshall to Pulitzer Prize and Robert Capa Award winner Carolyn Cole to Photoshop guru Russell Brown and Bay Area documentary photographer Michelle Vignes.