Eyes of the Bay: How Election Night in San Francisco Unfolded Over Six Hours

After weeks of suspense building up to November 5th, Bhabna Banerjee and I became interested in capturing the collective emotion of a city waiting for the news of their next president. The following photo essay came as a result: “Eyes of the Bay: How Election Night in San Francisco Unfolded Over Six Hours.”

This election felt historical for a number of reasons, and with it, the emotions especially palpable: excitement, hope, anxiety, fear. We spent the night between Manny’s in the Mission, 111 Minna Gallery in SoMa, and The Function in Hayes Valley, and ended up with hundreds of photos to choose from. The picking of these 49 was intentional—an attempt at documenting the wide array of feelings over what felt, especially for us as reporters, a very quick six hours. We chose to accompany each portrait with a timestamp, so as to tell the story of the night through expressions alone.