Pismo Pier

This photograph was taken on the Pismo Beach Pier in August 2008, a time when the pier still had much of the simple, weathered character I remember from California beach towns. The pier in its current location dates to 1924 and has undergone a number of repairs and reconstructions after storm damage. A major reconstruction was completed in 2018, so the photograph also records an earlier version of the pier and waterfront. Sometimes an old photograph records more than a place—it preserves a particular version of that place that can never quite be visited again.