Behind the Scenes
Behind the scenes of SF State Magazine’s alumni photo shoot, the team hit the road across the Bay Area to capture Gators in the places where they live, work and make an impact. From City Hall to Golden Gate Park to Menlo Park and Pleasanton, the experience offered a firsthand look at the people and places behind the stories.
SFSU alums, y’all are everywhere, and we love it! When we set out to highlight alumni success stories, we didn’t fully realize we were signing up to drive all over the Bay Area. But it was worth it. We could not have imagined how impactful it would be to actually see so many SFSU Gators being leaders in their natural habitats.
“For me, [it was] being able to photograph our alumni at such historical places and to see first-hand how SF State alumni are really interwoven within both culture and business all across the Bay Area, making great impact in different industries,” said SF State Magazine Art Director Alexander Villagomez-Miranda.
Villagomez-Miranda and Photographer Juan Montes visited downtown to capture alums Kimberly Gallardo and Ryna Marchand at the iconic San Francisco City Hall and War Memorial Opera House, respectively. They then headed to Golden Gate Park to photograph Jacque Benitez in the Morrison Planetarium at the California Academy of Sciences. (She even got the lights to turn Gator purple. Go Gators!) And finally, the team headed east to see Firas Muheisen at the Hotel Nia in Menlo Park and Shriya Dandin at Workday in Pleasanton.