Salesman:
It’s a good buy and you can take advantage of the fact that the people are fighting among themselves for a piece of the marketplace. You actually end up with 28, are you ready for this? 28 perms! I can’t believe this myself! You can get up to 6 free perms for each
$10-off coupon redeemed. You see? 6!

Hairdresser:
Mmhmm, whatever you say Mr. Delaney.

Salesman:
Up to a total of 24 free perms. Plus the rinse. How can you turn a deal down like that? No after-perm smell, you know, some of these heat waves . . .

Hairdresser:
I like the perm smell.

Salesman:
I do too.
I told Janet that this wasn’t going to be easy. . .

Janet Delaney
House of Beauty, 1980
Archival Pigment Print, 2026
15 x 19.5 in (38.1 x 49.53 cm)
Edition of 5 +2AP
$4,000

Janet Delaney
Counting Dollars, 1980
Archival Pigment Print, 2026
19.5 x 15 in (49.53 x 38.1 cm)
Edition of 5 +2AP
$4,000

I have basically always
been proud of being a
salesman because I know
that nothing happens until something is sold.
So I am doing a service
in the economy.

Janet Delaney
Hair Dryers, 1980
Archival Pigment Print, 2026
15 x 19.5 in (38.1 x 49.53 cm)
Edition of 5 +2AP
$4,000

Working in a beauty shop is not the most masculine thing that the average man thinks about doing.

In fact, it’s very difficult to find men that can go into a beauty salon and handle themselves properly and not think that every girl wants to be patted here and there and making eyes at her and whatever.

It’s a business and they’ve got to remember that they’re in a business and it can be very lucrative for them.

Janet Delaney
Where was I Janet?, 1980
Archival Pigment Print, 2026
15 x 19.5 in (38.1 x 49.53 cm)
Edition of 5 +2AP
$4,000

Salesman:
Great Feeling here, Diamond Delight. You know Diamond Delight was taken over by Revolon, so it’s on the Revolon deal sheet. I forgot about that. They own Roux now, you know, everybody owns everybody. . .

Let’s see . . . $15.95

Hairdresser:
So what are you going to give it to me for?

Salesman:
$14.95

Hairdresser:
Make it $13.95

Salesman:
I can’t do that!

Chorus of Hairdressers:
(Cackling laughter)

Janet Delaney
Pink Floral Wallpaper, 1980
Archival Pigment Print, 2026
19.5 x 15 in (49.53 x 38.1 cm)
Edition of 5 +2AP
$4,000

Janet Delaney
Price Change January 1, 1980
Archival Pigment Print, 2026
15 x 19.5 in (38.1 x 49.53 cm)
Edition of 5 +2AP
$4,000

Janet Delaney
Beauty Salon, 1980
Archival Pigment Print, 2026
19.5 x 15 in (49.53 x 38.1 cm)
Edition of 5 +2AP
$4,000

You gotta love it.
It’s a tough business,
it really is a tough business
but you gotta love it.
Not everybody is cut out for it.

Janet Delaney
The Evening Hug, 1980
Archival Pigment Print, 2026
15 x 19.5 in (38.1 x 49.53 cm)
Edition of 5 +2AP
$4,000

JANET DELANEY
Glamour Magazine, 1980
Archival Pigment Print, 2026
15 x 19.5 in (38.1 x 49.53 cm)
Edition of 5 +2AP
$4,000

JANET DELANEY
Japanese Calendar, 1980
Archival Pigment Print, 2026
19.5 x 13 in (49.53 x 33.02 cm)
Edition of 5 +2AP
$4,000

BIO

Janet Delaney (b. 1952, Compton, California) is an American photographer based in Berkeley, California, whose work examines the social and urban fabric of American life with both clarity and empathy. She is the recipient of a 2020 Guggenheim Fellowship, in addition to numerous other honors, including three National Endowment for the Arts grants.

Delaney’s work has been widely exhibited in both national and international solo and group exhibitions, notably South of Market at the de Young Museum in 2015. Her photographs are held in major public and private collections, including the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; the Oakland Museum of California; the Harry Ransom Center; the Pilara Foundation; the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco; and the Museum of Modern Art, Rio de Janeiro.

She first gained widespread recognition for her South of Market series, a poignant chronicle of San Francisco’s SoMa neighborhood during the gentrification of the 1980s. Subsequent bodies of work, including Public Matters and Red Eye to New York, continue her exploration of civic life and the rhythms of the street in San Francisco and New York during that same decade. Her most recent publication, Too Many Products Too Much Pressure (Deadbeat Club, 2025) offers an intimate portrait of her father’s life as a salesman in Los Angeles. Earlier monographs include South of Market (MACK, 2013), Public Matters(MACK, 2018), and Red Eye to New York (MACK, 2021).

Delaney received her MFA from the San Francisco Art Institute, where she later taught, in addition to holding teaching positions at the University of California, Berkeley and throughout the Bay Area. She is currently completing SoMA Now, an ongoing project documenting San Francisco’s rapid transformation into a global center of technology and the social consequences of this shift. Both honest and poetic, Delaney’s practice bridges documentary and fine art, offering a nuanced and enduring record of contemporary urban life.

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PRESS

The New Yorker, “Photo Booth: A Photographer’s Portraits of Her Dad,” Helen Sullivan, January 2026

Musée Magazine, Book Review, Sritama Bhattacharyya, October 2025

Photo London Book Club “Book of the Month,” Too Many Products Too Much Pressure, October 2025

PhMuseum “Photobook Review: Too Many Products Too Much Pressure by Janet Delaney,” Colin Pantall, October 22, 2025

Lenscratch, “Janet Delaney: Too Many Products Too Much Pressure,” interview by Tracy L. Chandler, October 19, 2025

All About Photo, “Exclusive Interview with Janet Delaney About Her Latest Book,” October 6, 2025

Financial Times Magazine [PDF] “My father, the salesman — a photo essay by Janet Delaney,” September 13, 2025

Aperture Magazine [PDF], edited by Alec Soth, “Janet Delaney’s fascination with workers began with her father, a beauty supply salesman,” Glen Helfand, June 2022