Saul Bromberger and Sandra Hoover are a photography team whose work over the past 40 years has captured the essence of American life, particularly within the LGBTQ community. Their shared passion for storytelling through photography has led them to a collaborative career, where they have created poignant and impactful photo essays, blending their unique backgrounds and perspectives.

Saul, a Jewish immigrant from Israel, moved to the United States at the age of nine. Growing up in Los Angeles, where his parents ran small businesses, he often felt like an outsider in American society. Sandra, on the other hand, was raised in Hayward, California, a working-class city in the San Francisco Bay Area, where her father was a teacher and her mother worked in education. Their different backgrounds brought a rich diversity to their collaborative work, which began in 1984 when they met at the Hayward Daily Review.

Sometime around 1988 Sandra and Saul began to consider the question, “What’s the worst thing that could happen if Saul quit his job as a staff photographer at The Alameda Newspaper Group?” Through the high quality photographs they were making together at the San Francisco Gay Parade, the new photographs they were adding to their ‘American Portraits' project, the street protests, family events, road trips, and random photos here and there, they began to visualize themselves working together as a team. 

Could this work and how? They had done only one job together for a client. They didn’t know a thing about running a business, marketing themselves and promoting for new clients, finding new clients, networking, bookkeeping, and only had a slight notion regarding the needed perseverance and confidence to just keep going during the slow times when no new jobs were coming in. 

They wondered, "How were we going to make this happen? How will we feel about sharing our byline? What will happen to our individual work once our work is so blended together?" The watched Joseph Campell’s ‘The Power of Myth,’ and found that the line, “be the hero and follow your bliss,” resonated with them. They were young with no kids yet and thinking constantly about how important it is to take risks and to have adventures.

They decided to move to Seattle, WA where Sandra's family lived. It was also close enough to family located in the San Francisco Bay Area and Los Angeles. Some friends suggested that they move to New York, but this seemed overwhelming and setting them up for failure. They didn’t have enough money to give themselves the time to learn how to freelance and develop the relationships they would need. Meanwhile, because Seattle was a city with a slower lifestyle and Sandy’s family was there for support, they knew that we could learn how to freelance and run a business, learn to work together as a team and develop their chemistry, build their portfolio, and slowly build relationships with clients.

Armed with a book about Guerilla Marketing a friend had given them, Saul quit his job at the Alameda Newspaper Group in February 1990 and they moved to Seattle with this business plan: “What do we love and are good at and who will hire us to do that?” They knew that we were very good at capturing scenes with emotion, that they connected well with their subjects and created trust, while producing storytelling photographs with impact. 

With this in mind, they approached most of the hospitals in the Seattle area and started getting steady work from around five of them. However, they still needed to see if they could create long-term photo essays where they could apply their storytelling skills of capturing the scenes that will create an emotional ride, a narrative with impact for the reader.

Their first major project together, 'Our American Portraits,' was a blend of their experiences and visions of America, their social commentary that captured the lives of ordinary people and the diverse cultures within the country. This project laid the foundation for their future work, including the 'PRIDE - Hearts of the Movement: The San Francisco Gay & Lesbian Freedom Day Parade' photo essay. From 1984 to 1990, they documented the LGBTQ community’s fight for civil rights and equality, capturing intimate moments of love, resilience, and activism.

In 1992, they embarked on the 'House of Angels - Living With AIDS at the Bailey-Boushay House' photo essay in Seattle, Washington. This deeply emotional project documented the lives of young men dying of AIDS, focusing on the human aspect of the epidemic and the compassionate care provided at the Bailey-Boushay House. Over nearly three years, this project was both a professional challenge and a personal journey, as they built relationships with patients, families, and staff, aiming to evoke empathy and raise awareness about the AIDS epidemic.

The emotional toll of the 'House of Angels' project was significant, leading them to put the work away for almost 20 years. However, a presentation at San Francisco Cameraworks in 2015 reignited their passion for telling stories about the LGBTQ community. Inspired by the 'Long Term HIV Survivors' community in San Francisco, they began the 'Portrait of the AIDS Generation' photo essay. This ongoing project focuses on individuals who have lived with HIV since the early days of the AIDS pandemic, highlighting their strength, perseverance, and the challenges they face as they age.

Currently living in Alameda in the San Francisco Bay Area, they are continuing to work with their clients on their photography needs, while looking for new stories, new projects, and for new adventures. They have two sons, Bryce and Micah, and have had a life filled with memorable adventures, creative challenges and successes.