Today’s assignment was, “Sometimes we all see the world in black and white.” While I did use it as part of an excuse to finally visit the Occupy Wall Street protests with my good friend Josh Crowley, I’m not using “Black and White” to describe any philosophy here.
I usually try not to get to political in this space, but going down to see these protests has made me especially appalled at the media coverage of what’s been going on. Yes, there was some crazy aged hippie with hand-drawn swastikas on his t-shirt, saying something about American terrorism, and yes, there was one person with a Guy Fawkes mask. But the majority of the people down at OWS were entirely reasonable people, who wanted nothing more than to have their voices heard and engage in very satisfying conversation. I don’t think I had a single conversation tonight where I agreed with everything that a person was saying, but everyone was respectful.
I’ll try to stop talking politics and start talking photography as best as possible.
I wish I could have chosen a single image for this post, but I took so many that I enjoyed. Many, like this one, are not so impressive technique-wise. However, tonight reminded me of my photojournalism days: I wasn’t setting up a shot, I was storytelling.
As you may know, early this morning, Mayor Bloomberg announced on the radio that he was going to essentially evacuate the park for “cleaning.” The protesters would be welcome back after the cleaning was done… but they wouldn’t be allowed to bring tents or sleeping bags, or anything else that would allow them to maintain a continued protest.
This man’s sign is no joke. Zuccotti Park is clean. And don’t just take my word for it:
This might be my favorite photograph of the night. It provides context, but really it shows the dedication of these men and women, who are not too proud to clean a city park just for the promise of the continued right to peacefully assemble.
While I’m on the subject, this signifies something else that was immensely surprising to me. Reading the media coverage of this protest, one would expect nothing but a group of “dirty hippies” or young college grads too lazy to get a job. Nothing could be further from the truth. These people with brooms and scrub brushes are part of the OWS Sanitation Committee, one of many that the group has organized during their occupation. In fact, these guys are highly organized.
This is the weakest photograph of the bunch, but if I had done a better job, this would have been the post’s lead image — only because it’s the most literal interpretation of “Black and White” that I think is possible. There was a General Assembly going on at the time, but I was really tickled by these two, who seemed vaguely disturbed that all these people were crowding around them during their intense chess game.
As part of the cleanup effort, people were piling all their possessions up, safely stowed in waterproof plastic bags to be picked up by a truck and stored in a safe place. I took this photo, and then had a brief conversation with another man on the street. It might have been ten minutes total. By the time the man had to leave to take a phone call, the entire heap was gone. It had been piled up into the truck for “delivery.”
While that effort was going on, the police officer in white, above, asked the protesters to move their truck. The man gesturing was one of the drivers, and he’s pointing in the direction of where he had been idling before being forced to move.
It’s worth making a note on photography here, and that I actually enjoy these photos a lot more in black and white than I did in color. I feel that it gives them a harder, more “newsy” edge that they benefit from. Additionally, toning these photos as black and white means they don’t have the same issues with digital noise that color photographs do, when shooting at ISO 1600 or even 3200 on an 8-year-old camera.
After they moved their truck, the police officer in white wrote them a parking ticket. The recipient of this ticket was apparently a man named Peter. The protesters chanted, “We love you, Peter!” and loudly announced, “Peter! We’ll pay your parking ticket! Don’t worry!” The attitude in the air was strongly one of, “We’ll keep protesting.”
I totally agree with you about the media coverage. Fox News came on after the Tiger’s game a couple nights ago and I had to turn the TV off because I was so disgusted. For contrast, I searched google for images of the protest, and they definitely emphasize the more sensational. And none of them have the same sense of being a part of it as your set, which is powerful, especially when combined with your narrative. I certainly can’t say what will come out of these protests, but they send quite a message. So many people have a sense that something is inherently wrong with the state of things, and they don’t necessarily know how to fix it, or even precisely understand what part of the system is flawed, but that’s not the point. They’re not (generally speaking) economists or elected officials. None of the protesters can fix it, but together, maybe they can open up enough eyes and apply the right kind of pressure so that those who can do something about it, will. Sorry for waxing political, that wasn’t my intent, but this set is indeed inspiring.
[...] Today was playing with negative space. It was a very late day at work, and with the sun setting earlier I didn’t have any time to go hunting for a photo. For some reason, my mind went pretty Looney Toons. Kind of fits in with the economic mentality in the air, anyway. [...]