:: Fifty-three percent of Americans say the war was not worth fighting.
-- USA Today poll
It is no longer a dissenting minority that oppose the war. I put the finishing touches on this gallery of images from the time when we were a minority while listening to Bush in his Fort Bragg speech make his latest pathetic attempt to tie the invasion of Iraq to 9/11.
This is the first time I've posted here (I just found this forum) and, since it is DU, I thought that I'd begin with the kind of blunt political talk that would get me banned from the photography forum I usually post in.
Taking over the streets of Portland and surrounding the Bush fundraiser on 8/22/02. This was the first post-9/11 Bush protest to get nationwide coverage and really the first successful (in terms of getting attention) protest of Bush's rush to war.
All of the images displayed here were taken from August to April on the streets of Portland, Oregon in the year before the misbegotten American invasion of Iraq.
Portland's final march warning Bush of the dangers of invading Iraq. Worldwide 12 million marched against the rush to war on February 15th 2003 and about ten million a month later (when this picture was taken).
A family listens to the speakers at a Portland anti invasion rally.
3/16/03, on the eve of war, one of more than 6,000 candle light vigil's for peace organized by MoveOn.org.
3/20/03 - Day X closing of the I-5 freeway "When the Bombs Drop, Portland Stops" There were sit-ins on all 3 of the freeways that cut through downtown Portland.
4/01/03 - self-portrait taken 2 weeks into the American occupation of Iraq
Hello, everyone! This is my first post in the photography forum. However, you may have seen some of these photos before as I regularly posted images on the night of the march here on the old Activism/Events forum. I never knew about this Photography forum. I sometimes post my pictures on dpreview.com. However, even though I don't include political comments I still get hate mail and some folks always come over to my Smugmug gallery and leave obscene comments. It must be that the photos don't need captions to make their point. ;-)
I looked over the posts here and I was pleased to find some political images on the back pages, but it did surprise me that for the most part the images and the talk is just the same as it is on dpreview.com -- except that no one gets bent out of shape if you let your contempt for Pres. Bush slip out.
I'm kind of tired of taking pictures of demonstrations myself. However, in my smugmug gallery I've been working at trying to bring a similar perspective into non-protest photography. In our time, all art is political.
All the pictures included here are from the CoolPix 2500, a trendy inexpensive little blue camera with a lens that turns around 360 degrees, that I sold to get a Sony F-717. Except for this gallery of the best pictures I took with that little camera that I just uploaded all the pictures at my smugmug gallery were taken with the 717.
I certainly captured images with the 717 that I couldn't with the Coolpix (the highlights sure didn't clip so much -- and the shutter speed wasn't so slow that you felt you were taking pictures in the past.) And some of these pictures push that little blue camera far beyond its limits, but I still like them. In particular the series of 4 pictures on the freeway.
*** (I'd like to know if you are annoyed or intrigued by the almost abstract blurry images caused by the slow shutter. And I wish I still had a pocket camera.) ***
I've recently decided that I want a little blue (well, better yet black) camera more than a DSLR. I don't think that it is a fancy camera, but as someone famously said, getting close enough that makes the difference in photographs.
For more interesting images and stories of the resistance to Bush visit the two web sites which are listed below.
Brian Thomas
http://rivertext.com/mixing art & ideas online since 1986
http://rivertext.smugmug.com/my photo gallery