Photojournalism

In light of the Occupy Wall St. Movement and its nationwide expansion, I realized that I don’t recall a movement such as this in my lifetime. Sure, there have been anti-war protesters, but when aren’t there protesters during war-time? This feels different. There are so many people coming together from so many varied backgrounds and they all have different ideas and somehow it’s all funneling down into one unified voice speaking out.

As I am interested in photojournalism and street photography (and seeing as how I’ve never taken photos of a protest) I decided to grab my trusty 500 DTL and check out my local Occupy group.

I’d heard of Occupy St. Louis at work from a co-worker who is an involved activist with the group. It sounded amazing and every day I was unable to go down to Kiener Plaza I felt I was missing something.

I work a 9 to 5 and decided to go on a Saturday on the way to get groceries.

Perhaps I got ahead of myself. Some may not know what this Occupy movement is all about. Long and short: The group is against corrupt corporation and banking practices. This summation isn’t precise, I’ll admit, but here are a few links for further education:

http://www.occupystl.org/statement-of-purpose/
http://www.facebook.com/OccupyWallSt?ref=ts&sk=info

It was early Saturday and the group looked to still be in the shadows of trees holding their morning general assembly. Since I shoot film, I decided to go down to the riverfront under the arch and do some of my usual photography. After about an hour of snapping street shots I headed back up and there were some people holding signs along Market Street.

Members of the group come from all walks of life. In my brief period there I got to meet Janelle.

Janelle is from the area and she and her children have visited the plaza for the last two weekends. They were camping out again this weekend. She discussed with me the importance of the movement between cheers at honking passers by (honking in solidarity to one of the signs another person was holding) and felt that a change needed to be made to the current system.

Standing there on the median, alone with her daughter, holding a sign that says unity; she appeared, to me at least, as a welcoming figure like a grand statue welcoming you to the plaza. Her sign, a warm beacon of equality assuring you that you belonged.

More Caffenol! and Some News

Well... this one doesn't have nearly as many pictures as the previous one had.  In fact, this one doesn't have any at all as I'm tired and lazy. 

I did a roll last night that turned out, but with this weird spot where the dev and fixer did not go.  Because I decided to call an audible while loading the tank (and because I didn't have my ceremonial beer with me in the dev room).  I loaded the roll of film backward of what I had been rolling it.  Normally I roll it to the curve of the film as it comes out of the cassette.  So, it conforms to the natural bend of the film and will thus load easier... not sure why i turned it about, but I did.  Lost two pictures, not a big loss as they weren't the strongest of the roll anywho. 

Tonight I did a roll from my La Sardina (well Sardina 2, but Sardina none the less).  Did it the same ol' same ol' way and it turned out fantastically.  Was pretty much just a test roll, but there are some shots I would have missed had it not worked out.  I did have the beer and I did load it normally.

In other news!

So, I talked to my project director and he's letting me shoot on the site.  I let him know I'd be focusing on the people digging rather than the archaeology as we've got plenty of those types of pictures and I understand the sensitivity of the subject of personal photos.  Stipulations:  I was going to take off a few hours one day and shoot, he told me to fit it into my day, but my shots have to be available to the organization for their report and other publication uses.  I was fine with that as I'd planned on throwing that in anyways.  So, there's that.

Also, I'll be showing some pictures at a local gallery a few blocks from my house.  I met the curator during a street festival and we started talking art and then we met after and it just happened.  I brought some stuff of mine and he really enjoyed it.  I'll be showing in November (with an opening party in early Nov.) with two other artists.  Curator was really surprised to hear that I shot on film.  Was further surprised to hear that I developed my own stuff.  Granted some of the shots I'm picking aren't all self dev, some if not most will be.  I'm super excited and will have more info as it is made available to me.

Guess it's time for bed.  Lemon out.