my best Iraq war protest pics

:: 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

very nice!

It's a slow-moving group generally. Your pictures are excellent, as you know, and convey a good bit of truth about who "we" are.

You're right that the photos shared here are not particlarly political in content, except insofar as seeing beauty around us is political, but the forum gives us a chance to give one another something of value and learn a few things.

Thanks for all good words. The photos I posted here received a lot of contructive criticism elsewhere. As a result I re-did the look back at my early protest photography with higher quality images as a kind of manifesto that begins with this preface:

Participatory Photojournalism

A photojournalist once took a Pulitzer Prize winning photograph of a vulture closing in on a starving child. When he knew he had his shot he let the vulture have the child. Two months after receiving the Pulitzer he commited suicide. Photojournalism is not a spectator sport.

The iconic images of the Iraq conflict were taken by the guards of Abu Ghraib prison. Will the best photos of the digital age be taken by the actors or the audience? The featured "August to April" gallery explains why I don't take my pictures from the sidelines.

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And my smugmug gallery features a new photo essay on my first attempt at street theatre. As you can see above the images were all put through PhotoShop using a cool "India Ink" filter from FlamingPear.com. You can download the filter and use it for free for 15 days. It has some exciting potential for xeroxed flyers as it makes great black & white line drawings out of photos. For example, it is easy to imagine the image posted above without any color.



Brian

http://rivertext.com/
interactive art

http://rivertext.smugmug.com/
participatory photojournalism

BTW, welcome to DU & the Photography Group.


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