Stories, Musings & The Vision Thing

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A Moment of Time

A Morning Ramble With Kukka

One of the things I like to do during the Great Pause is take our dog on long walks. Along the way there’s a chance to stop, listen to birdsong and enjoy the morning.

“Kukka” and other photos by Dan Bailes

This is Kukka. She’s a Finnish Lapphund, so we gave her a Finnish name, KukkaTahti, which means star flower. This is how she sleeps… she looks so relaxed, so carefree. Hard to feel that way these days, or most days really. I’m fortunate to have lots to be thankful for, but I rarely feel as relaxed and open as Kukka. Lucky dog.

Securities and Exchange Commission (L) and Thurgood Marshall Building (R)

We live a few blocks from Union Station and these nearby buildings, amidst the hustle bustle of cars, taxis, buses and the morning throng of people coming and going. But not this morning. On my walk early in the Great Pause, nothing moves except the flags wafting in a wistful breeze.  Easy to imagine I’m caught in some Sci-Fi drama. Maybe we all are…

Little Rivers of Color

Then I turn back around to see little rivers of color everywhere, trumpeting Spring’s arrival.

It’s hard to feel uptight and blue when all around me are little bursts of joy. I can imagine their song,

“sheltered by earth

we reach for the sky

to celebrate the now

this very moment

we celebrate the now”

When something catches my eye I stop and Kukka gets a chance to munch on a stick or watch the birds hip hop across the grass, searching for snacks. So while she’s engaged, I peek inside to ponder the mysteries of genetics and color.

In earlier days, I was more focused on the destination than what I might encounter along the way. Today I have the luxury of not having to be anywhere at all. So there’s time to look around and explore. Kukka is more keen on observing the wildlife, watching a grey squirrel scamper up a tree, tail twitching.

Do dogs understand cause and effect? I try to tell her she’ll never catch one, but she remains unconvinced. I guess that’s the way of dogs and squirrels…

Lower Senate Park

One of my favorite stops is this section of Lower Senate Park, just south of Union Station and across from the Russell Senate Office Building.

I find these benches so inviting. Often they sit empty, waiting for someone to pause their routine and take a moment. Today we have the place to ourselves, sequestered in a little oasis of Spring green and blossoms.

I like to sit, legs stretched out, while Kukka sniffs around looking for little treasures. It’s often so quiet you can hear birdsong and the buzzing of  wild bees seeking a little pollen to share with their hive mates.

Today, the sun makes me feel expansive and I know we’ve come to the right place. There’s so much new growth, I can see the world changing before my eyes.

I think about time flowing through a great cycle of renewal. Spring welcomes new shoots as they transform into leaf and flower, later to mature and finally wither with the coming of Winter and to burst forth again as Spring’s sun warms the soil. We like to think time casts a line of forward progress, but maybe it’s more akin to the cycle of nature.

 Time Made Visible

On our way back home, I take a different route and see this remnant of a different era. What was it doing here? I stop to take a closer look.

There was so much weathering, the patterns of paint and rust are like an abstract painting.

I think about how the metal has melted away, how things are always changing. Some we might witness, like Spring’s new growth, and some we only discover after they occur. Like it or not, everything is constantly evolving. Here was man’s work forged in steel, to be turned into dust by time and the elements.

Meandering Back To Another Era

I found a clue. We went home to explore and discovered The Union Switch and Signal Company of Swissvale, PA, founded by George Westinghouse in 1881. They made railroad signals, among other things, and I guess this metal box was probably a base for one of their signals. But why at this spot, across from Union Station?

I wondered what the area was like back in the day. I found this photo dated 1910 when the Station was still brand new.

Library of Congress photo

Perhaps the street cars and other traffic required a signal before entering the plaza in front of the station. Maybe that’s why it was there. Just a few years later the area was transformed.

Hundreds of women were now working in government offices and temporary dormitories were built to house them. Here’s how the grounds in front of Union Station looked in 1919.

Library of Congress photo

Notes From Another Time

I keep exploring and discover: in 1919, women win the right to vote, the Treaty of Versailles ends the War to End All Wars, Prohibition begins and our nation is devastated by a flu pandemic. With no vaccine or antibiotics, the flu kills 675,000 Americans.

from The Times website

It’s a time of great unrest. Tens of thousands of workers go out on strike and anarchist bombs and race riots explode in cities across America, including Washington, DC.

“The Big Cloud” The Atlanta Constitution 1919

With growing anxiety about immigrants and a new Red Scare, the Government rounds up suspected anarchists, communists and leftists by the thousands to be deported.

“We Can’t Digest the Scum” Columbus Dispatch 1919

Woodrow Wilson suffers a massive stroke leaving America without a functioning president. The 1920 election marks the end of the Progressive era as Warren G. Harding, calling for a return to “normalcy,” wins in a landslide.

Back to Our Time

Will we go through a similar period of strife or is the Great Pause just a prelude to our own return to “normalcy”? What I know for sure is that change is a constant and we don’t live in an either/or world, as many opposing things can be true at the same time. Here’s one: I’ve noticed how people are quick to smile or say hello when Kukka and I pass by. I hope that will stay part of our new normal.

For now, I’d like to offer a quiet moment and leave you with this:

Sending you all best wishes.

 

Celebrate the Little Things

Celebrate the Little Things

Birdsong
Irises in Springtime
A child’s laugh
The chilled morning air
Veins in a leaf
Toast with melted butter
The curve of a crescent moon
Animal tracks in fallen snow
A wind chime’s silvery tones
The ever-changing clouds

A friend’s hand
A loved one’s smile

I take in a deep breath
And let it whoosh out

Thankful for the small things 
that make life worthwhile

all photos by Dan Bailes


I hope your year is filled with light, love and laughter.

 

Snow Day – A Photo Ramble Around Capitol Hill

This morning the air is full of thick fluff. Giant flakes drift down… delicate blossoms   embracing frozen streets and silent walkways.

a few blocks from my house

In the storm’s grip time seems to pause… this century old neighborhood wavers between past and present. I grab my camera and set out to explore.

Stanton Park

I make my way to Stanton Park, where other days I’d walk my dog or watch kids play. Most mornings this place bustles with running feet and shrieks of excitement. Today it stands hushed and lonesome…

Stanton Park’s playground

guarded by the statue of Nathanael Greene, war hero and most trusted of George Washington’s generals. There he sits astride his horse, ready to seek his destiny.

Across the way, a school for children, honoring long forgotten philanthropist George Peabody.

Peabody Elementary

Through flurries of snow this fortress of learning emerges like a distant memory. I muse about the children who graced its halls over 140 years. How each generation finds itself in a world in flux… like the flakes around me, dancing in swirling eddies.

Little Moments

I meander the streets and come upon these steps. How solid and timeless, the stone. Are these treads worn from decades of feet or is it just the snow, painting with a whimsical brush?

These places were built in the late 1800s. I look up and imagine myself back in that Victorian era.

Have these vessels adorned this window for all those decades, just to peer down at me this moment? I wonder who inhabits this place. As I ramble, almost anywhere my eye falls I see echoes of a bygone era.

Another time, I might have passed without stopping to notice. But today the snow sharpens my eyes and illuminates its little vignettes.

Like these chairs in conversation…

St. Joseph’s Catholic Church

or this row of trees, drawn so delicately against this somber structure…

giving contrast to the wispy anarchy of the branches.

stand of trees next to the Belmont-Paul House

A Historic Home

A block away is the Belmont-Paul House, honoring suffragettes Alva Belmont and Alice Paul.

Belmont-Paul House

Built in 1800, the British torched it as they invaded during the War of 1812. In 1929, it became home to the National Woman’s Party and the struggle for equal rights for women.

The snow gathers along the iron fence and draws my notice…

as it builds little pathways for my eye to travel.

Across the street from the Belmont-Paul house stands the Supreme Court.

Court and Capitol

bas-relief of Justice

It’s a massive building… the adornments reflecting its power…

Contemplation of Justice

Guardian of the Law

And facing it, the Capitol…

I let the branches frame the Statue of Freedom, standing sentry atop its dome.

The Library

From my vantage, I discover a snow salted tree beside the Library of Congress.

Thomas Jefferson Building of the Library of Congress

Another, guards the main entrance…

or is it a prehistoric creature stalking the grounds?

On my way home, one more bit of whimsy…

When she was young, my daughter called them maflingoes. I still think of them that way.

I hope you enjoyed this post. It was fun putting it together. As always, your comments are welcome.

Gordon Parks – “Camera Could be a Weapon”

I thought I’d write about a new exhibit of Gordon Parks’ early work. I should tell you up front that I knew his photography more by reputation than by spending time with his imagery. So, before I saw the show, the only Gordon Parks photograph that came to mind was this one.

 

“Washington, D.C. Government Charwoman”   all photos by Gordon Parks

I remembered it as a bitter statement about race, poverty and the American Dream. So, seeing it again as part of the exhibit, I wondered about its back story. Here’s what I discovered:

Mrs. Ella Watson Becomes an American Icon

The woman in the photograph, Ella Watson, cleaned offices at the Farm Security Administration, where Gordon Parks had recently arrived as an apprentice photographer. His dream was to be part of the FSA photographic team showing how the Great Depression had impacted the lives of Americans. One evening, he saw her cleaning an office down the hall and wanted to know her story.

Ella Watson was a high school grad and trained stenographer, she told Parks. But that work was only available to white people in Washington, D.C. So she cleaned offices.

“Washington, D.C. Government Charwoman Cleaning After Regular Working Hours”

You could say her experience was typical of many poor African Americans trying to survive in that segregated city. A lynch mob had killed her father, a gun shot ended her husband’s life and her daughter died after giving birth to her second child. So Ella Watson was left to raise her two grandchildren, asking neighbors to mind them while she worked at night.

“Grandchildren of Mrs. Ella Watson, Government Charwoman”

“Keep Working With Her”

After learning her story and having his own frequent encounters with racism in Washington, D.C., Parks made the iconic portrait. One account said he told Ella Watson to think about all the things she told him as he took her portrait.

Parks: “What the camera had to do was expose the evils of racism, the evils of poverty, the discrimination and the bigotry, by showing the people who suffered most under it.”

The photo of Ella Watson posed in front of the American flag did not get a good reception from Parks’ boss, Roy Stryker. Stryker felt it was too strident and buried it. (It would be published 20 years after the FSA closed, when Parks found the negative in the archives).

Instead, Stryker told Parks, “Keep working with her. Let’s see what happens.”

Parks continues the story: “I followed her for nearly a month–into her home, her church, and wherever she went. “You’re learning,” Stryker admitted when I laid the photographs out before him late one evening. “You’re showing you can involve yourself in other people.”

“Washington, D.C. Adopted daughter and two grandchildren with Mrs. Ella Watson, a government charwoman”

A Winding Path to the FSA

Parks grew up with enormous challenges — poverty, racism, segregation — and had to drop out of high school. Son of a tenant farmer, he was on his own at 16 with just his wits and enormous talent to propel him forward. After seeing images of migrant workers in a magazine, he bought a camera and taught himself how to use it. He was 27 years old.

Gordon Parks self portrait

 

 

PARKS: “I saw that the camera could be a weapon against poverty, against racism, against all sorts of social wrongs. I knew at that point I had to have a camera.”

 

 

 

Three years later he landed the apprenticeship at the FSA. You can find a short bio of his life and work here and here.

A new exhibit at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. features his early work from 1940 – 1950. I thought I’d pick three photos from the exhibit to talk about his artistry as an image maker.

“Off on my Own”

“Off on my Own”

Parks shot this from a low perspective with the camera held close to the ground. Also, the man is backlit, giving him heightened definition. As the man walks away, the lighting and framing give him an almost heroic stature. As well, the silhouette of the man carries an air of mystery and perhaps the beginning of a journey.

If you think of this image in terms of dark and light – the black silhouette is echoed in the blackened doorway to the right. The diagonal of the shadow on the man’s right is in line with the angle of the dark wall to his left. The windows and distant tenement appear to glow as they give the impression the man is moving from darkness towards the light.

This image has a strong graphic quality too. Like architecture, each element is placed to echo or counterpoint the central focus on the man. He’s tightly framed by the walls and clothesline. He may be hemmed in by his surroundings, but he’s also moving away from them.

Finally, everything seems perfectly placed within the frame, yet the shot feels informal and the moment seemingly captured by chance. As I look at it closely, I see how all the elements work together to create this one perfect moment.

A Collaboration

I learned the photo was made in collaboration with Ralph Ellison, author of Invisible Man. It was part of a series they crafted together to illustrate an essay about Harlem, race and segregation. From the essay:

photo of Ralph Ellison by Gordon Parks

 

“Harlem is the scene and symbol of the Negro’s perpetual alienation in the land of his birth… Not quite citizens and yet Americans, full of the tensions of modern man but regarded as primitives, Negro Americans are in desperate search for an identity.”

 

I didn’t know this when I selected the photo, but I can see those themes echoed there in the imagery.

Red Jackson Trapped

“Trapped in abandoned building by a rival gang on street, Red Jackson ponders his next move”

Parks’ image of Red Jackson is a strong character study. Red’s body language shows me he’s in trouble and the broken glass in the window tells all I need to know about his prospects. The darkness that surrounds him echoes his dilemma.

In this photograph, with its dramatic lighting and framing, it’s easy to see that Red Jackson feels stuck or trapped in this space. But looking at it more abstractly, I can also read it as an existential statement of how poverty and racism create barriers, keeping people stuck with little way forward. There’s a lot of humanity and empathy in the way Parks shows this man in trouble. Given the framing, I feel like I’m right there next to Red… hiding out, too. So, it’s not just Parks’ eye for lighting and composition, it’s his compassion for his subject that illuminates this work.

The image of Red Jackson was part of Gordon Parks’ photo essay “Harlem Gang Leader.”  It was his second major assignment for LIFE, and he spent a month with 17-year-old gang leader Red Jackson and his gang.

Parks hoped the photo essay would show that, with the right kind of help, juvenile delinquents could turn their lives around.

Childhood’s End

The photo below was shot while Parks was at the FSA.

“Young boy standing in the doorway of his home on Seaton Road in the northwest section. His leg was cut off by a streetcar while he was playing in the street.”

On the surface, this photo seems fairly straightforward. There’s a boy standing on crutches looking at two children across the way. The camera is placed at the boy’s eye level, so I see the world from his vantage point. He’s a smallish figure, just a little boy framed by a large doorway. For me, the composition shows his sense of loss and isolation. The walls and door seem to loom over him. They’re like a visual metaphor showing how his injury overshadows him, upending his childhood and challenging his days.

The diagonal lines of the door panel send my eye past the boy to the two children seated on the stoop. As the boy regards the children across the way, his position in the frame accentuates the gulf that separates him from his playmates. There’s a tentativeness in the boy’s body language, which gives me a glimpse of what he must be feeling.

It’s easy to imagine the boy’s mother standing somewhere in the shadows, her hands clasped in hope that her little boy will somehow be able to heal from this tragedy. This photo makes me share Park’s empathy for the boy’s plight. There’s vulnerability there, but also dignity.

An Invitation

The exhibit “Gordon Parks: The New Tide, Early Work 1940-1950” will be at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. until Feb 19th of next year. I hope you get a chance to see the show.

After taking a year off, I’m excited to be writing again for The Vision Thing. After looking at Gordon Park’s work, I kept wanting more and this post ended up longer and more detailed than I expected.

So, what are your thoughts? Too much information? Just right? Your comments are always welcome.

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