MLK March

cmurph

I don't normally posts shots for comments and especially ones that would possibly go into a challenge but I already posted the first shot so I wanted to share a few more from the MLK March this past weekend.

1) Remembering the Dream



2) Looking Back



3) A Sea of Dreams



4) Old School



5) Passing the Dream on



6) Lost in the Dream



7) Living the Dream



8) Power Dream



9) Same old tune

rainbow

I am certainly glad you posted these as they are a superb set. They capture the spirit of the day, the man, and the event. I did see your first and it certainly caught my attention. I like that and adore #5, as the passing of the torch to the new generation is of such importance.

Thank you for sharing these. I hope you continue to share your work.

sara505

Love these! The composition - faces interspersed with the posters- love the light, love the conversions, the man handing the boy the poster - the man whose face is next to King's, love them all.

Art Scott

These are really powerful.......back in about 1972 I was stuck in the hills of Arkansas Newton County....when I moved thre in '68 there were still signs on the county lines stating "N" do not let the sun set on you in this county......I was raised with no real knowledge of color and the "N" word was just as apt to be used for a white person as anyone else......after a few weeks in this strange place I now called home....I had a huge realization...there were no indians, no blacks and no chinese (at the time my knowledge of asian was the chinese that ran resturants.......and I asked some school mates why there everyone was white at school and was given a lesson that never set well with me...as it ended up being the science teacher/superintendent that explained that no one but whites were welcome in the county.......back to 1972....I had the pleasure to bein a Readers Theater Play and I had to give the "I had a Dream" speech to an all white, backward, inbred (mostly), racist crowd.....somehow the state police found out about the play and were lining the back wall of our school auditorium......it was scary.....of course I carried a new set of names from that night on........as I had found tapes of the speech and almost sounded like Dr. King.

Sorry for the hijack....the picks just struck me hard.

thomasjm

those are absolutely amazing shots! And I know street photography is normally done in black and white, but like a previous poster said these black and white images are like a throwback in time, and they are so well done too it is a treat to view them Thank you for sharing and I am envious of your experience.

bfjr

very nicely done and presented

rutt

They are all very nice, great subject and composition! #3 and #8 are the picks of the litter, IMHO.

bdcolen

Art Scott wrote:

These are really powerful.......back in about 1972 I was stuck in the hills of Arkansas Newton County....when I moved thre in '68 there were still signs on the county lines stating "N" do not let the sun set on you in this county......I was raised with no real knowledge of color and the "N" word was just as apt to be used for a white person as anyone else......after a few weeks in this strange place I now called home....I had a huge realization...there were no indians, no blacks and no chinese (at the time my knowledge of asian was the chinese that ran resturants.......and I asked some school mates why there everyone was white at school and was given a lesson that never set well with me...as it ended up being the science teacher/superintendent that explained that no one but whites were welcome in the county.......back to 1972....I had the pleasure to bein a Readers Theater Play and I had to give the "I had a Dream" speech to an all white, backward, inbred (mostly), racist crowd.....somehow the state police found out about the play and were lining the back wall of our school auditorium......it was scary.....of course I carried a new set of names from that night on........as I had found tapes of the speech and almost sounded like Dr. King.

Sorry for the hijack....the picks just struck me hard.

Thanks for sharing, Art - We need to hear stories like that to be reminded how far we've come - and how far we still have to go.

Tina Manley

I love all of these, Chris. Please post more often! Where in the Carolinas are you?

Tina (in Rock Hill, SC)

cmurph

Thank you all for the kind words on the series this was a nice change for me to get out of my comfort zone. I appreciate the story Art and am glad you shared it - the fact that the photos where able to draw you in enough to share a story like this is a very big complement on its own. Photography and PJ in particular should help to bring our own stories to life and make us all think of where we have been and what we have seen. As for my own take on them I really enjoy the second shot but unfortunately the girl scout in the back distracts to much from the generational imagine I was going for here. The third shot was one of my favorites from the series as well Rutt. There is a lot going on with this photograph and at times the shot is almost overwhelming to look through which is also its down fall as there is nothing really here to keep me focused. In the end this shot would make a great puzzle and is a wonder to look through but holds no real emotional value so its easy to turn away. The 4th is a great portrait of a single persons experience which does not convey the entire story to me but is a nice look at the event. The 5th shot was the one that got away for me, its a great story but the light was so difficult with this one and there is no amount of processing that is going to fix it. The shot has so much going on in the background that distract from the what was happing right in front of the lens and it ultimately hurts the story. The 6th shot is another that stood out for a singular look on the girls face in the bottom right. She stands out as being lost which is really not the case so it plays on a theme that really is not true to the event. The girl was not lost, she just happened to have the expression she did when I snapped the shutter but the picture paints a different story then what was reality so while its nice to look at it doesn't really convey the facts of the event. As with the sixth shot the seventh has the same impact its nice to see the man in the bottom corner of the frame he seems almost out of place with what is going on around him but again does not convey the days event as a whole. The shot prays on our ability to find something wrong or something not quite right as though to magnify the significance of the struggles of a entire population in a single persons expression. The eighth shot is technically very strong and a powerful photograph but it also highlights a stereo type that I don't feel conveys the story of the day or is true to the event or the person. When I look at the shot I see the movie Shaft.....The last shot in the series is the one that made me realize how easy it is for a PJ's photographs to take a photograph and have it pull an entire event completely out of context. When I look at this shot I see so many stereo types pulled out and something that are so far from reality it almost makes me ill. It amazed me this shot could even have found its way to my lens and it makes me wonder just how many PJ's out there have there work distorted from the original purpose. When I look at this shot I do not see what was actually happening because I was there but I wonder if you do? The men you see in the photograph are discussing how to fast or how slow to keep the march moving - the man just checked his watch to see if they where on time but with the policy car in the back ground and the officer moving towards them you get a strong idea that there is some sort of trouble which is so far from the true here. The police car was there to keep cars from moving into the parade to keep people safe the officer was simply in the shot and was there to provide safety to all that had come to the event. There was not a single bit of trouble this entire event but this shot pretends to show otherwise and prays on the viewers preconceptions to buy the story. So ultimately I came back around to the first shot which tells the story of the event in what I saw to be its truest form of the day.

Thank you all for having a look I enjoyed your comments

Tina I am located just out side Raleigh and will try to post more - time is always the ultimate challenge