my book on our struggle w/ the Bush regime

[rivertext]

Hi. Most, perhaps all, of the photos essays that I wove together to create the tapestry of Night Life were first published here on DU as well as on Portland Indymedia. However, I believe that here the whole is more than the sum of its parts. Although these pictures were taken with inexpensive "point and shoot" cameras, it was very difficult for the DSLR users that lined the sidewalks of these street protests to take better pictures. To borrow a phrase from the world of real estate, the three things that matter most in photography are, "location, location, location." In this case, the advantage of my location as an activist/photographer was that most of these photographs were taken from inside the protests.


From photojournalism to porn, it is now the players, not the professional spectators, that take the most memorable photographs. The photos taken by the guards at Abu Ghraib prison may not quite meet the standards of either photojournalism or porn, but they are the iconic images of that horrific conflict.


(night ride with Critical Mass and a family at a candle-lit vigil for peace)

Night Light is a book of progressive, participatory photojournalism. My goal was to take pictures of protests of the Bush regime, without taking myself out of those protests. From the first protest I photographed, where my camera and I were baptized in pepper spray, I put as much care into creating my own protest signs or leaflets as I did into my photography. However, it is in the chapter on my work in political street theatre that I came the closest to realizing my ideal of equally high quality participation and depiction.




The text of Night Light is as well composed as the images for it highlights the best writing of several years of Portland Indymedia photo essays. Each essay had a subtext such as, class warfare, how the media seduces and betrays us, or the questionable morality of religious conservatives. Night Light weaves all these themes together. The concluding chapter a visual chronology of Portland's protests of the Bush regime.



Brian

For more on my activist photography and on "Night Light" visit my galleries at:

http://rivertext.smugmug.com/

[niyad]

1. excellent job. I have you bookmarked so I can look more closely later.

[swag]

2. Looks great, rivertext. I will certainly check it out.

I'm sure you don't remember me, but you were one of the first people I met upon moving to Portland (at a party at Mitzi & Steve's). So it's always inspiring to see what you're doing.

best,
s