[Leica] Iraq occupation protest - Chicago 3/19/05

[masonster at gmail.com (David Mason)]

[sorry, long paragraph to get to me sharing some photos]

I was in Chicago briefly this weekend and took the opportunity to
wander over to the protest against American presence in Iraq. For you
neo-con-death-cult-members you will be happy to hear that the turn-out
was about 200 or 300 people to about 2000 police officers. For what
its worth, I think protests are a waste of time as they are so
overplayed and tend to evolve into unfocussed bitching about some
supposed 'enemy' . However, we all know they can present interesting
photo practice as well. As I was thinking about how I don't like
protests I was also thinking about how I generally don't like protest
photos as they tend to be just like those photos that are termed
"street photography" but are really just blurred shots of people
moving. So in my attendence to this event I decided that I would try
to ask permission to take people's photographs as much as possible
(unless I saw something great that needed a quick shot). Most of these
shots are taken with the permission of the subjects and I was
interested in how some of them look candid despite that. My attempt,
which I think I only scratched the surface of, was to show the variety
of good people who do oppose the actions their government has taken. I
was less interested in the people yelling at the cops although I did
grab one or two of them too.

http://dmason.net/protest/


Comments welcome as long as they are about the photos and not a debate
on the politics.


Cheers,

Dave