Friday, May 30, 2008

things, etc

Being the artistic cameraman that I am, I don't have too many shoots scheduled.... in fact, nobody in the Bay Area seems to enjoy arte at all, so I have NO scheduled shoots at all. As I have a immense desire to stay occupied, I try to get out to capture other things... when I cannot find a body or a face to photograph, I turn to my environment.

On Memorial Day, I went to the Presidio to see my fellow servicemembers who are sleeping that eternal rest. This are always sad events for me, and I cry a lot inside... though as I was leaving, the thought of so many tombstones.... I almost lost it as I walked away. To be in such a place where the tombstones grow there in the cemetery, in the quiet slopes... the smooth rolling inclines.... growing like grass... like tender new grass in those fields, throughout this country, throughout the world where american servicemembers are buried, many without tombstones of any sort.

I noticed the families owho walked with a purpose to a spot to lay down flowers, fresh and colorful. The press did not notice these people, being too involved with recording the events and the speakers.

Who looks after our dead when the events are over? When the crowds are gone? When the words spoken fall upon quiet grass? There is nobody who looks after our servicemembers who rest forever, than their friends, their sons and daughters, and their spouses.

I got my pictures... and I saw this tiny hummingbird, who flew from flagged tombstone to another, hovering over a stone now and then, but it never stopped as if confused by the flag's bright colors. I captured my memories, the second remembrance attended since returning to the USA in late 2006.

In Eugene I am sure there was a ceremony but I couldn't find it. Instead I boarded a bus - didn't have a car yet - toward the SW region of the city where the cemeteries were, where I photographed the flags and tombstones. I spoke with a park worker who told me that there should be thousands, instead of the pitiful hundred or so who attended. I agreed, nodding in agreement.

What a shame.....


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