We wake to a Friday after five days of fire in the North Bay. With more than 100 acres scorched, dozens dead, and fires still going. A “hellish” week for those who have had to feel the heat in the flesh.
The ominous smell of smoke lingers over our heads reminding of the loss already had and the impending loss that sparking embers fly with. I know I’m not the only praying that tonight’s cold air helps the firefight.
May tomorrow bring extinguished flames and cleaner air to our region.
–JMG
The title I gave this shot reaches back to a series of photographs Dorothea Lange made during the Great Depression. Depicting women wearing mended stocking, Lange thought these shots said much about the time in which they were made. Her subject was the way the femininity responded to the shortcoming of the economy.
This shot is more about women’s empowerment in the 21st Century and their ability define themselves (even in eyebrow raising ways). The value of the shot isn’t so much in the expression it caught on the frame, but rather in the way the picture allows us to reflect on how much things have changed.
If you need to be reminded or see for yourself, here is a link to one of the mended stockings shots by Lange: www.mocp.org/detail.php?t=objects&type=group&f=&a…. After that shot you might want to say about the shot above, “Those aren’t your grandma’s stockings!”
–JMG
Oakland Photo Journal 