July 2018 - Dispatch Press Images Blog

Spraying a soybean field. (Illinois c.1950)

SOYBEANS

If you are a farmer that is the word for the day. Soybeans! Stupid Trade War. Stupid tariffs. There are other ways to attend to balance of payments issues, but the explanation would be lost on current administration officials. Perhaps they are something less than the “best people”.

The lead photo, “Crop Duster“; Illinois c.1950 takes DPI into this conversation as a soybean field gets sprayed. We combine text with images for our viewers. Repeating the mistakes of the past are worse than foolish. Farmers, especially, should be overly sensitive to government policies which do not work and have not worked in the past, as well as to disinformation purported by ignorant officials.

As the farmer ducks out of the way of the “Crop Duster Coming Head On“; Illinois c.1950, the famous scene in “North By Northwest” (1959) starring Cary Grant comes to mind.

OMAHA BEACH

Hallowed ground to be sure. These images of Omaha Beach and the American Military Cemetery at Colleville are a recent addition to our collection. Pointe du Hoc is the image on the right. Although they were taken in August 1968 you can still feel the presence of the soldiers in the battle. The explosions. The screams. It is the same feeling that I experience when traveling through parts of the South. I can feel the presence of Civil War soldiers in the woods. Maybe I’m just oversensitive. Or maybe something else is going on.

An encampment of U. S. soldiers bound for Cuba (1898).

SPANISH – AMERICAN WAR

You may recall that about 500 years ago Spain was a world power. Perhaps a superpower in its time. But even 120 years ago they were a force to be reckoned with as the United States began to emerge economically and militarily on the world scene.

HOMAGE TO W. EUGENE SMITH

W. Eugene Smith was a master of the photojournalism essay. I became aware of his work in doing research on the Battle of Saipan in which my father fought. Smith was there and documented the aftermath of the Japanese banzai attack on July 7, 1944. There were other photos that he took on Saipan of the interaction between U. S. soldiers and the local children. After the war, Smith documented the effects of mercury pollution in Japan in his essay Minamata.

HUMAN RIGHTS: POLISH REFUGEES

They could have been you. They could have been me. Refugees present a humanitarian crisis wherever and whenever to include the current situation on our southern border. Presented here are Polish refugees made homeless not once but twice in a generation. As a result of geography, Poland has experienced invasions in two world wars from both Germany and Russia. The lead photo shows Polish refugees on the road during the Great War c.1916. Perhaps some of the same people are seen below as they are once again forced to flee the Nazi invasion in September 1939

Photo Essays, Spot News and Stock Photography

Archive for ‘July, 2018’

SOYBEANS

OMAHA BEACH

SPANISH – AMERICAN WAR

HOMAGE TO W. EUGENE SMITH

HUMAN RIGHTS: POLISH REFUGEES