Photo Essays, Spot News and Stock Photography

Archive for ‘February, 2022’

Jewish refugees escaping from Nazi Germany May 1939.

“VOYAGE OF THE DAMNED” – ABOARD THE MS ST. LOUIS

Today there are refugees from Ukraine. But in May 1939 over 900 Jewish refugees boarded the MS St. Louis out of Hamburg fleeing from persecution in Nazi Germany. Some countries did not accept these people including the United States and Canada. Estimates are that most of the passengers were returned to Europe and approximately 240 did not survive the war. Was this young girl a victim or a survivor?

 

Voyage of the Damned – MS St. Louis“; on the High Seas (Atlantic Ocean); May 1939

Texas, c.1998

DRIVE SAFELY

Just another roadside memorial and another life lost or maybe more than one. “Drive Safely“; Texas c.1998. The life you save may be your own or mine! What makes this image special is that this roadside memorial was photographed with a super wide angle lens. I would think something in the 12 to 14 mm range would be correct, but it might be closer to 10 mm. The effect is dramatic. Maybe it will make enough of impression to save a few lives.

West Lexington, Kentucky (1916)

WORKING FROM HOME

Many of us are now working from home. This evolution in the workplace began years before the COVID pandemic changed the rules of the game. Employers began to realize that there was no longer a need to rent expensive office space if employees spent much of their working day at their computers. Coupled with Zoom or Microsoft Teams employees could be just as efficient working from home. No longer sitting in traffic jams commuting to and from the office. But I do believe that we are social animals, and this absence of contact with colleagues is not a win-win situation. So when you call customer service how can you tell if the representative at the other end of the phone line is working from home? A barking dog or a baby crying would be a good hint. A whistling tea kettle or a ringing door bell would also be a dead giveaway. What seems to happen after the reason for the call is settled, is that you and the representative get into conversations about all sorts of things unrelated to the original query. The weather, family, news of the day, politics and so on. We need that social interaction that we are missing by working from home.

Our lead photo is “Lady at a Spinning Wheel“; West Lexington, Kentucky (1916). Working from home in another time and place. Our current situation is in large part a result of the COVID workplace restrictions. In the time of the “Lady at a Spinning Wheel” the Spanish Flu pandemic was on the horizon. We have not experienced   such an event for a hundred years. In 1918 there was no flu vaccine. People literally went to work in the morning, came home in the evening and died on the same day. Speaking for myself and as a veteran I have taken many vaccinations during my lifetime and I am still here to talk about it. Unfortunately, many of my friends have now died not all because of COVID. Vaccinations that I have had that come to mind are smallpox, measles, mumps, rubella, tetanus, polio, swine flu, hepatitis, flu, pneumonia, yellow fever, typhoid, typhus, plague, cholera, diphtheria, shingles and now COVID. I might have missed a few. In my opinion we should be thankful to science that we have these marvelous vaccines. In 1918 there were no antibiotics. Penicillin would not be in use until after World War II.

Perhaps if we all follow some simple rules we can get this pandemic behind us. Get vaccinated. Social distance. Wear the mask. It could save your life or mine. When I served in the military in Korea many years ago I saw that the Koreans were wearing surgical masks in wintertime. At the time I thought that this was odd behavior. I was young and I failed to realize that if the breadwinner of the family became ill or died from contracting a disease the rest of the family might become destitute and homeless. With few available doctors and less money to pay for care these people were taking sensible precautions. A small price to pay in order to live and fight another day. Lost lives cannot be replaced.

Foley, Alabama c.1921

SWEET HOME ALABAMA

We think that this photo, “Lady With A Broom“; Foley, Alabama c.1921 is similar to those taken by some of the great Farm Security Administration’s (FSA) photographers during the Great Depression. This rural image is representative of the work of Dorothea Lange, Russell Lee and possibly Jack Delano in our opinion. It is the intention of DPI to maintain their standard of excellence in photos we present to the public. Although the Great Depression impacted rural America perhaps to even a greater extent than urban centers, “Lady With A Broom” shows that a depression was already in Alabama before the Great one arrived in the 1930s.