The Occupy Portraits: A Photo Essay

tacoma, washington 19 January 2012 Before my 1:00 bus to Seattle I spent the morning at “Traditions” in Olympia photographing a few Occupy activists finally free from the snow storm and able to make it out of their houses for their portrait. I was privileged to be introduced to the parents of the 23 years young political activist Rachel Corrie. She was killed in action while holding to her heartfelt mission to end the conflict between the Palestinian and Israeli governments. Her work towards a peaceful planet lives on through www.rach- elcorriefoundation.org . Rachel’s parents, ardent lifetime activists, saw my Occupy portraits and after one phone call to verify with a friend, confidently advised that I first get off the Seattle bus to visit the still-standing tent encampment in neighboring Occupy Tacoma. I arrived in between snow flurries to a warmwelcome by a few activists busy shoveling paths through the latest layer of snow - neatly carved trails between the Media Tent, the Kitchen Tent, the General Assembly Tent and the orderly row of outhouses (the blue one reserved for the women). I stayed the night shivering in the Medic Tent with my not-warm-enough-minus-five-degrees sleeping bag. With the recent snowfall, an extra tarp had not yet been placed over my tent and so the rain and snow through the night gathered moisture inside the tent, where everything was wet and even colder than a normal tent environment. At one point the only way to take my mind off the cold was to recall the images of my Jewish ancestors in the frozen winter barracks of concentration camps and of conversa- tions with my friend Sam, who survived the Holocaust and years later, was earning a meager income off his angst-filled paintings. Still wide awake at 4 a.m. when the sound of a shovel on cement distracted me from the cold as the activist on night patrol duty added a new task for himself.