On the Election...

So I am no pundit.  Or expert.  I’m barely a professional photographer.  But I do have opinions.  Of course you knew that. 

So let me point you to these photos:

 

The first two are of the Republican Committee HQ in the City of Manassas.  The second two are of the Democratic HQ, not two blocks away. 

See any differences?

I mentioned in my previous post that I would be putting together a gallery of images I’ve been lucky enough to collect over the past year, and sure enough, here they are:

http://www.johnboalphotography.com/election08

So read no further, if you simply want to see some images and get the hell outta here.

But there are some interesting things to note about this election.  First is the participation level of the supporters.  The images I posted above, I think are a stark indication, not only of the tremendous energy, and organization put forth by the Democrats, and Obama supporters, but I also think it speaks to the lack thereof on the part of the GOP. 

When I set about making pictures relating to this presidential race (albeit haphazardly, and organized completely post hoc), I soon came to the realization that the best chances I had of making images were if I tracked down Obama organizers.  They were the ones who called back.  And they were always the ones who bent over backwards to let me into events, give me phone numbers, emails.  (Thank you, Jim McBride, Keith Lutman, Patrice Gotsch, Deb Maslow, et al.).  Republican candidates, save for Ron Paul, were not so easy to pin down.  But alas, Rep. Paul's candidacy didn't last very long.  Clinton reps were also a disaster.  Why the paranoia?

Now, for those that have no idea (and I know the seven of you reading this do), I live in Northern VA.  NOVA.  This is not your father’s Virginia.  By an overwhelming margin, NOVA votes democrat.  Consequently, NOVA is guiding ROVA (rest of Virginia…) politics, especially when you consider the population and voter registration boom.  So living in NOVA, I just don’t think I had the same opportunity to photograph the republicans that I would have had if, say, I lived in Ohio.  They simply stay away.  At least until there's 2 weeks left before the election.  The GOP really just doesn't rally anywhere near DC.  When you consider the region votes anywhere from 55% to 95% democrat, I suppose you can't blame them.

So between the lack of opportunity to photograph the GOP and Clinton’s tight lipped staff, I found myself photographing Obama events more frequently.  Good for me.

I think by looking at all these photos again, I’ve found the images have evolved somewhat.  If I may borrow a bit from Sam Abell’s new book, these photograph’s turned out to have a life after all.  It also helps, naturally, if the candidate you are taking pictures of (and his volunteers) actually wins.

One of the unique pleasures of shooting, I’ve found, is that after some time (in my case a couple years or less), you begin to realize that the photos you take can truly become part of the ever-expanding “library of visual history”.  When I looked back at my photos, some mean less than they did before.  And some, like this one below, mean more to me now.  Sometimes elements come together, and at the time, I can’t possibly realize their significance.  Then 8 or 9 months later, things change, and I see this photo.  It’s nothing spectacular, just a moment frozen in time, and it makes me remember a little bit better.  I like seeing my photos evolving like that.

"Iowa", Obama volunteers, Tim Russert...just a lot of history packed into this one.  Maybe not a super image, but lots of info, nonetheless. It's been growing on me lately.

The gallery isn’t meant to be a portfolio piece so much as a narrative of my experience.  It’s biased in many ways.  Mostly because I didn’t travel, except to PA, where I once interned, and was able to stay at someone’s house for free (Thanks again, Pete).  It’s biased because I don’t have the access, and I’m dependent upon people being nice (take that Hillary and the GOP--you don’t get many images in this narrative!).  Everything is from the perspective of a new photojournalist, just trying to get his own nose in the middle of everything, before history passes him by.  Lucky for me, I have my own “press badge”, and a bunch of funny looking gear to make me look important and knowledgeable.  I learned that from Dave Burnett.  Except he really is important and knowledgeable (and comes back with killer pictures).

Hopefully, mine are at least a little bit interesting to look at:

http://www.johnboalphotography.com/election08