As a songwriter once asked, ‘How long has this been going on?’
…from a photographer’s notebook
When I mentioned in a conversation that I was going to walk across the Williamsburg Bridge from Manhattan’s Lower East Side to Brooklyn, on a perfect sunny, low humidity June afternoon, the other person said something to the effect of “Beautiful bridge, but such a shame, all that graffiti.”
I have to admit, I was not prepared for how much “decoration” those inclined to such “self expression” had splattered on the walkways of this majestic span over the East River. But my mission that day was mainly to capture the J, M, and Z Subway trains that share the bridge with vehicular traffic, pedestrians, and bicycle riders, so I tried to “get over it.”
A few days earlier, I’d ridden across the bridge in both directions in R32 trains, which afford that great treat for the train-loving photog, the “railfan window.” (It’s not that one can’t look out the front of the lead car of any NYC Subway train, but only the R32 and R42 trains allow one to actually stand at the front-most glass of the train, for photos unsullied by ghost images and blurring reflections.) So now, I wanted to shoot the trains themselves amidst the railroad infrastructure and girder-work of the ‘Willy-B.’
The (pleasant) irony is that, were one to have attempted this in much of the last quarter of the 20th century, the trains would have been a sad and sorry sight, a mess of graffiti, both inside and out, pretty much as has been the fate of the pedestrian walkway entrance, as can be seen in the photo up top. Now, the trains, whether ’60s vintage R32 or -42 or modern R160 New Technology type railcars, gleam shiny silver in the afternoon sun without the slightest “artistic expression” (or they don’t leave their respective yards) as they pass over the graffiti’d span.
Why that photo sprung to mind this week…
With events so significantly ramping up over the last few days regarding the “I” word, I could not help but flash back to that June afternoon when the photo was taken. There were several anti-Trump messages posted in addition to this one calling for his impeachment.
But what really caught my attention was the incisive quote from Mark Twain making up the stripes of the American flag:
“Patriotism is supporting your country all the time
And your government when it deserves it.”
Well, if not a direct “quote,” it’s actually an accurate enough paraphrase of remarks Twain made to a meeting of the Male Teachers Association of the City of New York, in 1901. His actual words, in the context of discussing how he would teach the concept of patriotism, were: “I would throw out the old maxim, ‘My country, right or wrong,’ etc., and instead I would say, ‘My country when she is right.’ Because patriotism is supporting your country all the time, but your government only when it deserves it.”
So, how long has this been going on?
Well, that June afternoon when the photo was taken…was in 2017.
©2019 Steve Ember
You may view more of my New York photographs by visiting here
or https://500px.com/steveember/galleries/new-york-city
Most of my photographs may be ordered in archival gallery prints by contacting me via my web site.
