(PSA: I can’t add anymore photographs from the gallery?!)
I knew from the readings that I would see a different aspect of the typical “negative” lives that existed in tent cities and Gitmo. From prior knowledge, I knew that civil rights protests existed, but I didn’t know that tent cities were also widely existent at the time. Moreover, when I learned of these tent cities, I imagined both the grimness and griminess of the cities. Jill Freedman’s Resurrection City, 1968 captured the griminess of the cities but simultaneously put a different spin on the photographs. Instead of seeing the sad and distraught attitudes of living in a tent city, she captured images of regular people doing regular things, despite living in such a terrible environment. For example, there were photographs of men taking care of babies (who probably peed on him) and younger people flirting with each other. Of course, there were the powerful pictures of protestors — you know the ones I’m talking about: the ones where the subject is yelling, mouth with open, fist in the air while waving a big banner or sign. I also saw a variety of races, like blacks and Puerto Ricans. It didn’t just focus on blacks, although Resurrection City took place right after Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination.
Personally, I liked Debi Cornwall’s part of the gallery more, the Welcome to Camp America. From watching too many crime TV shows, I have always pictured Guantanamo Bay as a dirty prison with uptight guards and manic prisoners. I pictured it as grey and a foggy green, pretty much the most bleh colors that you can think of to match a prison. But that wasn’t what I was met with when I entered Cornwall’s section of the gallery. I was met with such bright and extremely vibrant photographs that I couldn’t believe I was looking at photos from Gitmo. There was the sparkling blue water and the prim and proper insides of cells with neatly folded clothes. I literally asked myself if it was a remake of the prison.
The photographs of people that returned to their ordinary lives after being released from Guantanamo were actually very touching to me. After reading the little booklet (I personally disliked the fact that there were no captions or plaques that said what the photographs depicted) I learned that these people were released from Guantanamo without charges, which meant they were just held there with no legal filing. I was shocked at how long these people were kept there – months, years – without proof that they had committed a crime atrocious enough to land them in a place like Guantanamo. The photograph of the young French teenager touched me the most, especially because he is a kid like me (okay, I’m 18 but the same thing…) and he spent so many months of his young life trapped in a place that is not fit for a kid like him.
Overall, the Steven Kasher gallery was an eyeopening experience. I was able to look at two different adverse situations through a different lens.
