Electoral

“The ballot is stronger than the bullet” — Abraham Lincoln

This 30-second exposure was shot in July of 2000 at about 11:00 on a very windy Washington night during the last few months of the rocky tenure of the Clinton administration, controversial then as the Trump administration is now. You can see how windy it was by the blurry flag. The DC police stopped me from taking more pictures. As a tourist on the streets of downtown Washington of course I could take what I wanted, but the problem was I had a leg of my tripod going beyond the fence and on the White House lawn and I had the camera lens protruding between the fence bars, both of which, as I learned that night, were no-nos. I complied and shot everything else farther away, no harm done. The picture was purely experimental and I don’t honestly consider it good. In all this time, it’s never been seen. But it has a strange and bizarre quality to it that mirrors the strange and bizarre times that we’re part of now in America.

On this American election day, exercise your right to vote, no matter what you believe or who you believe in. Every cast vote matters. Every uncast vote goes unheard.

Perhaps, being the first president to be photographed, Mr. Lincoln might have thought to tell people to shoot photos, not each other!