Month: July 2015

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Strangers

by bijansabet

I have been taking photographs of strangers. Mostly men in their later years, living their life. I don’t know if it will turn into a personal project. Maybe it is merely my way of coping with life in my 40′s.

Sometimes I get into a conversation and hear their story. For example the gentleman in the second photograph is a retired public defender in Nashville. The stories about his work would just about break your heart.

Sometimes I just watch and observe, like the fellow in his 80′s on a long hike. Head down and determined to make it to the top — which he easily did that day.

I try to imagine what they looked like in their twenties. I can just see it.

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Our President

by bijansabet

I had high hopes for this President. I campaigned intensely for his election and re-election. And Josh Marshall summarizes how I feel now perfectly. 

But we’re talking here not about a single person or political leader but of the aspirations of those who elected him. And judged through this prism, the rush of events in late June come together as a unified picture.

When I look at Obama I don’t see a President desperately trying to cram legacy achievements into the declining months of his presidency. I see achievements coming to fruition that were usually years in the making but often seemed errant or quixotic and uncertain in their outcome. This is what for many was so bracing about the end of June. This has been a long long seven years. What seemed like an uncertain list of achievements, long on promise but hacked apart by mid-term election reverses and Obama’s sometimes over-desire for accommodation, suddenly appeared closer to profound, like a novel or a play which seems scattered or unresolved until all the pieces fall into place, clearly planned all along, at the end.

I truly hope President Obama’s legacy and carries forth so we the people may keep our hopes and expectations high. The days of cynicism and political snark should be left behind. We can do better together. We are proving it every day. 

Keep hope alive.