Bent to the task

An abiding image of Antigua is that of indigenous women from the campo (the countryside) bent to work from dawn to dusk, toting the heavy loads of life. While their colorful Mayan attire would seem to call for the technicolor treatment, black and white conveys the weight of their burden more fully. And the shadows lend a certain poignancy to the depictions it seems to me.

I am woman hear me roar

From Helen Reddy’s 1971 paean to feminism to the central park in Antigua, Guatemala the voices of a hundred or so women and not a few men were raised in solidarity and in hope and resistance of the virulent strain of intolerance, misogyny and xenophobia that has swept 43% of our country. To observe it was to be lifted by the joyful noise. Here are faces in a crowd of strong women the likes of which were heard in the millions around the globe.

Helen Reddy turned 75 years old in October.

Por Qué No

The photograph called Lonely Place came in second in the renowned Keeler, California photographic sweepstakes of 2006. This is my fallback post since I will be jet-lagged somewhere in Central America on the 15th and reeling from an excess of cerveza negra consumed at my pocket sized favorite corner bar. Por Qué No.

That proved to be wishful thinking as Por Que No was cerrado on domingo and I wound up at a British pub waiting an hour for a mediocre burger while quaffing dark beer and watching the Green Bay packers eke out a victory over the favored Dallas Cowboys with three seconds to go. One Brit, one Welsh rugby player cum sailor and one Utah Mormon later I'm posting this with only a modicum of interest. Yawn.

For your perusal as usual

Reflection in puddle, Los Angeles

Looking back at a year of images serves a purpose I suppose. You see what you saw in the year just ended and, objectively speaking, how you came up short and where you, on occasion, got one right. For the second and last time I’ve sorted through the year that was and have these eclectic numbers for your perusal.

Metropolitan Water Building, Los Angeles

San Cristobal and Sangre de Cristos

Andrew Abeyta and newborns

Generations, Denver

Time warp, Lowell, AZ

Silvery stream near Tucumcari

Gnome with ear horn, Bisbee, AZ

Luis at Llano San Juan

Pilings in surf, San Simeon Beach

A short look back - 2016

Wavy gravy in Boston

Found art at Old Bent's Fort in southern Colorado

Curly Heads, San Simeon Beach, CA

On the first day of 2017 it’s appropriate to reprise some images from a year that is memorable for some and lamentable for others. That’s as close to political discourse as you will ever see on these pages.

Bill Davis on Kit Carson Road in Taos

Corrugated fence in Bisbee, AZ

As I explored the detritus of the year gone by the photographs above and below spoke to me in some fashion and, so, are included in my annual hall of shame.

National Day of the Cowboy on the Mortenson Ranch

Reflection in a pothole, downtown LA

Los Angeles skyscape from the Biltmore Hotel

On Highway 104 between Tucumcari and Las Vegas

Aglow in Denver

Stacks in fog, Morro Bay

Happy New Year everybody.