Oh dear! I’ve been remiss in not giving proper attention to National Photo Month! Thank goodness not to many days have passed, so I can properly catch up. Instead of a theme, I thought I would choose to highlight a photo that I’ve taken on a bygone May day, if possible. Now of course, I can’t find a specific May 1st or 2nd photo, but today’s photo is freshly taken within the last hour. This could be an interesting, interesting experiment…
May 1, 2012
May Day has an interesting dichotomy of archetypal images associated with it. First, is the ubiquitous maypole that young women dance around and decorate, perhaps after being crowned May Queen, hearkening back to the Celtic celebration of Beltane. The second image is of the worker as May 1 is International Workers’ Day. May 1 is the Feast of St. Joseph, the patron saint of workers, and marked the day when farmers would take a day of rest. In Chicago, 1884, the then Federation of Organized Trades and Labor Unions proclaimed that starting May 1, 1886, eight hours would constitute and fair and legal day’s labor.
With the Occupy Movement reviving on 5/1/12, it seems appropriate to offer a photo from Occupy Oakland’s May 1st Strike.
[Photo credit: occupyoakland.org/author/danilo]
May 2, 2012
“The Kissing Sailor” is one of the most iconic images of the 20th century. When Alfred Eisenstaedt took the photo in Times Square on V-J Day, he didn’t know the names of the man and woman in the photo. In a new book, authors George Galdorisi and Lawrence Verria believe they have the scoop on a certain sailor and nurse, or as their friends and family know them George Mendonsa and Greta Zimmer Friedman.
[Image credit: Alfred Eisenstaedt/Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images]
May 3, 2012
Temperatures in the eighties and flowers in bloom mean that summer is here– even if it the beginning of May!
[Image credit: Amy L. Darnell]
