Anti-War Then (Fixed Bayonet)

Sentiments ran high (and still do) about THAT war, and for many

people they run high about THIS war too. Please set aside your

feelings about which side you are on about THIS WAR or THAT WAR and

please rate this photo on its photographic merits. You may comment,

of course, however you want. Perhaps you have similar photos or

special memories. Your honest ratings and all your comments are

very welcome. (Please submit a helpful and constructive

comment/critique if you rate harshly or negatively/please honor me

by sharing your superior knowledge). Thanks and enjoy! John

Having not known this period, all I can feel is how this kind of photographs has inspired the next generations of photojournalists. IMHO it still has a tremendous impact, whatever the context.

 

I really appreciate you share this piece of History with us.

I appreciate very much your comment. Although I was not working as a photographer then, I was very much a part of witnessing the various war protests. War protests shut down my campus (Columbia), and because of that, I lost my draft deferment, and as a result, went to Viet Nam, (worked my way over) where I freelanced for a while before being medi-vacced back to the states with a gunshot wound. AP later hired me as a writer, which I was when I took this photo (this was my day off). This was Berkeley -- where anybody with a camera was a target for a cop with a billy club. We with chrome on our camera(s) taped the chrome with black electrical tape to make them look more like the "professional" cameras for good reason -- they didn't stand out whenever that final day would come when the cops would make their "sweep" targeting anyone and everyone within reach (good or bad), with their rage, hitting and clubbing and teargassing. I saw it at Columbia, San Francisco State and Berkeley -- it was like it was scripted. (I was a good guy -- just a peaceful guy with a camera -- no axe to grind, except as my photos would illustrate for the viewers' own judgment). Thanks for the nice comment and the 7/6 rating. John

AP hired me as a photographer and asked me to wait for a photographer "slot to open up" in their San Francisco office. "In the meantime, kid," they said, "you did real well on the caption writing test (the same test they gave newsmen for writing skills), and how'd you like to work for us first trying your hand writing news stories?" I accepted with absolutely no experience, no formal training, but having read 5 newspapers a day in NYC, and several previous student jobs that turned out to be very relevant (i.e. media researcher for racial bias, President's Council on Civil Disorder; assistant to Program Director of NYC's prime cultural radio station; my freelancing in Viet-Nam and at campus riots, etc.) and the second day of writing stories my stories were going around the world. I never got that photographer's "slot", although if I had asked, it was there for the taking. J

To the three of you so far who have given 7s (all or part) for this photo, thank you so much. You might peruse the rest of this (now brief but expanding) B & W II folder and my other, original B&W folder to find the best photo I ever took (or ever could hope to take) in one of those folders. I may never submit it for rating or critique. I think you will recognize it without too much trouble. J

Superb!

great image!

I look at this shot and I thought...Great! It's the story behind that makes it! Then I looked again and I told to myself...welll..no...maybe it's the composition and point of view that makes it...Then ... maybe it's the reflection on the mask's ocular, to me it gives "artistic flavour" to what it is expected to be a photojournalistic work. So now, looking and looking I really do not know what does it make this image...I only know that it is really great! 7/7 and many thanks for sharing!

I appreciate the nice comment Roberto. I have long taken this image for granted, knowing that I have equally good or better photos that involved a more unique viewpoint because more timing was involved. (See this growing B&W II and my other B&W portfolio). Many thanks for your evaluation at 7/7 and to the others of you for your 7/7s and 7/6s. John.

I attended some of the Berkeley protests, but spent more time at U.C. Davis where we tended to get more music and fewer bayonets. This is great documentary work and deserving of those high ratings. Regards, Doug.

Amazing, when was this taken?

John,

Amazing image. It reminds me of the days hearing my mother worry that her oldest son (my brother) was eligible to be drafted, we watched the news nightly for updates. Growing up in the bay area these images are still all too real.

There are no ratings that can convey what this image says. So instead receive my gratitude for these humbling photos.

A shot loaded with emotional impact and the Zeitgeist of the Vietnam era. It makes me recall my student days in the late 60's.

It's brilliant. I'm currently studying for my HSC and well for my English advanced course the prescribed text is "The Fiftieth Gate" for module C. Now basically the book all relies on the relevance of history and memory as Mark Baker (the author) probes his parents' memories of their Jewish history. The holocaust is a major aspect from this novel in which thousands of innocent people were captured and killed in many torturous ways.

 

As I am currently studying this book, I have been incredibly intrigued by the Nazi war, and all that comes with it. That's why I find your photograph as ostentatiously appealing that has it is a source from the Vietnam War; it sparks notions of every meaningless war that has ever transpired. The mask of the gunmen soldier inevitably reminds me of such stories as the gas chambers and concentration camps such as the worst camp ever - Auschwitz. The people are shown as powerless, vulnerable, and as a no hope situation which can only produce an empathetic feeling.

 

Anyway, to my point, this photo is a fantastic capture as you have included precise detail to produce this heart filled image but not too much to make it too locale or time period based. This inevitably allows the emphasis of the people currently detained. Once again, fantastic.

 

Thank you or the thought-provoking commentery and critique, as I hadn't thought of the connection to the Nazi era, primarily because these aren't detainees in the literal sense -- they're protesters, and the National Guard was called out to protect the University of California Berkeley Campus Chancellor's house from possible rioting -- all protestors were seen as rioters.

But I have been to Dachau -- in fact several times (not Auschwitz which is in Poland). In fact, if you're in Munich, from the main train station, Dachauerstrasse (Dachau street) starts there and runs to the suburb of Dachau. There's a McDonald's down the street and a gigantic Toom supercenter down the way and over. Also there's a home building center just a little way, also a "big box" store.

When I was first there in the early '80s, there was just a drive-in theater and they were holding a Sunday swap meet of Volkswagen parts(Hitler was its proponent, I remembered, and proposed one for every German, and I was struck by that thought, and its irony). It's actually hard to find Dachau KZ as it's called for there are no big signs.

This photo is from Spring, 1969 from a period of massive protests that coincided with an era known as the "People's Park" protests, a focal point for protests on the Berkeley Campus. This particular day was quite peaceful, and one woman protester was even photographed with a tear on her face as she put a flower down the barrel of one such bayonneted rifle.

I personally saw many of these soldiers (National Guard are civilian soldiers called up for emergencies -- although they currently are "called up" for Iraq) with tears in his eyes at having to fix his bayonet and confront such peaceful protestors.

 

By the Way, I recommend visiting a concentration camp if you can, just to see how the arching, electrified barbed wire on top of the high block walls would have prevented anyone from storming the walls, especially as weak as all Holocaust victims were. And put aside any prejudices you have, and see the movie by Polanski, "The Pianist", about the Warsaw ghetto where the Nazis herded the Jews -- it's magnificent, and based on fact.

 

J ;-(

Ah yeah I have checked out many photo's of the concentration camps, horrific. There was one image I found called the "Stairs of Death" where the Nazi soldiers would make the Jews run up about 169 stairs with a 25KG sand stone on their backs. Most wouldn't make it as they would fall or kill those behind them and some were killed by the soldiers. The sad story is the reason they were called the stairs of death was when the few who actually did make it to the top would then made to jump of the cliff in which they had just run up to. Or if the soldiers wanted to keep torturing people, they would increase the weight of the stone every time they ran up.

I have read almost everything on the Holocaust and WWII, but that one escaped me. On a happier note, although police in these various campus protests invariably retaliated against the not so peaceful and peaceful demonstrators, nothing too horrific happened except at Ohio State where there was a particular day when either police or National Guard (I was in Viet-Nam I think) fired on students, and one famous photo (taken by several people and also on film for television) shows a woman kneeling over a body of a slain demonstrator who lies in a pool of blood, and was unarmed, the woman's arms outstretched, her mouth in a plaintive wail. It helped stop the Viet-Nam war (as did images such as this). Johnson just couldn't stand the hatred, and didn't run for a subsequent term (he had part of one following death of Kennedy and was re-elected to one on his own and could have run again), and then Nixon came to office, upgraded the war, included fighting in Cambodia (illegal) and later was forced to sue for peace. (There are those in America who say the best exit strategy is to "Declare Victory and Leave", thus leaving honor intact.) But you must remember, these are not detainees -- it's more like the National Guard soldiers here who are the "prisoners" of the well-intentioned students who are playing on their (and the public's) emotions, intentionally making the Nat'l Guard look bad, as their commander in a VERY BAD JUDGMENT had them don their gas masks and fix their bayonets, when there was absolutely no danger of rioting that particular day.

Perhaps you fail to understand the passions of day if I tell you that this photo then was unpublishable as TRITE, as too often seen, especially because there was NO ACTUAL CONFLICT. And frankly, any one of dozens of photographers could have taken this photograph, given the static nature of the confrontation between demonstrators and the National Guard. You might try browsing my B&W portfolio and this portfolio for other, more worthy photos (although, admittedly less emblematic of a historical period). John. (self-deprecatingly)

...I was in college at this time. I remember vividly the feelings of tension, fear and excitement. At my school, there was a large protest and rally. The governor called out the National Guard. No one was injured but it was real intense for about 36 hours. A week or so later...Kent State. 7/7 This photo, with caption or without, ssys more about those days than anything I can recall.

If you're going to comment and tell me about your impression, consider this: If you rate it 6/6 or higher it usually stays in your most frequently viewed portfolio for others to see, and they can click on it to see it and share it. It's one way I am introduced through others' portfolios to wonderful photographs -- a shorthand way of finding wonderful photographs. So if you're tempted to comment and tell me about a high rating, but then not rate it, the rating actually does have meaning, both to me, and to the viewers of your portfolio. . . . who will evaluate both your taste and be able to share your "find" (if you feel that way). I use that shorthand way of finding wonderful photographs very frequently, and it tells me very much about my critics and commentators. So, if you like it very much, please go ahead and rate it too. That way you can share it with others, even though the short-term top photo lists are over with. John. ;~))

A slight correction to something you noted: You noted a "reflection" in the mask's ocular. Actually, this photo is viewing 'through' the mask's two eyepieces, hence the great distortion of the students on the hillside. The placement of the students made a reflection from this position absolutely impossible -- it would have been photographers or guardsmen reflected -- no, this was a view THROUGH THE OCULAR. John.

excellent...

This is the kind of photo that sets the standard by which all other photos are measured. Great work! You must be very proud.

I always thought this was an 'important' photo, which I took on my day off while I was a reporter for Associated Press, but they informed me that it was too 'trite' to be purchased. And, I was not the only photographer on the Berkeley Campus of the University of California system who saw the photographic potential in a line of National Guardsmen, gas masks covering their faces and bayonets drawn against sitting students, a few flying balloons, all asking for 'peace' and an end to protests, near the UC Chancellor's house as the 'major' People's Park era drew to an end (it's still an issue).

 

It's a little easy to take a good photo when everybody is sitting still or standing like this and you can just walk up behind the Nat'l Guardsman and move around (being careful he doesn't get P.O.'d at you and stab you to death).

 

Harder are those 'grab shots' where people are moving quickly, you have a half second to get camera in position, focus, set exposure and shoot, and (often) pray. I did a lot of such praying, and the results in this portfolio do not show my many unanswered prayers, regretably.

 

It's funny how this image went from 'trite' to 'emblematic' and 'important' in 35 years -- somebody was asleep at the switch (and I think it wasn't me).

 

It's easy to overlook 'important' or 'emblematic' photos when they're so easily available as this one was at the time, because photo editors then were overwhelmed by the enormity of crowd/rioters/vs/police shots that they simply overlooked a photo such as this. Newsweek, on the other hand, (I recall) ran a photo of a flower child putting a flower down the barrel of one of these rifles, for a very touching photo indeed.

 

It makes me feel a little old to be 'looking back" when I feel I'm more at my photographic prime now than ever, taking literally hundreds of images in varying styles that I could never have thought of taking then, when I was bound to manual cameras -- both exposure and focus.

 

Now I turn off autofocus and autoexposure more and more and am bringing out my older Nikons and Leicas more and more for the old feeling of control I once had, and it feels good (if slower). But the slowness allows one to compose more, when it's possible to have the luxury of time, as here.

 

I am both in love with auto everything and reaching back into my camera bag of the past to use those cameras of the type which helped create this image.

 

Thank you for your thoughtful and complimentary comment (and for making me feel a bit old, which I don't feel really one bit, compared to when I was 40, a long time ago.). John

good work 7/7.