Self-portrait with Taro, after Spence

Ceridwen has done it again. In a comment, she'll drop a name of someone I've never heard of, or a URL, and that makes me curious, so I'll go hunting around in the Portland library holdings, and sparks happen, ideas flame up.

Her latest suggestions are two photographers. One, Gerda Taro, was an anti-Fascist photojournalist in Spain during the Civil War; it is Gerda's pictures I'm looking at in this shot, and I have noted in them--in the joy and idealism of the young fighters--a similarity with the Occupiers I've been documenting for the past seven months. Looking at Gerda's work made me go back over the thousand or so photos I have of Occupy, looking for moments like these: moments that bring the young activists to life in their fragile beauty, loving each other, working and playing, hoping what they hope. In fact to my eyes, Gerda looked very much like an Occupier I admire and blipped a few months ago.

The other photographer (warning: nudity in the link) is Jo Spence. Spence bravely documented her own body in her struggle with cancer, and looking at her pictures has made me think about my left hand, the one with the missing finger I talked about back in December. I've always hidden that hand in pictures, as if to shield people from the truth of it. Here it is. Spence and Taro both died young. That didn't happen to me, so I am still here to admire their work. Grateful for that.