Zoe Strauss

Time to recap in full about the greatest book signing event in the history of the world. Thanks to Quaker City. Thanks to the party planning committee, Lynn Bloom and Savannah Roberts. Thanks to my mom. Thanks to my super interns... Donna Collins, Ashley Flynn and Maria.

There were many, many people I was happy to see. Some people who bought books should not have made the purchase, because I have books for them! Not to buy! To give to them! They get the books as a gift because I love them and am indebted to them. That means you Paula Marincola. And you John Powell.

While the unfortunate occurrence of books selling out happened, there was pizza and beer until the end of the night, and plenty of 5 dollar copies for sale and an ongoing slide show and an amazing playlist selected by Lynn Bloom. A highlight was "200 Years" from the Nashville soundtrack written by Henry Gibson. "We must be doing something right to last 200 years..."

Also, if an event is held and Alex Mechanick is in attendance, it is a great event. Alex, you are so super! I love you!

Thanks to Albert Yee for making these great photos...














Photos above by Albert Yee

Thanks so, so much to everyone who came out. While everything was pretty spectacular, I did sell out of the books about 1/2 way through, which I hadn't anticipated since I brought 45 books... I'm really sorry if you didn't get a book. I'll get more books and will plan another signing at my studio before Hanukkah/Christmas/Solstice/Kwanzaa, not as glamorous but still great. I think I can have a signing on December 13 or 14 and maybe a day during that week, too.


Order a book beforehand and bring it!

Direct from AMMO...

America at AMMO


Or right from Amazon...



And at some point in the future, I hope to have a signing at The Wooden Shoe.


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There are many people to thank...
Lynn Bloom
Savannah Roberts
Ilene Baker

and
Donna
Ashley
and
Maria


I would like to give extra special thanks to the first people who came... Gina and Lauren Carbone. You are both beautiful and I'm so happy to know you guys. I think of Monique, with love, everyday.

And as an aside, Savannah and Gina know each other from the gym! How awesome is that?!? In many, many ways Philadelphia is a little city and that's how I love it.

Here's a great event happening tomorrow, the America Book Release Party and Book Signing! Please attend... You can bring a book, buy a book (cash only), or just come and hang out. I don't think I need to elaborate on how incredibly awesome this is going to be. And thanks to everyone who came out in NY, especially to my whole family. And extra special thanks to my brother, the great Cosmo Baker, who kept the party going an hour after the opening was done.

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PHILADELPHIA, PA:
AMERICA BOOK SIGNING

NOVEMBER 29, 2008

8PM-11PM

Quaker City String Band Clubhouse (2nd Floor)
1943 South 3rd Street
Philadelphia, PA 19148

(Between Mifflin and McKean and directly across from Furness High School... the block magically turns from 2nd St into 3rd St on the block between Mifflin and McKean so just note that if you are taking 2nd St up, YOU ARE ON THE RIGHT STREET)

Book Signing- buy a book, cash only, or bring your book and I'll sign it. 5 dollar copies will be for sale as well, which make great Hanukkah, Christmas, Kwanza or Solstice presents. Come on!

This book signing will feature America by Zoe Strauss, a slide show, pizza from 2 St. Pizza and 2 kegs of Yuengling.

Please feel free to bring a dessert to share.

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America at AMMO

Mapquest to Quaker City Clubhouse


Quaker City Stringband... Class, Pride, Committment

Golden Slippers as Performed by Quaker City Stringband

Bruce Silverstein Gallery

A happy Thanksgiving to all. And this includes the lady LB use to work with who said, "I don't celebrate genocide." All right! Whether you're fighting the good fight or gorging on food, enjoy the day!






Major Drumstick!

Before you head over to Quaker City for the book signing blowout, check out the opening at Mew gallery this Saturday, from 5PM-9PM. Starring Katie Henry, James Ulmer and Kathryn Moran. Mew is at 906 Christian Street in Philadelphia, PA.

Antoinette Conti Holding America

Books for the book signing have been delivered... and thanks to the Contis for taking the packages that came while I was picking up Lynn at work. Our UPS guy, Tom, hands everything right over to Al and Antoinette Conti if we're not home. Our letter carrier, Chris, will sometimes leave things at my mom's house a few blocks away.

Also, thanks to Antoinette Conti for a spectacular rendition of "Kung-Fu Fighting." Dickinson St. keeps it popping!

Head right to Photo-Eye!





PLUS!

America is now shipping from Barnes and Noble and should be in your hands soon if you ordered from them... and while Amazon said that it's shipping in December, it should actually be shipping sooner!

Robins Bookstore has sold out but Penn Book Center should still have some and Strand in NY has it in stock. Bindelstiff Books up in West Philly will be getting it in soon.

You can order it straight from AMMO... America at AMMO. And I'll have about 40 books at the book signing, which should be more than plenty! The book is 30 bucks, but believe me you, it's worth every penny.

Actually, apparently it's worth every penny plus 45 more dollars if it's signed... America (Hardcover) collectible

Bruce Silverstein Gallery will be closed until Friday because of some print discoloration issues. Again, I'm really sorry for the inconvenience if you were headed over, but this was a pretty significant issue, so thanks for your patience and consideration during this delay.


Also, absence makes the heart grow fonder.

Bruce Silverstein Gallery will be closed today and tomorrow to take care of the print discoloration issues... SO SORRY. Not to worry, the show will be up and going Saturday. I'm really sorry for the inconvenience if you were headed over, but the prints need to be PERFECT, so thanks for your patience and consideration during this delay.

Friends! Start buying! I can guarantee that you won't regret it. My prices are going up and up despite the recession. And I'm moving forward like a fucking freight train, so it's highly unlikely that I'll print this large again until the next exhibition. More later on this.



Good investment? Obviously, art by Zoe Strauss.

NOVEMBER 24, 2008
PHOTO FINISH: SEA TO SHINING SEA

BY ELIZA HONEY

The release of Zoe Strauss’s “America” this month coincides with a turn in American politics. Eight years ago, around the time when George Bush, Jr., became President, Strauss took up the camera for the first time, to create a photographic exhibition of her community in Philadelphia. It’s now an annual public exhibition that takes place under the I-95 highway and lasts three hours. At the end, the audience is free to rip the photographs from the pilasters and take them home. Strauss’s commitment to her community—both local and, more recently, national—speaks loudly in her work. In the last few years, Strauss has travelled across the country to places such as Las Vegas, Miami, Philadelphia, Biloxi, and the Muckleshoot Reservation, in the Pacific Northwest, yielding a comprehensive portrait of an America I knew existed but tended to forget. The people in this book may have come upon hard times, but their stance in front of the camera is one of composure and self-awareness. Strauss’s connection to her subjects runs deep, as evidenced by several emotional e-mail exchanges included in the book.

Through Strauss’s lens the American landscape is humorous, grand, and always a bit worn out. The photograph that made me laugh was of a girl gleefully sliding down a blow-up model of the Titanic; Strauss tells me that the deluxe version has an iceberg obstacle at the end. Then there are houses split down the middle yet still functioning, appliances in the desert used as shooting targets, and dilapidated signs that say “Pardon Our Dust” and “Together We Make Dreams Come True.” The narrative for this America is hopeful, perhaps something like “It wasn’t easy, but we’re O.K.”

You can see America for yourself from now until January 10th at the Bruce Silverstein gallery, in New York.


By Zoe Strauss


Ad for one of the "Titanic Slide" configurations

Up at Silverstein there's a problem with yellowing on some of the prints due to a crazy chemical reaction with the mounting... not to worry, they will be fixed asap but just putting out a heads up if you're headed over to the gallery tomorrow or Wednesday!

Thanks so much to the fabulous Ruben for his fabulous post about the opening... all the photos are great, well, Ruben is just so great. Before the opening Ruben and Susan Meiselas came in and Ruben introduced me to her, but I didn't catch her last name so, thankfully, I didn't act like a spaz. But then the minute they left someone was like, "That was Susan Meiselas," so I had to run after them to tell her what a huge fan I am of her work. Thank god I didn't know who she was or I would have been out of control. So great to meet you Susan... soy endeudado a usted.

Also, I was thrilled to see all the people pictured in Ruben's photos, Amy, Mike and Will "Party Boy" Steacy.

Cosmo Baker made the party pop off at the America: We Love Having You Here opening. My brother knows how to do it and goes on to be doing it and doing it and doing it well. A bunch of people asked me how to get in touch with him to get him in their mix... just go to his website and click on "contact."

http://www.cosmobaker.com/

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Cosmo Baker, aka Brother.


Ilene Baker, aka Mother.


The great Savannah Roberts, aka Sister, and me, her sister.

Here's a little run down on what went into getting "We Love Having You Here" up and running.

1.


In my original configuration of the show, the rounded wall on the left (with my name and show title on it) had "Titanic" as a wall mural covering the wall. "Titanic" ended up not going on that wall for aesthetic and budgetary reasons. I cooked up the show with no reasonable limits on budget and then shaved it down and reshaped it in relation to the economic depression setting in. While wide open money would be amazing, who the hell has endless money? Often I have a few working titles for a show to help me keep on point and one of the working titles for this show was "Songs For The Depression."

In the front on the right are "Woman at US/Mexico Border" and "Red White and Blue Gas Station." I had printed a few other things for that spot, but I really needed to see prints in the space to know what should go there, and it was these two without a doubt. Like with the last show, If You Reading This, I wanted the photos to create an open ended dialogue and to bounce off each other to create different narratives.


2.


Here's the installation shot of the wall that faces the front windows and door. Titanic was a keystone in placing the images in this show and I knew it should be on one of the three walls that faces the street. The image behind "Titanic" is the side of a home in New Orleans with marks where the water held. There's a water mark at about 8 feet and one at about 6 feet, the water had receded about 2 feet and held for a while at 6 ft in the area where this house was.



This is the full image.

3.


There's so many reasons for this specific set up and that's all I'm saying.

4.


As part of the installation in Gallery 1, I included a grouping of portraits which is something I've never done before and was a nervous wreck about it. While the format of how the photos are hung is familiar, the syntax of the photos was completely different for me. I'm really thrilled with how the front room worked out.

5.


I had gone over and over and over which photo should face the door at this spot and had 3 in the running and had printed all for a decision. The middle room had been set up for months but I just didn't feel certain of the photo facing the front because I felt that the anxiety of the Presidential election was going to impact that choice. The day after the election Lynn Bloom and I were at Toys R Us getting a present and the cashier didn't ring up one of the 2 toys that we were getting and when I told her that she had missed one of the toys, she just gave it to us and said, "We've got to make a change, right? That's what he says!" Later that day I locked down "Together We Make Dreams Come True Is True" for that spot and upped the size to a 30x45 print.

I had really wanted "Together We Make Dreams Come True" for that spot because I wanted the continuum of Indiana from front to back. The North wall in Gallery 2 is the Terre Haute Penitentiary, the cloud image on the South wall in Gallery 2 was made flying over Indiana and "Together We Make Dreams Come True" was made within 2 miles of the Terre Haute Penitentiary.










Bruce Silverstein Gallery

Please don't miss the great, great show Unbreak My Heart at Pluto in Brooklyn, NY. Curated by the one and only Brent Burket.

A big part of the front room installation is the "living room" like set up of two chairs with tables and table lamps. Now, while there are many reasons for how and why gallery 1 is set up as it is, one of the reasons at the top is tremendously basic....people should be able to sit down and be comfortable.

#1



Photo above by the great David Kessler. Thanks so much for coming, my friend. The guy sleeping in the chair got up, milled around for a few minutes and then came back and fell asleep again. I couldn't have planned something that great.

#2



This is not a staged photo, this guy was actually sitting here and reading the paper he brought with him. Again, totally not staged.

#3



I'll see this lady at the SPE conference.

1. I came back to the hotel right after installing the last minute version of the slideshow and my lady had gone shopping at Century 21, the close-out department store, and had gotten me a whole outfit to wear to the opening. That's why I looked super cute and wasn't wearing my usual green t-shirt.

Of course, at the end of the night my mom pointed out that I forgotten to cut tags off and I had been wearing tags on the inside of my new shirt, a la "Cousin Minnie."

2. One time when I was crazy working on the book, Lynn Bloom came into the kitchen and I was picking up and biting into a whole rotisserie chicken we had just gotten at the Acme. As in picking up a whole chicken and biting into it.

I don't think it's over-stating anything to say that last night's book signing and dance party was the greatest opening ever in the history of Chelsea.

I have too many people to thank in this one post, but I'm going at it right now and will keep it rolling through the next couple of days.

First, thanks to all who came out and who bought the book or bought prints. Thanks a million times over.


Special Thanks-

#1. Lynn Bloom, life-partner extraordinaire. None of the work I've produced would be possible without Ms. Bloom and she should probably share billing with me for the book and the shows. This summer will mark our 20th anniversary and through the course of our lives she has supported me in every way. Ladies and Gentlemen, there's no one who can top the greatness of Ms. Lynn Bloom. Thanks, baby.

#2. My Immediate Family- Ilene Baker, Cosmo Baker, Savannah Roberts. Power players, my friends, and I can't make a move without them.

#3. An additional shout out to my brother, Mr. Cosmo Baker who rocked the party last night and brought it all the way home. And to his "good bride" Ms. Sydney Peck-Strauss, Esq.

#4. What about my gallery? Bruce Silverstein Gallery. Right, that's good news with the incredibly supportive move of allowing me to use the space in a completely different way. Thanks to Bruce, Beth. Yvonne, Liam, Luis and all the interns. You are all super.

#5. My Extended Family- Aunt 333 Jane, Andrea, Justin, Christine, Jimmy, Deb, Jonah, Ruby, Liz, Angela, Elle, Shane, Manny, Sophie, Seth- through marriage, choice and chance.

#6. Dearest Interns- thanks, thanks and thanks to my intern and assistant Donna, who was a tremendous, tremendous help. And to Ashley, Masha and Laura (at home but still representing). Manny, at this point you have moved from intern area to family area in the thank yous.

#7. And thanks all the guys from my SVA class that came out. That was great. And the Whitney movers and shakers, past and present. Thanks to all my blog friends and the great photographers who came out and thanks to all people who came from Philadelphia. And Brent and Ruben and Mike.

More to follow.


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Please send me photos if you took any!

If you're headed to America: We Love Having You Here don't miss the slideshow in the back... it's the best one I've ever made. 300 photos and running 34 minutes until it loops... there's 120 new photos since the last configuration.



It includes the above photo that I made earlier today. I try to structure the slideshow so I can include one last minute photo and this was the perfect moment that I was looking for... it's looking down on the WTC site at "ground zero."

Zoe Strauss: AMERICA: We Love Having You Here
November 22, 2008 – January 10, 2009


Book signing: 6 - 8pm
Books will be available for sale
Party!: 8-10pm starring DJ Cosmo, aka "brother"


Silverstein Photography
535 West 24th Street
New York, NY 10011
P: 212-627-3930


Silverstein Photography is pleased to announce Zoe Strauss: AMERICA: We Love Having You Here, an exhibition featuring works from Strauss’ last eight years of photographing throughout the United States including her most recent excursions. Many of the images in the show are also featured in her forthcoming book of the same title.

Amazon says that America is shipping in early December, but AMMO said that it might be earlier. America is shipping direct from AMMO right now: America at AMMO

The best way to get a signed book is to come to a booksigning...

You can get it at the Philadelphia America Book SIgning on November 29th, 2008

PHILADELPHIA, PA: AMERICA BOOK SIGNING: MS. SATURDAY NIGHT SPECIAL
November 29, 2008

8PM-11PM

Quaker City String Band Clubhouse
1943 South 3rd Street
Philadelphia, PA 19148
(Between Mifflin and McKean and directly across from Furness High School... the block magically turns from 2nd St into 3rd St on the block between Mifflin and McKean so just note that if you are taking 2nd St up, YOU ARE ON THE RIGHT STREET)

AND

In New York, you can get it at Bruce Silverstein Gallery during the America: We Love Having You Here show

Zoe Strauss: AMERICA: We Love Having You Here
November 22, 2008 – January 10, 2009
Opening: November 22nd,

Book signing: 6 - 8pm
Books will be available for sale
Party!: 8-10pm starring DJ Cosmo, aka "brother"


Silverstein Photography
535 West 24th Street
New York, NY 10011
P: 212-627-3930

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In Philadelphia you can get it at Robin's Books, 108 S. 13th St.

AND

in the future you can order signed books from photoeye!

These 4 photos are in the small room at the gallery, the living room area, and although none are in America I felt strongly that they should be included in the installation of portraits. Each of these women have a kind of pride, defiance and beauty in relation to their bodies, specifically their breasts. These 4 were very important in the ordering of the photos.


Judy showing reconstructed breast


Ashley's grandmother double mastectomy


Kelly Harper, rest in peace


woman showing breast in Camden

The walls of Bruce Silverstein Gallery are painted Van Deusen Blue, a historical color from Benjamin Moore.

"The vast majority of colors shown on Benjamin Moore & Co.'s Historical Color Collection cards are from the files of the National Park Service in Philadelphia, PA. These colors were obtained by stripping down through multiple layers of paint and then matching with Munsell designations. Penelope Hartshorne Batcheler, a historical architect with the National Park Service, and a specialist in historic paints, was the pioneer in analyzing and matching these colors."

I really felt I needed to go with a historical color AND a blue found in the wall murals... as well as a warm blue. I thought about it a lot and NAILED it with the color of the walls.

Terre Haute Penitentiary


There are two facilities at the "Federal Correctional Complex Terre Haute": the "Federal Correctional Institution, Terre Haute" and the "United States Penitentiary, Terre Haute." USP Terre Haute is currently the home of the only death chamber for federal death penalty recipients in the United States, where they receive lethal injection.

Timothy McVeigh, convicted for his responsibility for the Oklahoma City bombing, was executed at FCC Terre Haute. He was the first prisoner executed by the U.S. Government since the moratorium on the death penalty was lifted in 1976.

I don't know how this has happened, but I suddenly got old in the last year and 2 days ago my back went out. What the fuck with middle age? Seriously!




Please be aware when you come to the opening of "We Love Having You Here" I will be doing these exercises during the opening.

"It is the photographer, not the camera, that is the instrument." -Eve Arnold

And Amazon is coming... the publisher told me that it should be in stock at the Amazon warehouse in Lewisberry, PA next week and be shipping out asap, so I am hoping that they will get to people by the end of next week. If you've ordered the book, please send me an email when you get it. THANKS!


Photo by Savannah Roberts

America

A Works-in-Progress slideshow is up at World Class Boxing in Miami, so check it out if you're down there! Thanks to Dennis and Debra Scholl who generously share their collection with folks through World Class Boxing.

And thanks to Lorie Mertes for writing the catalog piece... check it out!

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DREAM BABY DREAM: A LITANY FOR SURVIVAL
BY LORIE MERTES

I can't get enough of Errol Morris's blog posts... this one includes a great segment about Ansel Adams "removing" whitewashed letters on the mountainside seen in “Winter Sunrise, Sierra Nevada, from Lone Pine, California." Is dodging and burning a kind of fakery? Dust removal? And does it matter if the image isn't being presented as a geological survey?

I think it's all a sort of fakery, the photographer is charge of showing what they want to put out there, and even the subtlest manipulation of color, contrast and clean up is a sort of manipulation.

November 29, 2008

8PM-11PM

Quaker City String Band Clubhouse
1943 South 3rd Street
Philadelphia, PA 19148
(Between Mifflin and McKean and directly across from Furness High School... the block magically turns from 2nd St into 3rd St on the block between Mifflin and McKean so just note that if you are taking 2nd St up, YOU ARE ON THE RIGHT STREET)

Book Signing- buy a book, cash only, or bring your book and I'll sign it. Come on! Seriously!

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This book signing will feature America by Zoe Strauss, pizza from 2 St. Pizza and 2 kegs of Yuengling.

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"Mask on Back of Head" was made right outside Quaker City Clubhouse.




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In charge of this book signing are Savannah Roberts and Lynn Bloom so you know what that means. Unequalled excellence.

Zoe Strauss: AMERICA: We Love Having You Here
November 22, 2008 – January 10, 2009
Opening: November 22nd,

Book signing: 6 - 8pm
Books will be available for sale
Party!: 8-10pm starring DJ Cosmo, aka "brother"


Silverstein Photography
535 West 24th Street
New York, NY 10011
P: 212-627-3930


Silverstein Photography is pleased to announce Zoe Strauss: AMERICA: We Love Having You Here, an exhibition featuring works from Strauss’ last eight years of photographing throughout the United States including her most recent excursions. Many of the images in the show are also featured in her forthcoming book of the same title.

again-
SAVE THE DATE: SATURDAY NIGHT 8PM-11PM NOVEMBER 29, 2008 : AMERICA SIGNING

Here's a great Veterans Day story, written by my own mother. It's a long story, but an amazing story, and one that makes perfect sense.

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Jean Thévenin and Joe Baker
Granville, France
1944

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The Tides of Chausey
Ilene Baker

Being adopted is something I don’t often forget about. It goes in and out of my consciousness, like a sporadic radio signal on a Sunday night driving down some rural road. Even when there is no music or talk coming in, I am still aware of the static of white noise filtering through the speakers, somehow comforting and disquieting at the same time. The idea of adoption looms large in the life of an adoptee, even when so much time passes that you are the parent of adult children, coloring everything in one’s life, imperceptibly most of the time, like a cloud passing across the sun. You know that somehow the light has changed but don’t stop to think of the reasons why. So when my 95 year old aunt, doyenne of the family, casually mentioned to me over dinner one night that my father, her brother, dead 6 years at that time, had wanted to adopt a child he met in France during his service in World War II, I put down my fork and listened.

The way the story went, she told, was that Joe, my dad, had met a child, perhaps an orphan, in France, and had very much wanted to adopt this boy and bring him home. How did she know this, I wanted to know, without adding the qualitative question of why are you telling me this now. Because my father told her so was the reply. He loved children, she said. I knew that, since I saw that love reflected in his own unconditional love for me and also in his deep affection for and devotion to his grandchildren, my own children, raised for the most part by me as a single parent. He stepped up to the role as father figure to his grandchildren, and to other children missing a role model and was always a magnet for young people, his love for them reflected in the mirror of their behavior towards him.

I placed this information in the working memory of my brain, poised for deletion. I was prepared to file it under the category of the ramblings of a woman approaching her centennial who confused one of the many events of her life with another. There was just one thing I wanted to check out before I forgot about it; a small box of wartime photographs I had of my dads. That box of photographs had lived in a crawlspace behind the basement stairs for my entire life growing up. I was aware of the box, the pictures it held and I was vaguely interested, but it was always relegated to something that I’ll look through and catalogue when I have the time that, of course, never comes. After his death and the death of my mother, the ritual of cleaning out their things, the pieces of a person’s life, took on the emotional load that every adult child experiences going through that liturgy of passage and loss. Amazing how unimportant all of it is in terms of the world at large and how infused with the greatest and deepest significance a drinking glass, or a jacket, or a photograph can hold. At the same time, meaningless and meaningful.

I moved that box from my childhood home to the basement of one house after another, never examining it, as if that act would make me a modern Pandora, releasing some fierce emotions that would breach the bridge I had built between me and safety of my childhood, with its reminder of simpler and somehow safer times. I located the box of pictures and found it contained about a hundred photos, each a revelation to me; places that I had heard of repeatedly in historical context but never from my father. Amazed and humbled upon inspecting the images, I found: the ovens at Dachau, the liberation of Hitler’s Eagles Nest, a besieged and battered Belgium in a white out during the Battle of the Bulge, a destroyed cathedral in Carenten. I found Omaha Beach. Among the remarkable images none were more astounding to me than the images of a boy, about 12 or 13 years old, standing with my father, both looking back at me through 62 years, as if to ask me what had taken me so long to discover their story.

Seeing these pictures and sensing a deeper meaning in this for me, as an adoptee, it became imperative for me to try and find this child, now perhaps more than 70 years old.

When my dad enlisted in the army he was 29 years of age- older than most of the boys who were signing up for service and barely out of their teens. My dad had been married for almost 6 years and there were no children. Perhaps he had some sense by that time that there were to be no children forthcoming from his union with my mother. Maybe he had wanted to adopt a child four years before he adopted me. It made sense.

There were no names or locations written on the back of the three photographs that the boy was in. On one photograph, however, there was a notation. There was a picture of my father and the boy and written in my father’s hand on the back was “Me and that French kid and my gun on the Island before going duck hunting. The spot we are standing in is covered with water when tide is in”. With that piece of cryptic information I asked myself, where exactly should I start?

I am a curious person by nature and the opening of the world through the internet has made finding information more accessible to ordinary folks. This is where I decided to begin my search. First I had to get through the swamp of my American lack of geographical knowledge to ask myself what islands are off of the coast of France?

After looking at a map I realized that I already knew the answer, the islands of Guernsey and Jersey in the English Channel, of course. I looked up local newspapers and television stations on both islands and sent emails of inquiry, explaining my interest along with photos of the boy attached to the correspondence.

The text of the email to the Jersey Evening Post:

"I write this to you from the United States. This past month, my aunt, aged 95, told me that my father, while in the army during World War II met a young boy that he thought he would like to adopt or bring back to America; her story somewhat tattered at the edges over the years. This was news to me; my father never shared any detailed information about the war and his time spent in the service. I know that he spent some time in Cherbourg running harbor craft. Both of my parents are gone now, but I remembered a packet of pictures that my dad had from the war. Looking through them I found, to my amazement, several photos of this boy, which I have attached. . Who is this boy that my father should save his picture for 60 years and have me find it after his death! My question to you is, could you direct me to any source, if there is such a source available, where I might match up the boy in the photograph with the man he grew up to be? I know that time is not my friend in trying to track down anyone who lived through the war. Nevertheless, I thought I should try and hopefully tell him this story. Thank you for any insight you may have."


The responses came quickly:

"I'm not sure that we can shed much light on these photographs. Having asked a couple of colleagues we feel almost certain that the photos cannot have been taken in Jersey - and probably not in any of the other Channel Islands either. We were occupied by the Germans from July 1940 to May 1945 - the Normandy landings by-passed us leaving the islands completely cut off. The few American service personnel who did come to Jersey were generally washed up on our shores having been shot down or torpedoed in the Channel and were then imprisoned by the Germans. They wouldn't have been allowed to walk around freely with guns and cameras were also banned.
There is a very slim chance that he could have come to Jersey after the war, but again this is unlikely as we were liberated by the British and only a handful of American servicemen were involved. Also many Channel Island beaches were heavily mined and wouldn't have been safe for duck hunting.
It is more likely that the picture was taken in France, particularly as you say your father spent time in Cherbourg. Probably your best bet is to contact a newspaper in Normandy to see if they might run the photograph."


I had hit a dead end. I went back to the box of photographs, looking for something that might give me a clue to help me. I found it. There was one photograph of a destroyed plane on a beach of sorts, with homes in the background. The text on the back said: “part of an American airplane shot down on one of the Islands. Some fishermen’s homes. Some boats when the tide is down and part of a fish net. Where I am standing is underwater when the tide is in”. I had found the connection. On the web there are so very many sites that digging through them is truly like looking for the proverbial needle in a haystack. After some searching, I found that there was a bomber named the Daisey Mae Scraggs that had been shot down two days after D-Day, over a small island governed by France, named Chausey, the only Channel Island governed by France and therefore almost never mentioned in the context of the other islands of that group. More research explained that the Iles de Chausey were a group of small islands- an archipelago- with the distinguishing feature of having the largest tides in Europe and of three hundred sixty five small islets, only one was inhabitable because when the tides were in the rest were covered by the sea. Bingo!

I compared my father’s photograph of the downed plane with one that I found on a website called Le Iles Chausey. They were almost identical.

A new round of emails began, more difficult this time because my French is limited. I emailed a dozen sources that somehow seemed connected to the Isle of Chausey- webmasters, tourism bureaus and media sources in the prefecture of Manche, the closest place on the mainland to where Chausey was situated. I received responses immediately, interested and polite but nothing definitive or encouraging. Several weeks after this flurry of emails I received an email from one of the contacts by the name of Hervé Hillard saying:

"Sorry for this late answer, but I first thought your mail was some sort of a joke.

In fact, the little boy on the pictures is one of my friend's father! His name was: Jean Thévenin (my friend's name is Jean-Michel). Jean Thévenin became a Chausey's fisherman, got married and had two boys, Jean-Michel and Stéphane, and died about 20 years ago. I've the professional e-mail of Jean-Michel. The best would be to write him directly because he has thousands of questions to ask you! Thanks by advance. It's quite an incredible story and I do hope we'll all get all the answers we're looking for!"

It didn’t seem real to me. I had located the child. I was sad that I wouldn’t be able to tell the boy grown into a man that my father had saved photographs of him until his death, nor would I be able to ask the questions that I hoped to get answers to, but it really was enough to be able to give a name to the child with the bright eyes in the picture. I responded to Hervé by saying that the news that he could identify the boy in the picture had my head spinning. What could I possibly respond when Hervé replied to me that, "Well, for us, too, it's something quite incredible. Because Jean-Michel has in his house your pictures. And doesn't know at all the “why", "how", "who", and so on!"

So, it seems as if the photograph of the boy that my father saved for 55 years, until his death was also saved by said boy, Jean Thévenin, until his death, and now it was up to me to discover why.

I began a correspondence with Jean Michel, the son of Jean Thévenin, and he shared his copious and scholarly knowledge of the wartime history of Normandy and the Islands with me. Born and raised on the island of Chausey, leaving only briefly to attend school on the mainland, he shared his father’s and his grandparent’s story with me. The name of Joe Baker wasn’t included in that narrative, although he had the same pictures that I did, saved by his father, like they were saved by my father, with no answers to why. My daughter Savannah was living in Prague at the time and Jean Michel, who was captain of an off-shore oil rig in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Angola in Africa, suggested that if I come to visit her that I should stop by- it was on the way. In my head, I started to pack my bag.

My first trip out of the United States was exciting, to be sure. I was so happy to visit my daughter in Prague and to see the Czech Republic. A brief few days in Paris was everything I had imagined that great city would be. But waiting for me at the train station in Granville was Jean Michel Thévenin and his wife, Marie Odile, and perhaps the answers to questions that I had not even been able to articulate.

I arrived in Granville and was welcomed warmly by Jean Michel and Marie Odile and whisked away through the narrow and medieval streets of that beautiful coastal town. The next five days I spent as guest of the Thévenins, traveling throughout Normandy to places that Jean Michel knew through our correspondence my father had visited; Omaha Beach, St. Lo, Pointe du Hoc. Jean Michel’s historical expertise was impressive and deep and I felt fortunate in having such an intelligent, articulate, and knowledgeable guide. Neither of us could provide any additional information about our father’s connection to each other but I was looking forward eagerly to the voyage we were taking to Chausey on the following day. I wanted to go to that place where our fathers had stood together and somehow, thinking magically, understand it all.

The hour long ferry ride to Chausey carried summer residents and day trippers and was accompanied by a group of dolphins who swam alongside. I took that as a good omen. The island of Chausey was magical, like Avalon, rising from the mists. Once ashore, it became quickly evident that there were no cars or bikes of any kind. Waiting at the dock were various sizes of pull carts to transport supplies from the mainland to each home. The island is owned and under the protection of a type of property investment partnership called a SCI so that no one can buy or sell any property on the island, what we might call a Land Trust. One of the rules of their charter regulations is that no one can build or change the exterior of an existing structure. The result is that when I set foot upon the rocky surface of Chausey it appeared exactly the same as it appeared to my father, sixty-two years before. Nothing had changed.

Jean Michel walked me all over the island, showing me places my father would have seen and explaining that it would not have been unusual or surprising if my father had hired his father, Jean, as a guide around the island and to take him to the best small islands for duck hunting. He took me around the 365 tiny islands in Jolie Brise, his canot chausiais, or boat of Chausey, especially adapted to the dangerous navigational conditions of the archipelago. When the tide was in, Jean Michel wound in and around the tiny islands in serpentine fashion, Jolie
Brise skimming over the menacing rocks beneath the surface of the sea within my arm’s reach. I realized that one would have to have grown up on this island to know how to avoid the treacherous rocks and guide someone through the archipelago, as Jean Michel was doing for me. As his father, Jean, did for my father, Joe. Only the naming of each island and the cries of the seabirds that must have sounded exactly the same sixty-two years before, broke the silence. It felt like we had stepped back in time.

Over the next few days I learned some of the history of the island, as only a native and a historian could tell. One evening, several days into the visit, we sat over dinner and wine and Jean Michel spoke. He showed me his copies of the same photographs that I had. It was a humbling moment to hold it in my hand and know that they were saved by both men in photograph albums until they died, telling no one what it meant. Now, sixty-two years later, their children sat together and tried to understand. Jean Michel told of the enormous poverty that existed on the island during World War II. The Chausians could not leave the island to pursue their livelihood as fishermen, and they suffered greatly. “I cannot say why our fathers became friends and we can never really know that.” he said. “I do know that your father must have brought supplies to my father, and work, hiring him as a guide. But most importantly, he brought hope that this war would someday be over and that life would resume again. I can only hope that in having you here I have somehow begun to repay that debt”. And with that, the tough French sea captain and the middle-aged American woman looking for her father’s story, holding tight to her memories, both wept.

In the days that followed, we saw more of the island and accepting that we would never quite understand, speculated mentally on what if it were indeed true that my father wanted to adopt young Jean? What if? Jean Michel may not have been born, or perhaps he would not have grown up on Chausey. What if? Joe Baker would have had a child and there would have been no need to adopt another, myself, 4 years later. Or perhaps in an alternate universe, we could have been brother and sister. What if?

The day before we were to leave Chausey, we had lunch with neighbors of Jean Michel and Marie Odile’s on Chausey. A wonderful couple named Jean Paul Batas and his wife, Jacqueline. Jean Paul was in his seventies, a retired sea captain, who lived on Chausey with his parents and moved to the mainland during the war. He moved back after the war and when he married, his wife moved there as well. As a newly married couple, they lived next door to Jean Thévenin, his wife and family, and were great friends. Jean Paul and Jacqueline hadn’t heard of us or why we were visiting. Jean Michel explained to them in French, that I was an American who discovered that my father had been to Chausey during the war and had known young Jean Thévenin. As a matter of fact, there was some farfetched story about my father having wanted to take young Jean back to America. And then time stood still. Jacqueline, looked at Jean Michel and I and asked, in French, “Joe? Joe de Philadelphie?” Joe? Joe of Philadelphia? I felt Jean Michel; sitting next to me, turn to a pillar of stone. I looked to his wife, Marie Odile and asked, “Did she just say what I think she said?” Marie Odile, dumbfounded, shook her head yes, and said, “This is the first we are hearing about this”. Although neither Joe nor Jean told their children, they had told other people, and so, it was true. I looked to Jean Michel with new eyes and an understanding that in another life, had our fathers’ journey turned another way, we could have been family. Through this connection, we were in fact family, finally understanding and sharing some of our fathers unspoken dreams. I knew at that moment that my father had truly wanted a son or daughter, and through the murkiness and horror of war he had been denied one child, finding another in me.

Connected as family in spirit, Jean Michel and I walked to the spot where our fathers stood, the young soldier in search of a child, and the young child in search of a father, crossing paths in that dark night of 1944, looking at the unknown photographer and at us, their own children, through six decades of time into the future.

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Joe Baker aka "Pop" on a barge in Granville, 1944



Joe Baker aka "Pop" France, 1945

Including South Philadelphia's own... Judith Schaechter!


The goal of United States Artists is to invest in America's finest artists and illuminate the value of artists to society... I believe I would be remiss in not mentioning that 3 of the folks who have received this esteemed fellowship all live within a 5 block radius here in South Philadelphia.

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Judith Schaechter 2008

Rennie Harris 2007

Zoe Strauss 2007

OK, we are headed into a full blown economic depression but I am optimistic that we can all weather the great difficult in the coming years. Why? Because I am an optimist.

Philadelphia has had two major events that have greatly impacted the city's psyche on the whole: Phillies World Series win and the election of Barack Obama. Now we are facing severe budget cuts, ones that will impact quality of life in the city. But while I am opposed to the some of the choices of where to cut cash, eg. libraries, firehouses, there's not enough money to support city services. Look, we can work on picking up outside a little more and shoveling snow, but there ain't no way we can rock out with a bucket brigade if you feel me. However, because of the tremendously great events of the last 2 weeks, I don't have a doubt that we can get it together to make it through.

And is this budget disaster happening because I haven't yet paid my 2007 taxes? Possibly, but I doubt it.


I propose that Philadelphia borrows an enormous amount of money, I mean a bail-out amount of money, friends, and kick off a New Millennium Works Progress Administration... new green building and greening of the city, repairing Philadelphia's infrastructure, new energy solutions, arts and culture, historical preservation and innovative programs to incorporate Philadelphia's history into our everyday lives in the city. Looking past the next few years, where will the city be in 100 years? And can we plan for Philadelphia to thrive for centuries ahead? We can help to repair the right now by looking ahead.

Also, a return to true vocational education, including civics and home education for all high school students, would be awesome. Do it!

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The WPA lifted Americans' spirits in times of struggle. Do its striking visuals still make a mark? by A.D. Amorosi











WPA Posters- Philadelphia

My lady and I are still working on where we can have a book signing release party here... any suggestions are welcome!

and I do love you!

My lady and I visited historic Fort Mifflin today, for the the 231st Anniversary of the Siege of Fort Mifflin. We missed the re-enactment battles, but milling about with the Revolutionary war reenactors was awesome. Awesome.

Fort Mifflin, a keystone of the British conquest of Philadelphia during the American Revolutionary War, is less than 10 minutes from our house and right next to the airport.

The absolute highlight of our visit was hearing that in 2006 this guy was mowing the lawn and fell into a hole that led to prison cells underground that haven't been touched since 1867. Whoa!


Fort Mifflin!

The Siege of Fort Mifflin!


Yes, that's right, Fort Mifflin. I am on the precipice of "Historical Reenactments" which means that I might as well be like, "Hey! See you at Ye Olde Grog tent at the Renaissance Faire." Whatever.

Why is it awesome? Because she looks like she's aging normally! She looks great and not like Nancy Reagan!

Here's a photo of me. Why would anyone give a fuck about who I want to marry? And, how can there be so many people who don't want me to get married? Why do they care? They don't know me! I mean if they knew me and I was planning on marrying an asshole, they could object at the ceremony but other than that really there's no basis for anyone to prevent me from marrying who I want. It's just fucking nuts! Actually, I think they should just get rid of state "marriage" entirely and have it be civil unions for all. It seems crazy that the state should have anything to do with marriage other than recording it and according household benefits.

I am having a book published: America in stock at AMMO: Check




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Barack Obama is President-elect: Check



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Phillies are World Series Champions: Check



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Second Big Show at Bruce Silverstein Gallery: AMERICA: We Love Having You Here: Check



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Family Still Super Awesome: Check










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Still With The Greatest Person in the World: Lynn Bloom: Check





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I'm on Broad daily.

click the header and get it because it is a really good book!

Two new great quotes...

"I feel like a newborn baby"- Brett Schultz on the Phillies win.

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and this masterpiece...

"I go to Broad daily."- Kevin McGuire

This means, "I celebrate the great things in life everyday." The meaning comes from the celebrations on Broad St within the last 2 weeks: Phillies World Series Win, Philllies Parade and Obama Win.

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Obama is the president-elect celebration on Broad St.


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Phillies Parade celebration on Broad St.


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Phillies win World Series celebration on Broad St.

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Phillies win NL East celebration on Broad St.

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Every New Years Day celebration on Broad St.

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"I go to Broad daily."

Zoe Strauss: AMERICA: We Love Having You Here
November 22, 2008 – January 10, 2009
Opening: November 22nd,

Book signing: 6 - 8pm
Party!: 8-10pm starring DJ Cosmo, aka "brother"

Silverstein Photography
535 West 24th Street
New York, NY 10011
P: 212-627-3930


Silverstein Photography is pleased to announce Zoe Strauss: AMERICA: We Love Having You Here, an exhibition featuring works from Strauss’ last eight years of photographing throughout the United States including her most recent excursions. Many of the images in the show are also featured in her forthcoming book of the same title.

"Singing the song of These, my ever united lands—my body no more inevitably united, part to part, and made one identity, any more than my lands are inevitably united, and made ONE IDENTITY;
Nativities, climates, the grass of the great Pastoral Plains;
Cities, labors, death, animals, products, war, good and evil—these me,
These affording, in all their particulars, endless feuillage to me and to America, how can I do less than pass the clew of the union of them, to afford the like to you?
Whoever you are! how can I but offer you divine leaves, that you also be eligible as I am?
How can I but, as here, chanting, invite you for yourself to collect bouquets of the incomparable feuillage of These States?"


Excerpt from Leaves of Grass, "80. American Feuillage" by Walt Whitman

It's in this issue! Could I ask for a better moment? That question is rhetorical, because I couldn't ask for a better moment.



America at AMMO books

"I am as bad as the worst, but, thank God, I am as good as the best."
-Walt Whitman


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Till Victory
Patti Smith

Raise the sky.
We got to fly over the land, over the sea.
Fate unwinds and if we die, souls arise.
God, do not seize me please, till victory.

Take arms. Take aim. Be without shame
No one to bow to, to vow to, to blame.
Legions of light, virtuous flight. Ignite, excite.

And you will see us coming, V formation, through the sky.
Film survives. Eyes cry.
On the hill, hear us call through a realm of sound.
Oh, oh-oh. Down and down.
Down and round, oh, down and round.
Round and round, oh, round and round.

Rend the veil and we shall sail.
The nail, the grail: That's all behind thee.
In deed, in creed, the curve of our speed.
And we believe that we will raise the sky.
We got to fly over the land, over the sea.
Fate unwinds and if we die, souls arise.
God, do not seize me please, till victory.

Victory. Till victory.


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"If voting changed anything, they'd make it illegal."
Emma Goldman

While I agree with Ms. Goldman for the most part, there's no way to look beyond how very important this election was... America's first African-American President and the resounding repudiation of the Bush years. Whoa. Beautiful. While voting within a flawed model of government won't change the model, one can never underestimate the power of symbols and President Obama is one hell of a testament to America idealism and strength.

OBAMA WINS: BROAD AND DICKINSON.

It's 1am and people are still out and horns are still honking. This has been a pretty great last week.

tired poll worker

Election Day

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Election Night

OUR COUNTRY WILL NOT KEEP SLIDING INTO A MORASS!

From Tomorrow's Philadelphia Weekly Article

Sarah Palin thinks she's taking to Nicolas Sarkozy. Except she's not. Holy shit. My favorite part is when these guys say "Some people said in the last days, and I thought that was mean, that you weren't experienced enough in foreign relations. That's completely false. That's the thing I said to my great friend the Prime Minister of Canada, Steph Carse"

Um, Steph Carse is a Canadian singer who sings French translations of "Achy Breaky Heart" and "Boot Scootin' Boogie".

The actual Prime Minister of Canada is Stephen Harper.

God help us!

"As the Republicans try to map out ways in which Mr. McCain could pull off an upset, they see fertile ground in some enclaves in Philadelphia that are mostly white. They said that these areas would not yield a big trove of votes but that trimming Mr. Obama’s lead here might make a difference.

'I’m spending a lot of time in Philadelphia,' said Robert Gleason, the chairman of the state Republican Party.

'We’re working the Northeast,' he said, referring to a largely white part of the city. 'We’ve got values voters up there, Catholics. My people up there say they can carry four to six wards this year, and four years ago, they carried none.'"


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Can we please make sure this doesn't happen?

Um, how great was it tonight when we got a call from JIMMY ROLLINS telling us about this rally for tonight? Great!

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Change We Need Rally
with Joe and Jill Biden
Please join us Monday, November 3rd, for a rally with Joe and Jill Biden in Philadelphia:

Marconi Plaza
Public Entrance South Broad St. & Bigler St.
Philadelphia, PA 19145

Monday, November 3rd
Doors Open: 8:30 p.m.

The event is free and open to the public; tickets are not required but an RSVP is encouraged. Space is available on a first-come, first-served basis.

For security reasons, do not bring bags or umbrellas. Please limit personal items. No signs or banners allowed.

Public Transportation (SEPTA)
Subway: take the Broad St. line to Oregon St.
Bus: Take 23, 68 or C to Oregon and Broad St

Limited street parking is available. Carpooling and alternative transportation is encouraged.



Ain't No Stoppin' Us Now!

The Great Katie "aka Kathy" Hamilton, Super Niece! Be on the look out for photos of all the nieces and nephew in the next year.

I will be driving around and documenting on election day, which I think will be a good thing for me to do on that day of days... however, I am going back and forth about forgoing documentation for a big part of the day and volunteering instead, because I think volunteering for Obama is EXTRAORDINARILY IMPORTANT.

My neighbor on Cantrell St. told me that she doesn't vote... but she wouldn't vote for Obama because he's a socialist. She told me this last week. No joke. She could have benefited from a visit from Barack door to door volunteers, just to help clear up basic misconceptions. I mean I told her what I thought, but it was just happenstance that we were talking about the election. She doesn't vote, but there have to be plenty of people like her that do vote.

So, I implore you, please volunteer.

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And live in California? Vote NO on Prop 8!

Washing Car
Starring
from bottom and moving clockwise
1. Either Robbie Slinkard or Eddie Lane in the yellow shirt
2. Dawn Killen
3. Zoe Strauss
4. Bill Whelan
5. Cosmo Baker

Spring forward, fall back, my friends!

And which endorsement of McCain is worse... Al-Qaeda or Dick Cheney? Hard to tell.

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Congratulations to Joe Brennan for giving out 1000 hi-fives.











Hi-Five 1000



I'm glad I got in at 988.

Seriously, if you vote for John McCain there is something so wrong with you I don't even have the words to describe it.

Slingshot
Photo by Michael Macfeat


Indianapolis Airport
Photo by Elizabeth Shank