Photography

Pretty Portland, without the grit and the grime
The view is from the Eastbank Esplanade.
Another view of the South Waterfront development.
This photo was taken near the waterfront.

Every single city in the world, and country for that matter, would prefer to present a postcard image of itself to the world. Portland’s emerging brand is one of “smart development,” urban villages, greater density, and urban beauty. These are descriptors I grabbed from the cultural ecosystem. Other observers may have alternative brand labels.

I took these photos over the past few days. South Waterfront is a development on former brownfields industrial land that once was used to build ships. The tram that connects to OHSU and a streetcar are some of the high-cost infrastructure projects that support this high-end neighborhood. It also has been the subject of attacks for being a tax giveaway to developers and for nearly going belly-up during the Great Recession. Condos had to be converted to apartments as a result of the tanking real-estate market that defined the bubble that burst.

I snapped the downtown Portland photo from the Eastbank Esplanade of the lovely cherry trees in full bloom and the city in the background. It is the type of image we see in Portlandia, on postcards, and in stock images that sell the city to the world. We are not showing the four or five tent camps I passed on my bike route that took me to the vantage points where I took these pictures. You can read more about that on some of my other blog posts.

St. John’s Bridge, Portland
I took this shot during a nice bike ride I took on the north side of Portland this week.

The St. John’s Bridge, in North Portland, is bike friendly and outstanding for views of Portland and the Willamette River. There are a lot of fabulous rides that can include a trip over the bridge. The views are always worth it.

Big house and the small house, and the dark history they tell
I photographed this old plantation manor and slave cabin in Mississippi in 2000.

In May 2000, I took a road trip through Louisiana and Mississippi. I photographed a number of slave cabins and old plantations. My notes are buried somewhere, and one day I might dig them up. I do not recall getting the name of this old plantation home in southern Mississippi. I photographed it from the distance, from the road. If you look close, there are two cabins to the left. Those are the slave cabins. On many plantations, the “small house” stood very close to the “big house.” All of the plantation’s wealth was derived from using slave labor to grow cotton and other agricultural commodities sold to local, national, even international markets. It was a system built and sustained by the lash, as President Abraham Lincoln so eloquently referenced in his Second Inaugural Address.

Mourning the loss of antiquity while appreciating what remains
The Djoser Pyramid is in the complex know as Saqqara, south of Giza near the ancient city of Memphis.
The Khufu Ship, in its home next to the Giza Pyramids, known as the Solar Boat Museum.
This recreated ship used materials buried for nearly 4,600 years.

Tonight I read that the lunatics with a plan, known to the world as ISIS, have bulldozed the ancient Assyrian city of Nimrud in Iraq, after taking jack hammers to some of the world’s most historic treasures.

Make no mistake, these guys are deranged nihilists, masquerading as liberators and religious purists, who would like to see a religious world order. That vision is premised on the eradication of human history, in order to create a theocracy based on what they claim to be Islam. I deeply mourn the deaths caused in Syria and Iraq over the last decade and actually decades before, in which the West and local actors all have played major roles. I will always reserve greatest sympathy for innocent civilians who have suffered the most.

But as someone who values the past, who respects what it teaches the present, who appreciates its richness and beauty, I am severely heartbroken by yet another brazen act of destruction by these criminals. I am still waiting to learn if many in this group of criminals had been trained in facilities funded from Saudi Arabia-based oil wealth, but I doubt that expose will be written. (Note: these guys just did not appear out of nowhere, and there is a long trail here in terms of who promoted this fringe brand of Sunni Islam. ISIS emerged after the wily and Machiavellian Saudi Prince Bandar, former ambassador to the United States, had re-emerged in 2013 as Saudi Arabia’s go-to dealer to topple Syria’s President Bashar al-Hassad, until Bandar was recently toppled.).

So, tonight as I grieved for the latest act of human idiocy, I wanted to pay tribute to some treasures I adored when I visited Egypt in 2004. These treasures dating from more than 4,600 years ago are still with us today. So here they are, my salute to who we were, and not what we have become. The ship seen in these pictures is the Khufu Barque, a 4,600-year-old treasure of ancient Egypt that was unearthed near the Giza pyramids and was restored painstakingly after being buried nearly 46 centuries. Its exact purpose remains a mystery, but it likely served to transport the pharaoh as the sun god during his daily trip across the sky. The ziggurat style pyramid is from Saqqara, known as the step pyramid of Djoser, also more than 4,600 years old. It is near the ancient city of Memphis, south of Giza.

(All photos were taken with a simple Canon point and shoot; click on each photo to see a larger picture on a separate picture page.)

It’s all about the grain, and the global marketplace
Shot with a GoPro at the Port of Vancouver.
This is the largest grain elevator on complex on the West Coast.
Shot with a GoPro
Shot from Frenchman’s Bar Park, in Clark County, Washington.
This ship will soon be filled with grain for markets in Asia.

Vancouver, Wash., is home to the United Grain Corp.’s export terminal. According to the company, the grain elevator complex is the largest grain elevator on the West Coast. This is a massive facility. The complex dominates the landscape on the banks of the Columbia River north of Portland. Cargo ships will line up on the Columbia River and basically park in the river until there is a berth for at the terminal or across the river at the Port of Portland’s export terminal on the Willamette River. Wheat grown in western Washington is one of the main exports, mainly for global markets.

I took the photos of the anchored cargo vessels from Frenchman’s Bar Park, in Clark County, just north of Vancouver. It is a beautiful spot to see how the global commodities market works–one ship and one train at a time.

No stick is too big when playing fetch
Having fun at Frenchman’s Bar Park, in Clark County, Washington.
Having fun at Frenchman’s Bar Park, in Clark County, Washington.

Hot diggity. I love finding a beautiful new place that is ignored by the busy world and destination tourism. Frenchman’s Bar Park is such a place, in Clark County, Washington, just north of Vancouver. The park lies along the Columbia River, and many fishermen, dog owners, and families can be found on the sandy banks. I loved this mutt. He didn’t understand the meaning of, you can’t fetch that. He just did it. Good boy!

Winter’s long shadows on the campus of Reed College
Shot with a GoPro.
Shot with a GoPro.
Shot with a GoPro.
Shot with a GoPro.
Shot with a GoPro.
Shot with a GoPro.

I love the long shadows cast by late afternoons on a winter’s day. Late yesterday afternoon, I realized the conditions were near optimal on a clear day in Portland. I visited the campus of Reed College, a private liberal arts school that now costs about $60,000 for tuition and room and board.  The school has three landmark buildings that utilize Tudor Gothic style: the old dorm block, Eliot Hall, and the old library building. All make for excellent photo props in every season. Despite the exorbitant costs to attend the four-year college, the campus is beautiful, located next to a wildlife refuge that is the source for Crystal Springs. The campus’ orientation is mostly east and west, so the sun will hit most buildings at an angle, creating the aforementioned shadows, except the library which faces west. Right after the simple shoot with my trusty GoPro camera, I headed to my ultimate destination, the Gigantic Brewing Co., co-founded by one Reed grad and former musician. I always like to support home-grown suds businesses, especially a creative one from a fellow alum.

The Brooklyn intermodal rail yard, still chugging and causing a fuss

For more than a year in my 20s, I lived within a half mile of this large track of industrial land in southeast Portland, now run by the Union Pacific Corp. The yard itself dates to 1860s, and today serves as a Union Pacific transfer point, where cargo is either moved from rail cars to trucks for local distribution or vice versa to the rail system.

A huge fight broke out in the 1950s between the rail yard owners and neighbors in the Eastmoreland and Sellwood-Westmoreland neighborhoods. A more than five-decades long injunction limiting some rail yard activity was lifted in 2012, and the Union Pacific moved forward with a planned upgrade worth $75 million. However, pollution by the yard is being monitored with the help from nearby Reed College. In 2014, the head of the Eastmoreland Neighborhood Association bought a drone to monitor activity at the yard. The association represents the upscale subdivision in southeast Portland that is next to the rail yard. I guess it remains, trust but verify in my part of this city. Seriously, a neighborhood association is now using a drone to promote its interests against a major U.S. corporation.

Manzanita Beach driftwood
Driftwood piles high on the south end of the beach of Nehalem Bay State Park.

On the northern Oregon coast, a lovely spit about three miles long juts south along the Nehalem River. The south end of the spit is protected as Nehalem Bay State Park. Driftwood piles high at the mouth of the Nehalem River, next to the stone jetty. It is a really nice spot.