PHOTO PROJECT UNVEILED

ONCE UPON A TIME ON PLANET EARTH

(for more information click project title)

August 6, 2007 at 8:15 AM in Paris, France. I awoke this dreary Monday morning, still not knowing what my photo would be. I had thought about it for months, but to no avail. At 7:00 AM, I left my apartment and began walking the streets of Paris hoping to find an inspiration, as a light rain began to fall. While I walked, the motto of France; “Liberte, Egalite, Fraternite,” kept running through my mind.

“Liberty, Equality, Fraternity” are principals that are dear to every human being on this planet, but are denied to so many, whether they are Black, White, Asian, Indian, American, European, African, Christian, Jewish or Muslim, etc…they have been denied to one group or another throughout the course of human history. How many wars have been fought in the name of religion in the long history of humanity? How many wars have been fought over the belief that one group is more superior to another? How many people have died for the cause of “Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity” or the lack thereof, thoughout time?

On this rainy morning, I found myself standing on an island in the middle of the Seine River, in the heart of this beautiful city. Standing face to face with the very symbol of my own country’s struggle, for these same principals…The Statue of Liberty, which was a gift to the United States of America from the people of France in 1886, as a gesture of goodwill between our peoples. I sat there at the feet of this incredible model of Peace and Justice, remembering the history of the world. It was frightening to think of the numbers of people who have died in the past 150 years alone, in the name of power and control.

In the United States, 618,000 men died during the Civil War, from 1860 to 1865, in order to secure the the rights and freedoms we hold dear. During World War II, more than 50 million people died for the cause of freedom, 6 million Jews deliberately murdered, 5 million others slaughtered for the sake of supremacy over humanity. An estimated 80,000 people were killed in a single blast of an Atomic Bomb, designed purely for destruction. Some 60,000 more people perished from its after-effects. However, this was not enough, again, 3 days after Hiroshima, another bomb was dropped on the City of Nagasaki where an additional 73, 884 people were killed in a momentary flash of light, 17,358 more from radiation poisoning…and the list goes on.

Is this the cause of “Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity?” Brother fighting brother, country fighting country, nations killing nations, have we not learned from the lessons of history? Here I sat, at the feet of the beacon of liberty and freedom, and I thought of the poem enscribed at her feet…

The New Colossus

Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,

With conquering limbs astride from land to land;

Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand

A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame

Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name

Mother of Exiles.

From her beacon-hand

Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command

The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.

“Keep ancient lands, your storied pomp!” cries she

With silent lips. “Give me your tired, your poor,

Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,

The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.

Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,

I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”

Emma Lazarus

I took a few test shots of the statue, then looked around the serene setting I found myself in, and there, across the Seine, on the far banks of the river, I saw the tired, poor and huddled mass of “Diego,” sleeping. I gathered my camera pack and headed across the bridge. It was now 8:00 AM; I had only 15 minutes to get my shot.

I reached my destination with a few minutes to spare and woke the sleeping Diego. I explained, in my broken French, what I was doing there and asked if he would allow me to take his photograph…he agreed. While we waited for the time of the photo shoot, Diego explained his story to me…

Diego is from Germany, born to Spanish parents who left Spain during the fall of the “FRANCO REGIME.” After the war, life was very difficult for Diego’s family in Germany. When he became an adult, he left for France to begin a new life, trying to make a living with what little resources he had at his disposal. Now, some 30 years later, he found himself living under a bridge in the heart of one of the most beautiful cities on earth; his view from his living space…the Statue of Liberty and the Eiffel Tower, on the waterfront near a busy freeway. His life as a homeless person has been hard, being chased from one location to another by the police, to keep him from becoming a nuisance to the population of the city.

This quiet and reserved man, who was willing to sit and chat with me, a complete stranger, seemed to be a respectable human being in a very bad situation. My heart went out to him. I had stumbled upon the perfect subject for my photo, lying in the shadow of “Lady Liberty.”

At 8:15 AM, Diego sat up and looked across the river to the Statue of Liberty, and the distant look of despair, mingled with the twinkle of hope, entered his eyes, searching for an answer to his situtation, hoping for a resolution to a life of hardship. It was then that I snapped my photo.

“Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these the homeless, tempest-tost to me; I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”

This is the legacy of humankind; “Love thy Neighbor as thy self, for if you do unto one, you do unto mankind.”

Ron Modro

Paris, France

 

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