Rehoboth Beach Nor’easter

The photo was actually taken in November of 2007. However, it is so appropriate to my feelings about leaving Delaware early this year in order to vote in the 2010 elections at my legal residence here in Florida. The mid Atlantic can be much more magnificent in fury than in repose. I love it when she shows her temper especially when it is not especially destructive. The photo also demonstrates my own feelings about the election this week – the anger and frustration with so many silly people who expected the economy to be repaired in only two years, and angry white folk that are being duped into voting for extremely conservative candidates most of whom advocate doing away with the new healthcare law, the department of education, privatizing Medicare, Medicaid and the V.A., remove and/or downgrade social security, and entertain the use of guns, (reads) possible revolution if they don’t get their childish way. I’m angry with a Republican Party that said “NO” to everything for those same two past years, caused the financial disaster in the first place and now claims that it can fix all the problems by keeping in place the disastrous Bush 700 billion dollar tax cut for the rich. I’m also angry with a president who has not lived up to the promises he made in 2008 concerning the public option in healthcare, don’t ask, don’t tell, and many other progressive issues, and has already promised to cooperate with Republicans in dismantling his own healthcare law. I’m angry at a political era in which any form of socialism is seen as terribly evil while Tea Party candidates can get elected to office by proposing gun-toting rebellion against our democracy!

Putting all my political frustrations aside, I like the way the sand is blowing over the dune in the photograph despite being soaking wet, the very threatening sky, and the huddled figure of my partner as he braces against the cold sand pelting wind. I remember pieces of foam were actually flying through the air the day we took the picture. Additionally, all three, flying sand, foam and braced figure demonstrate power and strength in adversity. The single point perspective of the drift fence leads the eye to the figure and the angry sea beyond, and that hoary churning ocean also demonstrates how helpless we really are against Mother Nature. Delaware friends I’ve talked to on the phone since election day tell me that the weather this week has been exactly like that in this 2007 photograph. Critically, I am capable of understanding that the photograph belongs to a generic category of pictures that might be labeled “stormy sea,” and therefore something like 2 million other stormy sea photos exist. However, as stated above, the composition including the figure, sand, crashing waves, and strong one point perspective set it apart. Thus, I see that Art (photography in this case) is my way of attempting to take charge in a world over which I have little if any control.