News From An Acorn

Serafina by Sea

   She was among many,
   yet gloriously alone. Awash and adrift
   upon the mist, the wonder, the waves and the water;
   a mysterious homecoming of one without words.

  

 
 
 

Text and Photos by Kevin Lee
  

The Price of (dirty) Politics

Many of you who read my blog, or whom I've had the privilege of working with around town or within the wider Quaker community, have been very supportive of me recently as I slog my way through the mire and mud of local politics. ( See previous posts or Story in Standard Times) Words here cannot adequately express how grateful I remain to all of you! In the last 8 days I have received 98 emails, all positive (the ones that came to me anyway!) and this doesn't include the blog posting on the local  rag's online forum at the Standard Times. There's been a few times when I was about to respond to this or that posted item and before I could find the time and clear my head to compose something, I'd receive an email from one of you who had already fired off a letter and sent me a copy! Check, done, amazing!

I've received copies of letters that friends, Quakers, colleagues, rowing buddies, family members, religious leaders and even clients [have]sent in every direction that seemed effective. One friend, Julie, carried on a "stimulating" and pointed email exchange (okay, it was war...but very polite!) with one town official (and as an elected official should have acted more responsibly) from across the Atlantic Ocean in England! All I had to do is stand back and "watch!" (Such a gift!) I received cell calls from Florida and California and an email from someone I know in Canada. Lord knows how my Canadian friend head about all this, but he did. And then there was the Face Book force, where close to 300 people from all over (but mostly students at Dartmouth High) had joined the group "Save our Youth Advocate, which produced more letters and supportive notes to me as well.  Last Monday night I sat home and watched the weekly Dartmouth Select Board Meeting on local cable TV as some thirty silent vigil supporters of me walked in wearing hand prints that said, "stop the witch hunt," "stop the smear," "we support Kevin." After 20 minutes they got up and silently walked out. Talk about the power of sheer presence! Gandhi would have been proud.

The "Naked Truth!"

     PLEASE READ THIS IF YOU ARE LOOKING FOR MY PHOTOS!

(Note: I wrote this post as the ridiculous drama was unfolding on Feb 19, 2009, just after I took the links to my online photo albums off this site....for now.)

I am supposing that some of you who are visiting my personal photo site right now are doing so because of the recent newspaper piece in the Standard Times. (And if you're reading this as one of subscribers to my post...thank you, and I want you to know about this part of my life as well.) Let me say outright, to anyone who cares to listen, that I take my joy and passion for photography seriously, and delight in sharing it opening with anyone who is interested for the sake of photography, and not scandal.

Unfortunately, a small band of narrow-minded and mean spirited townspeople have decided to make this an issue, which seems on the surface rather silly to me. However, when one works in a public setting, and on top of that works directly with the youth of our community, as I do as the Town’s Youth Advocate, It’s all too easy for those who do not support our services to find ways to attempt to intimidate and attack my character and professional reputation.

Well, that tactic simply will not work with me. I am proud of my professional reputation and good standing in the community, and I refuse to be bullied or harassed by a few noisy and far-right wing individuals whose primary mission, if they are honest about it, is use this "photo flap" as a way to discredit me and avert attention away from the fact that many residents want the services of the Youth Advocate to continue, and not be eliminated, as three of the current Select Board members would like to have happen. However, as most people who know me realize, I have nothing to hide, with my photography or anything else in my life for that matter, and so access to my photo site remains available to all.

Do know, however, that I did remove one photo that one person apparently found objectionable, which, had that person contacted me directly, I would have been happy to do anyway. And what was thatphoto, you may ask? It was a pic of two of my grandsons, barely two years old (two years ago now!) playing peek-a-boo around a trash can at Round Hill Beach two summers ago. One had a diaper on, the other boy, was naked, engrossed in the moment of play and unaware that grampa, (me) was fifty-feet away snapping a photo. That photo, along with several others taken on that day and over the same summer, comprise a series of photos that most rational people would call an online family photo album. That’s it my friends. That’s the big deal!

SOME BACKGROUND

I first learned about this invented hoopla on Wednesday, February 11th, when Chief Pacheco called me saying that he had just finished a conversation on the phone with a resident who was apparently complaining about my photos. The caller, as I later learned from others, has been making noise about this for several months (who knew?) and stated that he or she planned to make a "really big stink about." Apparently this little drama has been floating about in the rumor mill since this past fall. And if this is true, one wonders,"Why is it coming out now and not sooner?" And if there was anything to all this, how come it was not brought to my attention sooner than right now? Oh wait....I can answer that! Why? Because the ruling majority on the Select Board want to eliminate the Youth Advocate's position. It is my hope that eventually the public will come to know just who the principal "mud-slinger" is in all this. And when they do find out, the pieces will all come together, hopefully before the April Town elections!

BACK TO MY PHOTOGRAPHY

Ironically, if you scroll down to the article that I wrote just before this post some weeks ago, (before this little "photo-flap" unfolded) it pretty much sums up my focus and passion of photography, so I don't have to prove anything to anyone. However, it still saddens me that a few people cannot seem to appreciate, or perhaps don't know how to value, photography as it is, in it's given setting and natural form. So after you have satisfied yourself by viewing my photo albums, I hope that you might come back here, read some of my posts, and perhaps gain a better understanding of me as a person, and how the joy of writing and photography come together as art and nothing more.

Thanks for hearing me out on this. I realize that many who are following the news threads of this issue also want to see the albums themselves, and up until today that was possible. However, because some people are now viewing the photos due solely to the recent publicity, and not for the purpose and value for which they were intended, the spirit of their initial intent has been compromised, so I have password protected all albums until further notice. But here's the link if you still want to visit.

 Kevin Lee Photography.

Photo Reflection: Image and Form

For me, there is a vast difference between taking pictures and photography. Taking pictures involves joyfully snapping away at whatever pleases the eye and other senses with the net result of capturing a span of moments in time. This is good and just fine, of course. It's intrinsic value is that the moment happened and it was saved, thanks to technology, for future enjoyment. Photography, however, contains all this and so much more. The photographic process has a life of its own. It breathes, becomes, and in a flash of seconds may be gone forever. I don't "do" photography, but rather submit myself to it as practice. It involves all that I am at any particular moment, spiritually, physically, emotionally and intellectually. (Knowing this, I sometimes think to myself what a miracle it is when I create an image that has value on its own!)

Being present to a photographic moment involves more than cameras and settings. When I'm shooting with people, especially children, there's a dance of the moment that involves trust, reverence for time, light and a willingness to go where the setting may lead. The truth is, I'd be a wealthy man today if I had a buck for every time I missed any one of these necessary ingredients. They're fragile, fleeting and unpredictable and well they should be. How many times have I not had my camera with me? How many times have I missed the real photographic moment because I came and saw and took what I had predetermined to be the image I needed? That, I suppose, is the challenge and tension of approaching photography as art.