five pictures

Street/Stage, Mayday 2012 NYC. © natalie keyssar

I keep hearing these sarcastic, derisive comments about Occupy. Sometimes its from conservatives, moderates, moms and dads, but mostly, it’s from my smart, cool, beautiful, apathetic friends. Somewhere along the line giving a shit became too much work for our busy cosmopolitan schedules, or too cliche for our carefully crafted personas. Its certainly hard to photograph. The discordant moments are overwhelming. There are so many pictures that there are no pictures. Young and old, college to union to black block, gnarled to polished, in constant movement with a  flood of symbols and colors, and occasional shouting. 

I keep hearing that their message isnt clear, or they dont know what they want, or they’re disorganized. On the ground that’s just not true. It’s thousands of people coming together in the streets to say that things are getting easier for the wealthy and harder for the poor, and that this is happening because the legal and political climate is controlled by money. It’s very simple, and yesterday was beautiful.