CHRISTOPHER ONSTOTT | photog

I was on assignment today down by South Waterfront and found a picture. There’s a field of dahlias surrounded on all sides by two high-rise buildings, OHSU, the river, and a ship yard. Not your typical flower patch, and tomorrow it will be gone. The owner of the you-cut-dahlia farm picked the last of his flowers today and will mow the rest down Nov. 1st. Apparently the lot was sold and new construction will be going in its place.

“Do you smell that? I smell ink…. Smells like truth.” - H. Thompson

I have neglegted my blog for far to long, and for that I am sorry. Not to those who stop by from time to time and check in, but to myself.

Moving on.

It dawned on me today that photography in its simplest form is subjective. That single unavoidable truth is why it is so easy to be objective as a photojournalist. The observations ascertained by a single image can stir ideas and conversation, but the act of observation has no bearing on the act of creating an image. Maybe because the creation comes before the observation. This is what makes my job so easy as a journalist. It doesn’t matter how I feel about a situation because a photo caries with it no bias, the bias is attached in post by the viewer.

I am not happy with the way Occupy Portland protestors have treated the four parks they have taken over, but when I’m walking among them with my camera those views are not with me. I am occupied with the task of finding interesting images. I never gave much thought to this process until I posted the above photo on facebook today and it stirred some conversation. So then ask yourself, what does it take to cut through all the white noise filling our world and make impact that is without bias. Impact that spurs progress and is void of an agenda. Maybe that’s what the occupation is all about, once you peal back the mess it has created in our beloved public space. Revolution/change/progress, these are all messy things and this occupation is not short on messy.

Thousands of protestors took to the streets of downtown Portland Thursday afternoon to voice their displeasure with corporate America.

The rally and march organized by Occupy Portland is the latest in a series of demonstrations across the country that began in mid-September as Occupy Wall Street in Manhattan’s financial district. It has grown to include similar groups in more than a dozen major cities.

Jamie had the day off on Saturday so I took a trip over to Beaverton to shoot a day of summer festivities. Including, but not limited to a 5K, parade, car show, and family bike ride. I’ve had more than my fare share of festival experience from my days in Utah, so to stay more engaged with my assignment I decided to focus on graphic compositions rather than making the “obvious” festival type photographs.

I had some help from my friend Natalie on this one. It was a real emotional event, the four month anaversary of Yashawnee Vaughn’s disappearance. Investigators found Vaughn’s body deap in the woods on Rocky Butte, not far from her boyfriend’s home, Parrish Bennette Jr., 16, who has been charged with murdering Vaughn.

Read the rest of Vaughn’s story at the Portland Tribune.