Week 10: Photo Story

For my photo story, I chose to highlight the Really Really Free Market in Corvallis. The market is what it's name says it is: everything displayed is 100% free. You can take as much as you need, and donate as much as you can, although the latter isn't required. The one big rule is that no one is allowed to bring money. Below is a wide-angle shot of what it looks like in less-than-ideal weather. 

The Really Really Free Market in Corvallis is held in Central Park every Friday from 1-4 pm. This specific photograph shows the market on December 1st, 2023 at around 1:30 in the afternoon. Two of the market's primary organizers, Amethyst O'Connor (24) and Riva Daley (23), chat off to the side. 

So what is the Really Really Free Market? In O'Connor's own words, "The free market is a foundation for people to get into mutual aid and general leftist organizing. We're not a charity, we're not a nonprofit, and we don't want to be." According to him, this is because "there's a lot of things that stifle organizing in those models" - things that might work for other groups, but that they want to avoid. 

"Everything we do here is inherently political," O'Connor says. "There's conversations, there's zines, there's fucking, like, actions - there's a myriad of things, and it's all connected with the local organizing scene here in Corvallis." Or, in other words: "It's almost never just giving shit away - there's layers to this shit."

He then goes on to name Stop the Sweeps Corvallis, Sunrise Corvallis, Corvallis Antifascists, and Young Democratic Socialists of America (YDSA) Corvallis as some of the groups they're connected with who are also working to foster mutual aid and political action in the area, as well as several Palestinian liberation groups. 

"It's fucking turned into, like, a family situation," Riva muses. "It feels like [it's] extrapolating outwards from this point where like the free market is, like, the base level, and then if you just apply a lot of the principles that you see here out into your life and out into your friends' lives and stuff, it kind of builds that sense of community."

The RRFM in Corvallis began relatively recently, in April of 2021. However, the first thing to call itself a Really Really Free Market was in 2013 in Anaheim, California, Daley says. "The practice has been going on for decades," O'Connor clarifies. The Occupy movement in the early 2000s he points out as a prime example, specifically Occupy Wall Street; he also mentions the Black Panthers' distribution program in the 1960s, the big exchange fairs organized by different anarchist groups in big cities like Chicago in the early 20th century, and Seattle's long history of doing mutual aid. "Once you get the label down, you can kinda see it where you see it," he explains. 

The RRFM is just as much a place to eat snacks and hang out with friends as it is a source of resources for many unhoused and/or low-income individuals. In the above photograph, Manny Borjas (center) jokingly accuses me of sneaking around with my camera. Tyler Nimchuk (right) is nicknamed "Gary" because "he looked like a Gary" when he got out of prison (i.e., when he had a mullet and a moustache), according to his friends Manny and Alex. On the left, Stevie Miller looks on with amusement. 

With Manny Borjas' gleeful assistance, a man identified only as "Noodle" shows off the graphic on his shirt to further convince me of his love for noodles, already apparent from his nickname. As it turns out, Noodle obtained the shirt from this very Free Market. 

Christina Abram shows off a pair of pants that she stumbled upon while looking through the bins of clothing for something to wear to an interview. She is especially excited - even offering to pose for a photograph -  because the pants are brand new and still attached to the tag. 

Trevor Harris, a RRFM regular, tries on a scarf he found in one of the bins full of winter clothing. 

Stevie Miller holds Christina Abram in a loving embrace shortly after greeting her with a kiss. Christina can't stop smiling when she's around him, seemingly fully enamored; "He's so  slick," she says with a blissful sigh.

Week 8: Veterans Day Parade (Photographer's Choice)

A veteran color guard assists in carrying a giant American flag near the beginning of the Veterans Day Parade that took place in Albany on November 11, 2023. 

Four-year-old Klaus Koeppe beams proudly for the camera during the Veterans Day Parade in Albany on November 11, 2023. The blue strap around his neck is attached to a miniature Polaroid camera that he was very excited to show off. 

An attendee of the 2023 Albany's Veterans Day Parade silently protests the American military's support of Israel. November 11, 2023. 

Week 7: My Neighborhood/Hometown

      The Midway Drive-in Theatre, located on what is now Highway 20, welcomed locals from 1949 to 1987. Since its closure, the original sign has been restored and is now located on the side of the former Great Harvest Bread Co. building at 134 SW 1st Street in Corvallis, where it now displays lines of poetry instead of movie titles. Photographed at around 4pm on November 7, 2023. 

Pam Pniak Thompson, photographed on November 7, 2023, is a local jewelry and encaustic artist who also happens to be a member of the artist co-op TEAL. Every year in November and December, the co-op opens an art gallery in Corvallis, showcasing the work of over 20 local fine artists. All revenue goes directly to the artists themselves, who specialize in a wide range of work, from wood sculpture to hand woven baskets. Pam herself has a BFA degree in Jewelry and Metals, and often employs ancient techniques such as the Korean process of fusing 24-karat gold onto silver, known as Keum-boo, when making her jewelry. 

Frank deMars' holds his hand over his heart while the national anthem plays at the start of the Veterans Day Parade which took place in Albany on November 11, 2023. Of his five close family members who served in the military, one did not return - his brother. "This is my way of honoring him," he explains. 

Photographer of the Week: Jenny Lens

Jenny Lens was born in LA and spent most of her life living in the Valley. In 1972, she graduated from California State University with a Bachelor's degree in Art, and received a camera from her parents as a graduation present. She then went on to earn a Master's in Fine Arts from CalArts in 1974. At that point in her life, she knew nothing about punk and almost nothing about photography, although she had been into rock 'n roll and Broadway musicals since childhood. 

Then, in November of 1975, she listened to Patti Smith's album "Horses", and fell in love with the punk genre. However, she didn't start actually taking photos until August of 1976, when she saw The Ramones play at the Roxy. To her, Dee Dee Ramone was "the most beautiful man I'd ever seen". After the first night: "I brought my camera because I was obsessed with his cheekbones."

From then on, she had her camera with her "99.9% of the time." Because while it was Dee Dee Ramone who got her into punk photography, it was her love of art, film, and music that made her stay until 1980. In particular, she was inspired by stills from old movies. 

This inspiration can be seen in photos like this one of Alice Bag, Belinda Carlisle, Hellin Killer, and Pleasant Gehman (left to right) in North Hollywood on August 21, 1977:

Also demonstrated in this photo is Jenny Lens's fascination with color photography. A lot of punk photographers at the time shot almost entirely in black-and-white, but Jenny Lens preferred to use color most of the time. Part of the reason she was drawn to punk was the fashion, and so she felt that in order to do the scene justice she needed to capture the fashion associated with it as well. 

In the black-and-white photos she did take, the balance of light and shadow often highlighted different parts than would have been highlighted had they been taken in color. Like her picture of Patti Smith, playing her guitar while kneeling on the floor with her head tilted all the way back (in San Diego on November 11, 1976). What obviously makes it such a cool image is the surreal, white glow surrounding her, as well as the striking contrast between her white clothing and the pitch black background. Color would simply not have captured those aspects as well as black-and-white did.

Still, my favorite photo of hers is one she took in color. It's from the Sex Pistols' show at Winterland in San Francisco on January 14, 1978 (aka, the last time they played with Sid Vicious). To me, the best part about this photo is the spotlight that not only looks like a halo above Sid Vicious's head, but also shows up as off-white fading into pink, thus reflecting off of his black leather jacket in a really artistic way. Sid and his halo acts as the focal point of the photo and is situated in the far left, and the way the three of them are staggered gives the photo depth. And the fact that you can see all three members' facial expressions is incredible. Jenny Lens has said that she thinks of herself as more of a painter than a photographer, and this picture (and others) makes that statement sound a little less crazy, and make a lot more sense.

Sources: 

https://pleasekillme.com/jenny-lens/

https://punkpioneers.com/true-la-punk-history/

https://punkpioneers.com/buy-punk-photo-prints/

Week 6: On Campus Photos

The following are the best closeup, medium, and overall photos I took around campus this week. 

Cyden Miller, a business major at LBCC, adds to the discussion whiteboard located in the Albany campus's Calapooia Center on November 2nd, 2023.

LBCC students Shai Bravo and Andrea Cloess (from left to right, respectively), are happy to see their friends waiting for them in the courtyard of the Albany campus on November 3rd, 2023. 

A shot of the Industrial B building and the colorful trees surrounding it, as seen from the second floor of North Santiam Hall on November 3rd, 2023. 

Week 5: Environmental Photo + Mugshot

Kryslynn Ellertson, photographed on October 29, 2023 has been working at Sally Beauty in Albany since 2018. She says she enjoys her job partly because cosmetology is one of her main interests to begin with, and also because she gets along really well with all of her coworkers. "They're not the kind of people who will talk smack about you behind your back," she explains. Kryslynn plans to continue working at Sally's part-time in order to fund her ultimate goal of becoming a nail technician. 

(Kryslynn chose to wear a mask throughout the photoshoot due to her mom being immunocompromised.)

Week 4: On the Job Photos

For this assignment, I visited Fingerboard Extension, an instrument and repair shop on Northwest 2nd Street in Corvallis. My goal was to visit a violin shop, but because none of them were open at the time I ended up going here. And I'm very glad I did, because all three employees who were there at the time were extremely friendly and willing to let me take as many pictures as I wanted. Leigh even showed me a few things, like the difference between a guitar bridge made out of plastic vs. one made out of bone. 

Tim Martin has been working at Fingerboard Extension for around 9 years, ever since officially retiring. He has also been playing and singing on stage since he was 13 years old, despite having a teacher tell him to not bother joining the choir, as he was never meant to sing. He says he likes being on stage because "It strokes my ego"; when people shout "You're really good!", his typical response is "You're really drunk, but thanks!" While acoustic guitar is his primary instrument, he has played multiple instruments over the course of his life, including the pedal steel, mandolin, and drums.

Leigh, shown here replacing the bridge on a customer's acoustic guitar, has been tinkering with guitars since he was a kid. (He also requested that I omit his last name.) He said he would often spend 3-4 hours every night in his room practicing, "while my friends were out chasing girls." He actually credits guitar as the reason he never married, because: "My guitar is more important than any woman." Unlike Tim, he doesn't like for people to watch him when he plays, and doesn't appreciate compliments from people who don't know anything about guitar.