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Michael h. Webster Photography

Michael h. Webster Photography

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Middle Passage

August 17, 2016 by Michael Webster Leave a Comment

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One night during my first summer in New York, my wife Jocelyne and I heard drums as we were strolling along the boardwalk in Coney Island. As we neared the sound, we noticed quite a few people, dressed all in white, walking backwards from the surf across the sand to the boardwalk. Jos, who has some experience with African secret societies was a little freaked out. She thought it was some kind of Voodoo-like ritual and didn’t want any part of it.

I don’t remember when, but the next time I came across the drums and people dressed in white, I learned that Voodoo had nothing to do with it. I learned that the drums and white-clad people walking backwards across the sand were taking part in a celebration and ceremony in remembrance of the Africans who died on slave ships during the passage from Africa to the New World.

Between the years 1500 and 1866, roughly 12.5 million Africans where enslaved and transported across the Atlantic to the Americas. The journey between the old world and the new came to be known as the Middle Passage. About 15 percent of those in captivity died in transit. That’s about 2 million people. Two million anonymous people, and they did not go gently in the night. They died horrible deaths from violence, infections, communicable diseases, and even suffocation in tightly packed quarters. The Middle Passage was truly a holocaust, likely the most deadly long-distance migration in human history. A holocaust that’s barely been acknowledged, and that few even know about, much less know the extent of the suffering surrounding it.

The event I stumbled upon that long ago summer evening is officially known as “A Tribute to Our Ancestors of the Middle Passage.” It takes place every year on the second Saturday of June near the Coney Island pier. Although founded and sponsored by Brooklyn organizations, much of the crowd comes down from Harlem, and the event has become a Black Nationalist celebration on top of a remembrance of those who died so horribly during the Middle Passage.

Coney Island Tribute to the Ancestors of the Middle PassageThe earliest photos in this essay are from 2005, the most recent from 2013. I always felt conflicted about photographing the celebration, as much of it is so deeply spiritual, and personal for the participants. Many of the years I went, I didn’t take any photographs at all. Others, I took very few.

But there were a few years that I made a serious attempt to document the event. Participants often asked me why I was doing it. My answer was that I felt it was a very beautiful, important event that needed to be documented for history’s sake, if nothing else. I genuinely believed that to be true, which I suspect is why I, who was so clearly an outsider, was allowed to get so close without any static.

Coney Island Tribute to the Ancestors of the Middle PassageAnyway, I still believe that to be true. The annual Tribute to Our Ancestors of the Middle Passage at Coney Island Beach is an important historical event, that does deserve to be documented. Of course I wasn’t the only photographer there, but as far as I could tell, I was one of two who was there pretty much every year. And I’ve been unable to find more than a few pictures through searching on the web. So hopefully, this will serve as an accurate depiction, both visually and emotionally, of this important, beautiful, and incredibly meaningful event.

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Filed Under: Photography, Projects

Roma Tomato against Red Backdrop

June 3, 2016 by Michael Webster Leave a Comment

Roma Tomato Against Red Backdrop“In the garden, growth has it seasons. First comes spring and summer, but then we have fall and winter. And then we get spring and summer again.” — Chance

I moved the kittens from under the eve next to the backdoor to out by the back fence behind the garden by one of the brush piles and the compost heap. It’s becoming increasingly clear that the cats will have to go, probably sooner rather than later.

That’s unfortunate, as bringing life to the yard is the overall goal of the (non-photo) part of the project. When we moved here, half the yard was dirt and the weeds and small patches of grass in the other half were dying, Now we have a large garden and with a little progress each year, seem to have brought grass back as a permanent presence to most of the rest.

I guess I’m officially old now. I like to sit out back and watch the grass grow. Seriously, with as much effort as I’ve put into getting it to grow, I find watching it grow endlessly fascinating. And I like to sit out back and watch the garden grow. That’s enjoyable in the same way as watching the grass grow, but involves a lot more variety, plus it’s really nice to bring in baskets of fresh vegetables every day once they get going. And I like to watch the birds. I’ve brought in several bird feeders, so I see a lot of them. And it’s nice to see one of the snakes every now and then. I made two large brush piles. The snakes seem to like living there. Other animals, I think, too.

I’m concerned about the bees, but that’s a story I’ll save for another day.

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Filed Under: Back Yard, Photography, Projects

Hyssopus officinalis

May 27, 2016 by Michael Webster Leave a Comment

Hyssop Plant in my backyard.

This is a Hyssop plant in my backyard. Hyssops are known to attract honey bees.  It’s Memorial Day weekend, the garden is full of flowers and the grass is full of clover, and I have yet to see a single bee. I’ve read that over 30 percent of the bees in the U.S. died this winter. But it’s been a little more cold and rainy than usual, and they may be late arriving because of that. We’ll see.

In other backyard project news, my wife saw a fox just past the back fence today, eating something, a squirrel she thinks. The kittens, I fear, may not be long for this world.

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Filed Under: Back Yard, Photography, Projects

Backyard Photo Project Begins with (what else?) Kittens

May 23, 2016 by Michael Webster Leave a Comment

Kittens by KayakOne of the most common pieces of advice given to young documentary photographers is to “photograph your own backyard.” I’m not a young photographer and from what I can tell, young documentary photographers who actually want a career would be better served flying off to a war zone or famine ravished region, though there are plenty of notable exceptions. Danny Wilcox Frazier, for example, started off photographing his home and has successfully expanded from there.

Anyhow, I’m not much interested in any of that, but for whatever reason, have decided to photograph my own backyard. If I don’t fall prey to short attention span syndrome, I figure I’ll take a different approach than usual and document my progress here.

So this is the first photo. On a cold and rainy day a couple weeks ago, I was sitting out back and noticed three skinny, terrified kittens creeping through the back yard, looking like they were not long for this world. So I went inside to get them a bowl of milk to help them along the way, which scared them off, temporarily, and resulted in one hiding under a car and getting run over.

The other two, however, made it back, and have been hanging around ever since. I’ve got a lot of questions on how to handle it, but for now, here’s a photo.

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Filed Under: Back Yard

Good Kids – Bad System

January 28, 2016 by Michael Webster Leave a Comment

 

Girl in front of chalkboard at the Monroe Academy for Business and Law (MABL) in the South Bronx.
Tameka Edwards from “The Good Kids”, at the Monroe Academy for Business and Law (MABL) in the South Bronx. © Michael Webster 2010

A couple days ago, I saw a story in the New York Times about Thomas Porton, a renowned high school teacher at the Monroe Academy in the South Bronx. I had met Porton when I was working on my “Good Kids” project at the the school. I didn’t interact with him much, but I heard a lot about him and saw some of the results of his work. He had been there forever and had carved out his own little kingdom, mostly independent of the numerous principals and assistant principals that had passed through over the course of his career. From the NYT article, it sounds like that was responsible for his eventual downfall. The principal who was there when I was photographing had a great deal of respect and appreciation for him, but I sensed the assistant principal and a few of the newer teachers resented him, and what he was able to accomplish with the students.

Anyway, it’s another sad example of how difficult it is for someone who is dedicated and does a job well to prosper in a corrupt system; and of a school where kids come, at best, a distant second to the fragile egos of careerist bureaucrats.

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Filed Under: Good Kids, Photography, Projects

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