Last Straw - a photo on Flickriver

Last Straw

            Barely a month has passed since I stood on this lonely stretch of road on a gloomy day in April. Seems like ages now. I was taken with the visual effect of a blind hill. There's the eternal dilemma of wanting to crest it, but uncertainty over what lies on the other side. A wonderful metaphor for the challenges of daily life. I love the effect of standing on boundaries like this, getting as close to the edge as possible while still maintaining the air of mystery. At the time I captured this scene, the statewide shutdown from the pandemic was still in full force. As bad as it was, there was some strange consolation in thinking we had at least reached the nadir. That the bottom had been reached and we would begin a slow but steady upward trajectory toward normalcy. But the weeks of frustration, anxiety, uncertainty people had experienced weren't going to just dissipate. Massive numbers of COVID-19 deaths, rampant unemployment, followed by increasingly divisive arguments about wearing masks and maintaining social distancing. And still no resolution with nerves at a boiling point. A proverbial powder keg awaiting a spark. Into the vacuum enter four Minneapolis police officers in a fateful encounter with George Floyd. Mr. Floyd has the life literally squeezed out of him right there on the street in full view of bystanders as video cameras captured the grisly scene. I still do not comprehend why, after the man was clearly subdued, he was not simply pulled to his feet and driven off to be booked. It was the needless aspect of his death and the indifference of the officers that made this the last straw in the mind of the masses. And at once all of the suppressed rage and anger of the pandemic found an outlet. Watching the growing protests the past few days makes me realize now that something like this was inevitable. It's been a rapid and frightening descent into chaos. Not the protests themselves which are well justified, but the attendant violence, destruction and looting. I wonder what's over the next blind hill...hope and optimism, or do we simply crash into the next boulder on our way down the other side. Either way, it's clear we've crossed yet another divide from which there is no return. 
   

Taken on: April 26, 2020

Tags:

metaphor

irony

frustration

boiling point

pandemic

rage

grim

stark

bleak

drab

dreary

storm

overcast

seething

brooding

forlorn

unknown

witness

boundary

desolate

noir

memories

life

death

hope

failure

fleeting

divide

George Floyd

moment

protest

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Camera: Nikon D7000, f/8.0, 1/500 sec, 32mm (=48mm), ISO 500 (more info) (hide info)

Camera:	Nikon D7000
Lens:	18.0-200.0 mm f/3.5-5.6
Aperture:	f/8.0
Exposure Time:	0.002 sec (1/500)
Focal Length:	32mm (35mm equivalent: 48mm)
ISO:	500
Exposure Bias:	+1/2 EV
Flash:	Off, Did not fire
Exposure Program:	Aperture-priority AE
Exposure Mode:	Auto
Metering Mode:	Multi-segment
White Balance:	Manual
Light Source:	Fine Weather
Gain Control:	Low gain up
Color Space:	sRGB
Software:	Adobe Photoshop 21.1 (Macintosh)
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