When Democracy Builds

Taking photographs at rallies is kind of a challenge. You have preconceived ideas of the shots that you want, but typically you don't get them.

The turnout at the Hands Off! rally in Oak Park was the largest I’d experienced there. There were rallies during Occupy Wall Street in 2011, but nothing compared to what transpired yesterday.

When I review photographs after the fact, I look for either decisive moments or things that are more arty, but the latter less so. Photographs taken at rallies are fairly fungible so you have to be more tactical.

One photograph that I had wanted to take was the context of placards that had the word “democracy” in them with Frank Lloyd Wright Unity Temple in the background. Wright's philosophy centered around the role of architecture in a democracy.  (See When Democracy Builds, originally published in 1937).

An AI-generated summary of the book: 

Another interesting photograph would have been a placard about the Post Office taken in front of the Oak Park Post Office, interestingly finished in 1935 with its amazing murals.

But I did manage to get one photograph that I like which has the Scoville Park banner in the background, one that I would personally like historically.