Albany Bulb Photos

http://jillposener.blogs.com/photos/albany_bulb/

This is an album I put together hurriedly today - it gives a small sampling of the thousands of images I have of this place. But it only represents the photos I've taken since I gave in to digital (now of course I realise I might have had a far more glittering career had digital photography been available to me 30 years ago...)

But it'll take me a lot longer to scan and upload some of the earlier photos on negative and slide film.

But I was thinking today how much of my life over the last ten years has been informed by both the mundane and the special experiences this land has brought into my life. The wild dog Willa who raced through the bushes to bite me squarely on the butt when I lifted her pups out of the immaculate den she had made for them in the deepest undergrowth on the Bulb, the hundreds of cats and dogs whom I helped re-home after the eviction on the homeless encampment in 1999 - 2000, some of whom still curl up on my bed every night, the people I met during that time - Granma Linda Dunnigan, Animal and Sarah, Jimbo the poet, Rabbit whose guided tour of the landfill is immortalised in the movie 'Bum's Paradise', ex Albany Police Chief Greg Bone who frankly didn't like the job it was incumbent on him to carry out, Osha Neumann, one of my heroes, an artist and attorney whose gifts could have tempted him towards a thriving law practice but whose philosophy brought him clients who could never pay him except in their gratitude, JP who lived and died on the landfill. Is it the art, which was deemed 'unsuitable' for a 'family park' because of it's irreverence and crude, carnal, and gory depictions in wild imaginative scenes of lust and horror, or the artists themselves who came every Saturday with their own kids and dogs and attracted an ever growing fan club. Is it the sense of discovery which hearkened back to my childhood when I wanted so badly to be an archaeologist, or the intense pleasure I get at seeing 'nature' reclaim what we have taken from her, the plant, bird and animal life overtaking the ugliness of a man made dump.

Was it that it reminded me of squatting Victorian cottages in London in the 70's while 'progressives' including the Labour Party were pushing for high density housing, and high rises over low scale communities. Is it that I was reminded of the occupied army base in Copenhagen, or of the many other moments where the unregulated and the unsanctioned momentarily held sway. Is it that in a world of hypocrisy and cant, of political machinations and ever increasing societal control, I among many others, could pretend, as we ambled along an unkempt trail a mile into the Bay, that we were still living free.

It is all of the above and much more.

Comments

[Deb in Minnesota]

Jill, you have reminded me that we do need a place of unlimited imagination. Thanks for sharing some of your landfill photos. My favorite is the one of the sun.

[Jackie]

Great photos Jill! Although I enjoyed the look back, it also left me feeling empty and sad.

I hope it's okay that I posted one of your photos and linked to your blog on http://www.albanybulb.com.

As usual, you say it so much better than I ever could.

[nina]

Thank you for sharing these. I have always enjoyed them. Although now I feel a bit mournful. Unexpected art is a necessity in a world of conformity.

neen