All images taken with the Leica M10 and 35mm Summilux
The only solace we have had in 2017 against the cruel and unusual punishment visited upon the land by the election of Donald Trump has been the ability to go to Washington demonstrations. They came so quickly after the inauguration — the Women’s March, which was scheduled, the protests against the Muslim ban, which for successive weekends were spontaneous — that at a certain point we joked about being appreciative of Trump, as he had organized our weekend activities for us: take camera to demonstration, march, record it for posterity. In fact, we we have a gallery filled with dozens of images entitled “Washington Demonstrations In The Age of Trump”.
The picture above was taken in September at the combined March for Black Woman and March for Social Justice. It’s our favorite image of the year because, for once, the light was decent, but also because it reflects what happened in this awful, yet miraculous year of resistance. See, two competing events merged into one, because the cause was unifying. The white woman is out of place, but so what — this is the way we’re going to get out of this mess, as Virginia and Alabama show: white women and black women turning out in record numbers to vote these creeps from office. So call that image our designated #1 picture of this year of demonstrations. And, ah, what the Hell, here are 14 more from a remarkable year of political activity across the four seasons:
I don’t want to say that everything I knew about Joshua Tree National Park came from U2’s great 1987 album, or perhaps more specifically, from Anton Corbijn’s photo shoot with the band. Yet I’d never seen an actual Joshua Tree, couldn’t tell a cholla cactus from a prickly pear, and had only once driven to the Palm Springs area. But our son has recently gone off to college not too far away, and was drawn like a magnet to this incredible small unit of the National Park Service. Easy to see why, once we got there.
It is, in its own way — and in recognition that this is a summer ritual, a three-day holiday weekend that kicks off summer — festive. People come to eat and see their friends and there is commerce on the edge of the Mall. As of course there is. ‘Murica.
All images Leica M-240 and 50mm Noctilux. To follow John Buckley on Twitter: 
Tulip Frenzy 