The second post is about “Alcatraz 2014” – a much later addition to my list of pieces for the @TAG Show opening Sept. 12, 2025.

2014 marked the 50th Anniversary of the Free Speech Movement. While collective festivities were planned, I wanted to connect with three college friends who shared the same journey. We booked a bunch of rooms at an Inn far enough from campus that we had the run of the place. With two guitar players and my wife on ukulele we had a special time together – singing songs of the era and sharing tales of where it led us. We capped it with a tour of Alcatraz, which was then hosting a large exhibit of Ai Wei Wei’s works. This photo captures the central cell block with the early afternoon sun providing dramatic lighting for the rails and bars. On the left is Craig Currier, my college roommate in 1964, who worked for Dorothea Lange late in her career. I always respected his point of view. I chose the straight on central perspective. The apparent acceleration of the rails as they drive the eye onward and the interplay of the horizontal with the vertical lines caught my attention in the moment. I recently found the quote attributed to Dorothea Lange, “The camera is an instrument that teaches people how to see without a camera.” That cogently directs how I try to navigate the world. My earlier blog “Where I see Beauty in the World” tells my side of the story. I submitted this photo to the juried show, PHOTOGRAPHY UNVEILED, curated by Eric M. Renard and Joe Doherty, opening April 25th at TAG Gallery and it was accepted. New experience at 81 – first submission to a juried show and first acceptance. Many of the pieces in the show are built from images I’d already printed. “Alcatraz 2014” was never printed before I recognized its potential as a diptych. Each side stands on its own and together they make a grander statement. This is a museum that should not be turned back into a prison.