A study in contrasts…

 

One of the things I enjoy most about being retired is being able to pursue my passion for photography. I love to capture a scene that tells a story or triggers an emotion. I did not take them but the two images to the left, both taken in the last few days, do both and they represent a stark contrast in the reality of what America has become as we enter the year of our country’s semiquincentennial - the 250th year since the signing of the Declaration of Independence back in 1776.

The image at the top you may not be familiar with. It was taken at ‘The USA House’ in Davos, Switzerland where our President is hobnobbing with the world’s elite while simultaneously badgering and cajoling them into seeing things his way. 

From a photography perspective it’s actually an incredibly well-done photograph. The posters of Melania advertise the upcoming release, January 30, of a documentary about the First Lady’s return to the White House. The Trump poster is, well, a Trump poster but the gentleman holding it is the man who introduced Melania to her future husband at a party at the Kit Kat Club in New York in 1998. His name is Paolo Zampolli and back in 1998 he ran a modeling agency and it was he who helped bring Melania to the U.S. on an H-1B visa from her native Slovenia. The Freedom 250 logo surrounded by stars refers to this year’s U.S.A. birthday celebration. Paolo has since moved on from managing models and most recently has served Mr. Trump as the U.S. Representative for Global Partnerships. 

The bull statue is a replica of the bronze statue near the New York Stock Exchange where in 2008 (I know, ancient history...) demonstrators protested corporate greed in response to that year's financial crisis.And though it's somewhat hard to make out, on the armchair is a copy of Melania's 2024 memoir which is available for sale online for as low as $8.00 or more than $1,900 for a signed copy.

This is the face of America being presented to the world in Davos where the official theme is "A Spirit of Dialog" and 60 heads of State and more than 800 CEO's are in attendance.

Mr. Zampolli posed for the shot as an albeit very fancy and highly staged selfie and posted it to Facebook and Instagram. I came across the image while reading a Washington Post article. Regardless, its quite a photo. AI would be challenged to do better.

The second image, though lacking the production values exhibited in the Zampolli photo, you probably recognize. Its of 5 year old Liam Ramos with an ICE Agent's hand secured to his backpack, being used as bait to lure adults out of a Minneapolis home this last week. I don't care which side of the immigration issue you come down on but the image of a child wearing a hat with bunny ears being used by agents of our government was haunting. No posed selfie here, but this image will remain seared into my brain for the remainder of my days. 

The folks in Davos perhaps can be excused for being too busy hobnobbing with their fellow elites but for us, myself included, just average Americans, this image, not that of Mr. Zampolli, reflects the real world we live in and that we have to deal with in America today. I suspect that long after the pageantry and imagery of our semiquincentennial has faded as a distant memory, little Liam's photo will resonate with the current generation much as an image of Phan Thi Kim Phuc helped in some small way end a war on the other side of the world for mine. (I'm not showing that image as to this day it remains very disturbing but if you're not familiar with it click on the link above.)