From The Vault Of Art Shay: America, America
By Art Shay in News on Jul 4, 2013 4:00PM
I see this couple at home, hopefully packing nuts into little bags for their Maxwell Street pushcart and at the last moment packing up their worn household broom (see it underneath their vehicle) to sweep the sidewalk of any spilled nuts or paper debris caused by them. The flags of these nice people trumpet hope itself.
![I see this couple at home, hopefully packing nuts into little bags for their Maxwell Street pushcart and at the last moment packing up their worn household broom (see it underneath their vehicle) to sweep the sidewalk of any spilled nuts or paper debris caused by them. The flags of these nice people trumpet hope itself.]()
Bravely she uses our national emblem to help balance her way from boat to boat.This was a cover for the <em>GM</em> magazine, friends, one of my thousand or so covers. You can tell I was going for a cover by the space I left at the top for the logo.
![Bravely she uses our national emblem to help balance her way from boat to boat.This was a cover for the <em>GM</em> magazine, friends, one of my thousand or so covers. You can tell I was going for a cover by the space I left at the top for the logo.]()
He may have been victimized by the law, but was also laid low by the spelling and the eating bugs. Show me a victim and I'll show you a picture of indignation.
![He may have been victimized by the law, but was also laid low by the spelling and the eating bugs. Show me a victim and I'll show you a picture of indignation.]()
At the northern edge of Illinois set in from Route 41, a patriotic family gather to celebrate together.
![At the northern edge of Illinois set in from Route 41, a patriotic family gather to celebrate together.]()
A forgiving George Washington observes how some Americans like the ones who served him, now serve America playfully.
![A forgiving George Washington observes how some Americans like the ones who served him, now serve America playfully.]()
Super patriot Lars Daly in action.
![Super patriot Lars Daly in action.]()
At a Texas rodeo, a patriotic breeder's wife rides to the beat of drums from the high school band and thunder from an oncoming squall.
![At a Texas rodeo, a patriotic breeder's wife rides to the beat of drums from the high school band and thunder from an oncoming squall.]()
The aggrieved mother of a fallen veteran in Vietnam mocks the futile action she thinks took her son.
![The aggrieved mother of a fallen veteran in Vietnam mocks the futile action she thinks took her son.]()
A sisterly appearance on an anti-war float.
![A sisterly appearance on an anti-war float.]()
Family, channeling the Revolution, forms a tableau.
![Family, channeling the Revolution, forms a tableau.]()
At Chicago's Union Station, a family of travelers, spaced comfortably apart, one festively shirted, on a long ago Fourth of July.
![At Chicago's Union Station, a family of travelers, spaced comfortably apart, one festively shirted, on a long ago Fourth of July.]()
A crowded congeries of wind instrument players down from the naval station at Glenview, Illinois, volunteered to spend a day on the late <em>Chicago Sun-Times</em> columnist Irv Kupcinet's Purple Heart Cruise half a century ago, honoring the WWII and Korean War wounded.
![A crowded congeries of wind instrument players down from the naval station at Glenview, Illinois, volunteered to spend a day on the late <em>Chicago Sun-Times</em> columnist Irv Kupcinet's Purple Heart Cruise half a century ago, honoring the WWII and Korean War wounded.]()
The inter-generational action in West Branch, Iowa,in 1954, where Herbert Hoover, this day celebrating his 80th birthday, was born in 1874.
![The inter-generational action in West Branch, Iowa,in 1954, where Herbert Hoover, this day celebrating his 80th birthday, was born in 1874.]()
Freedom of expression in Chicago on the holiday devoted to it.
![Freedom of expression in Chicago on the holiday devoted to it.]()
(Legendary Chicago-based photographer Art Shay has taken photos of kings, queens, celebrities and the common man in a 60-year career. This week, Art gets patriotic with some Walt Whitman and snapshots from his archives.)
On holidays such as this I feel the ineluctable joyous pressure of Walt Whitman, whose clear voice "singing" his love for "the people" took root in me when I was 14 and discovered Leaves of Grass. The battered poet (whose transsexuality came whispering through his work: "With my head on your shoulder, camerado...") whose peaceful heart led him to serve as a battlefield medic, spurred my passion for language and by extension, for pictures.
Whitman was ahead of his time his work and his persona inspired soldier and civilian alike: "Somewhere a woman waits for me, containing all and lacking nothing." was thrilling then and is thrilling now. As are, I now understand, the sonnets Shakespeare wrote to boys he loved and the sexual didos whose sex he sequestered with the very language he mastered—or mistressed. And, come to think of it, some of the Master's other lines served as my generation's centerfolds .His Venus and Adonis, for one, in which Venus, a world-class fucker, nailed Adonis, a willing farmboy , who stroked her "sweet bottom grass below."
Many of my picture subjects wooed my eye and then my heart—and still do-leaving me, like Whitman, a pulse in my work that always puts me in the thrill and the thrall of sharing what I see—or seem to see—with all of you.
If you can't wait until this time every Wednesday to get your Art Shay fix, please check out the photographer's blog, which is updated regularly. Art Shay's book, Chicago's Nelson Algren, is also available at Amazon.
