I think by now, we are all ready aware of who, what, why and when of the coming together of the various Women's march's across the US back on January 21st, 2017. I for one wanted to go and take part in what ways I can. The want and need for me then was to support family (I was raised in a household of 100% women after all), friends and colleges who will more then likely see larger brunt of problems and hell then I will as a middle aged middle class white male. I most wanted to see and experience the emotions around this event, I also wanted to use what skills I had as a photographer to catch and share around me. So early Saturday morning I looked outside at the growing clouds above me, packed my camera, some water and rain jacket and headed to North Berkeley BART station to travel to Oakland and experience the day. Upon arriving I was marveled at the growing size of the multiple lines to get into the BART station. This was my first site of how much larger this event was going to be then I imagined. I quickly figured out which of the two lines was tickets and turn style and headed to the back to wait my turn to get into the BART station. I wasn't surprised that most of those in line were white middle class families and predominately female. In my suburban hood, that is pretty much the demographic around me. Ages varied, but everyone was excited, even the middle aged middle class single male among them. In retrospect I should have already had camera out to document this early stage of the day, but instead bided my time and worried that the wait to get in would make me (and others) late to the ball.
Once I was past the turnstiles it was quick and easy trip down underground to the train. BART kind of dropped the ball, this was a weekend sized train (6 cars instead of 10) and it most of the cars were already full. I had to search for an open spot near the end of the train to fit in. Once crammed in, we were on our way. As the train started in Richmond, the very predominantly white middle classed group of us was in fact joining smaller group of folks who lived upstream of us and we were not quite as white middle classed as we had been upstairs. We stopped briefly in Berkeley (downtown) and Ashley (south Berkeley) for moment, but our train could take no more on-board at either stop leaving hundreds with a dreaded faces to wait for another train that most likely would also be filled. At MacArther station (north Oakland) a few departed to catch a train to SF and even more then surged onto our train then had left leaving us all far closer then our white middle class was used too. But it was OK, we needed this. At 12th station we stopped and were told of delays getting to Lake Merrit station, so many of us abandoned BART and started a hike across downtown Oakland so we would meet and take part in the day.
The walk itself was it's own mini march, we set about in groups and marched over. When hit Oakland Museum, were hit by a wall of people covering the entire breadth of the street and reaching off toward our start destination 3 more black away. This was far bigger then I ever thought it would be.
I tried to squeeze in and by, but after a block it was apparent that this was close I was going to get start of the march, on the good side, the march itself once started would come this way and we'd be able to join in. As we still had another 30 minutes or so till the start, I un-slung my camera's and started to roam and see what I could find. At this point I was very cautions of what I shot. The idea of a white middle aged single middle class guy photographing all those women was in the back of my mind and I most certainly wanted to cover this responsibly. As a start, I focused in on the thousands of signs around me, let's start on those. Message over messenger. Yes, that would good start for me.
After 20-30 minutes though, I could scan viewfinder on the back of the camera and see that while I was catching message, I wasn't catching or documenting the face and emotion around me. So I slowly started to step back and photograph a slightly wider perspective and try and document the human side of the events unfolding around me. After a few minutes though, the street began to be cleared as head of the march was making it's way north east in our direction.
We waited in the bicycle lane for the head of the march to come by, banner and all, displaying the simply sentiment of the day. Our women's march had stared and and didn't really pass us by. As many of those around me began to filter into the march, i wanted for a few hundred folks to go by and I too slipped into the middle of march and stopped being a bi-standard and take part with those around me.
Photographing the march, from within the march as moved along proved to harder then one might think. If for instance I stopped to take a photo, 20-30 right behind me would also have to stop, and as such I couldn't really stop and get much documented this way. So I changed tactics and moved to the edges of the march and began to capture the people who were lining march, spectators of sort, but everyone of them participant too.
As We rounded away from Lake Merrit, I found myself having made my way to nearly the head of the march. From time to time, I could jump out of the march and photograph back in, but it was also a chance see more of the march then I could from within.
It wasn't that long, but the last 3rd of march was more cramped, mainly due tothe towering buildings around us, but after 20 more minutes it was apparent that this part of the march was reaching the end and would soon turn into Frank Ogawa plaza for the next stage of the protect. AS such I jumped out of the march and found my way into the plaza to catch the end, or the new beginning.
So, what to do next. The Ogawa plaza was fairly muddy and really only had one way in for the marchers who came in behind me, so it was also slow to fill. I took stalk of what I photographed already and began a new plan on what to photograph next. As I noted early, my early take on the march had been that it was filled with large body of the white middle class, but after all this time and moving around and see more then just the few thousand marchers, one could easily see that this protest had a lot more to offer then my original take on it all. First among those white middle class, were quite a number of gay, queer and transgender. I was reminded by boss right after the election that while she and her wife felt safe here in the Bay area, she and her family wouldn't be visiting any of the red states for quite some time. It was also apparent that other groups had filtered in and to be honest, they were far more at risk then I would ever be, so from here I tried to photograph and document this part of the protect by finding what I would call "couples". It would better call them "Two's" as I wanted to find and photograph pairs of people that were not my initial finding for the day. This proved easy for about 30 minutes, but once the square began to fill up, my ability to find and photograph became such that stuck in the back not able to really see or partake in the staged presence ahead of me.
About this time I had been texting off and on with a few friends in attendance, trying to find out where any of them were. I had heard back from one that she and her sister had made their way to Ogawa plaza and found it far too crowded, so they began traveling backwards back down the parade of marchers in hopes of experiencing more and finding out just how big the protest was. I for one, followed suit and headed back Oakland and found that up until now, I had only seen a fraction of the protect.
Moving back down and against the sea of protesters first proved to difficult, but I found if I kept to small traffic island, I could move, stop and photograph without obstructing the march itself.
After nearly another hour, the marchers were no where near done. But being the old man I am, I was. I made my way back up to 12th street and found my way back onto a BART train back to Berkeley. But oh what a day as I still now had around 400 digital photos to start processing and 2 rolls of B&W film to develop, scan, grade and process. Oh what a day
More photographs from Oakland Women's March can be foundhere Enjoy
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