Trains are always evocative, but they’re even more compelling when you’ve been listening to Isabel Wilkerson on the radio talking about her book The Warmth of Other Suns, all about the Great Migration. She spoke about how African Americans waiting on train platforms for their trip north would get scooped up in mass arrests, or were arrested right off the trains.
Just after hearing this, I pulled up to the railroad crossing on Hearst below 4th Street, just in time to watch a long, slow train passing. It was so long & so slow that I decided to jump out & ask the nearest of many day laborers to take my picture in front of the train. My photographer wore a peacock blue polo shirt with the collar turned up, & spoke very good English. He didn’t bat an eye, asked which button to push, & prompted me to “check it out” as he handed the camera back.
This is so fun! I like the way that you describe what the photographer is wearing too--like you're taking a picture of him in your words--fun!
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ps--I'm not really my gram, but am constructing a blog for her stories and haven't figured out how not to be gram......