The Best Location in the Nation

The photographs I am including in this blog were taken in May and June.

Garden

May

Pauline and I designed the flower beds around our home. Pauline's goal was to have lots of pretty purple flowers. My goal was to create the smallest lawn that needed to be cut.

Almost our entire backyard is taken up with flower beds and a large raspberry bed. We also have a magnolia tree and a serviceberry tree. When we planted these beds, we had planned arrangements that included paths to allow us to walk through the beds. Over the years, the paths have disappeared, and new plants have been added to the garden. Most of the new plants have been brought to us by the wind or birds. I am constantly surprised by the new additions, and they are almost always welcome. Most of the stuff that shows up is native to the prairies and grasslands of Ohio. The only annuals I plant are tomatoes or pumpkins that I grow for my grandchildren for Halloween.

The magnolia tree has beautiful flowers throughout the spring and summer, and the decaying flowers in the fall present me with some of the most interesting, lovely dead crap. It is the leaves that create some of the more interesting abstracts.

A weed is a plant that you didn't put into the ground and that you didn't want. I don't get a lot of weeds. If it is native to Ohio and doesn't take over the place and creates pretty leaves or flowers, it isn't a weed; it is a welcome addition. If it isn't purple, it likely was deposited in my yard by birds or the wind. I am most pleased when plants that I have been admiring in my neighbor's yards show up in one of my beds.

Cuyahoga Valley National Park and Family

May

Nancy and I made a trip to Cleveland in May. Even though I have been away from home since I left for college when I was 18, I still consider myself a Clevelander. Cleveland Heights to be exact. My father was a big Indians and Browns fan. My father would sometimes skip school to watch the Indians play in Old League Park. He was at the All-Star Game in Cleveland in 1934 when Municipal Stadium opened and got to watch Babe Ruth play. I loved going to the games with my dad. One of the highlights of my life was going to the world series game against the Braves in 1995 with David, Aaron and my dad. Of course, we lost. My boys have carried on the tradition and have passed it onto their children. When Aaron and David were growing up, I told them that they could root for any teams they wanted, but if it wasn't the Indians, Browns and Cavs, they could also live in the basement.

I went to the same high school as the Kelcy brothers and am very much looking forward to Taylor Swift doing a concert at Cain Park. I grew up on the very Jewish side of Cleveland Heights, the streets off of South Taylor. The ghetto. All the kosher butchers, bakeries, orthodox shuls, and Hebrew schools were located on South Taylor.

When I make a trip to Cleveland, my first stops are often the cemeteries. Nancy and I first went to Ridge Road Cemetary on the west side of Cleveland. My Bubby and Zadie lived in the village of Tetieve in Russia. Those who weren't killed during the pogroms, fled the country and most of them came to Cleveland. Why Cleveland ... that's where the first few from Tetieve settled and everyone else followed. All these villagers started the Tetiever Temple. My Zadie was a founder and officer of the shul. They established this cemetery for their congregation. Other orthodox shuls also have plots at this cemetery.

When I would go to shul with my father and Zadie, I would often look around at all these old guys that he knew from his earliest childhood. (In orthodox shuls, the guys and the gals do not sit together, because the gals can be really distracting, and hey, we're trying to pray here). I would imagine all these little boys playing on the dirt roads or the fields around their village. These people all came here with nothing, which is what most people come with who are fleeing for their lives. Most of them didn't know English or have a trade. Most of them didn't have educations, because the Russians did not allow Jews to attend their schools. They made the most amazing lives for themselves and for their families. When I go to this cemetery, I go to say my prayers for my Bubby and Zadie, for my Uncle Heil who died shortly after arriving in America when he was 13; for Buba Liba (my great grandmother), for Fanny, My Uncle Joe and Tanta Shifra and for cousins Rose and Sally. These are all from my mother's side of the family, the Sorokys.

Nancy and I then got on Route 90 and headed to the east side of Cleveland. If you are not familiar with Cleveland, the east and west sides are developmentally carbon copies but worlds apart. The Jews, Blacks and Italians live on the east side. Every other ethnic group known to humankind resides on the west side, and each group has their own church and bakery strategically located on a corner in the middle of things.

Almost all of my father's family, including my father, is buried in Mount Olive. I make the rounds through the cemetery, saying my prayers for my father, my Bubby and Zadie, and my many aunts and uncles.

Nancy and I left Mount Olive, raced to check into our hotel, and then made a pilgrimage to Corky and Lenny's, the world renown Jewish deli in Cleveland. When I was growing up, they were located in Cedar Center. This was a major hangout for my friends during our high school years. They had since moved up to Beechwood. Nancy had never been there, and I wanted to share this important tradition with her.

We got there a little after 5:00 on Friday, and the parking lot was empty.

It was pretty much empty inside as well. We were told that we could order our meals and had to be out by 6:00 when they close. Our waiter told us that since Covid, they couldn't find enough people to work. It permanently closed this year. The end of an era for east siders.

On the way out the door, I stopped to buy a few Russian tea biscuits that came from Davis Bakery. I wasn't sure that Nancy and I were going to make it to Davis'. My father made Russian tea biscuits that were as good as Davis Bakery's. My father was the most amazing baker.

Cuyahoga Valley National Park

In the many decades that I lived in Cleveland or visited my parents who were living in Cleveland, I had never been to this national park. It is a large park that weaves in and out of the Cleveland Metropark system. Nancy and I spent the day hiking on a few of the trails.

This trail to a waterfall was a part of a woodlands area.

We next hiked on a trail that had been part of a canal system and was allowed to return to its wild state, a wetland.

Along the side of the path throughout the wetland, there were some beautiful wildflowers.

When we left the wetland, we noticed an exceptionally long row of wildflowers growing alongside the railroad tracks. My photograph doesn't do justice to how beautiful it was because Nancy was screaming at me about getting hit by a train.

We made our way to the last trail we hiked on that day. This is where I gave in to the need for knee replacement surgeries. Most of the paths until this one were relatively flat. This path through the woodlands was very uneven and rocky. The terrain reminded me very much of the Hocking Hills.

I could barely move and was too unsteady to walk. I suggested to Nancy that she go on without me. I focused on small scenes near the trailhead.

We did make it to Davis Bakery and had dinner there on Saturday evening.

The Cleveland Boys

Nancy and I drove back to the west side on Sunday to spend the day with the Cleveland boys (and the only Jews on the west side). I love taking portraits of my grandchildren. They are somewhere between handsome and beautiful. And now they are all old enough to usually not make a funny face when Zadie is taking their picture. We adore the Cleveland boys.

If the weather is good, we often take a hike on a trail near their home that goes down to Huntington Beach on Lake Erie.

There is a great view of the Cleveland skyline from the beach.

The Lantern Festival in Columbus

June

David and Kat invited Nancy and I to go to the Lantern Festival with their family. It started as a rainy event. It poured for about a half hour. Some people dashed to the shelter of trees, while others just accepted getting drenched.

The clouds quickly moved, the rain stopped, and it did turn into a beautiful evening.

I don't consider myself an event or documentary photographer, but I probably should. I do a lot of it. In many respects, all of the photography I did during the two years I lived on the reservation in Montana was anthropological or documentary photography. I have been doing photography at all The Transverse Myelitis Association /Siegel Rare Neuroimmune Association events since the beginning. Whether our community gathers for a support group meeting or a fundraiser or an education program or our family camp, I have been photographing to document these events. Good documentary photography, like many different forms of photography, is about telling a story. I believe that good story telling is a fundamental part of anthropology.

Documentary or event photography is about good anticipation, keeping the story at the forefront of the effort and having the intestinal fortitude to 'invade' people's space to take a photograph.

Street photography is similar in this way to documentary photography. It takes a bit more than intestinal fortitude to invade a stranger's space. It takes something else to capture the image surreptitiously. I have never been comfortable with either proposition. I think I might be good at street photography, in large part because of my anthropological background. I lack the intestinal fortitude part of this endeavor. I've used photographs of people that I've taken without their knowing it; and I almost always feel yucky about doing it.

As an anthropologist, I'm drawn to cultural diversity. Thus, this interest can win out over yucky.

The reservation was difficult because most adults did not want their picture taken. Consequently, so much of my photography on the reservation involved beautiful landscapes and photographs of children. The children loved having their pictures taken.

I do this kind of photography best when I have a formal role at the event. When I am photographing for the Association, everyone knows who I am, they know what I'm doing, and they are comfortable. I can take photographs of events and I can take portraits, and everyone is accepting, and I get lots of smiles.

I approached the Lantern Festival as event photography, with it also being a family event. As noted, I love taking portraits of my family.

Leo and Stella enjoy taking photographs. I handed my camera to Leo, and he took this photograph of Nancy and me.

Even when I'm not identified as a "photographer" at events such as this, people make assumptions about my role because of my camera. I'm shooting with a Canon 5D Mark III and a 24-105mm lens. The lens has a hood, which makes it look even larger. The camera and lens look very official. No one asks me if I'm shooting for a magazine or newspaper, but from reactions, they must be thinking it.

As we walked into the park, we were each given a package that contained the parts to construct our lantern. We were supposed to write messages on each side of the lantern that expressed an important value or a wish. One of their messages was remembering their Sitte and all the love they have for her.

This is Leo and Stella launching their lanterns into the pond along with all the other participants. It was beautiful.

The best part of the ritual came at the end of the evening when a large family of geese decided to make the pond their residence for the night.

Emily Traphagen Park

June

I took Leo and Stella to a park near their home at sunset one evening in late June. The kids went to the playground, and I went to a field next to the playground to take some photographs.

I took this photograph of the kids before we left the park.

And Leo took this photograph of Zadie. The kids love to take photographs. So do the Cleveland boys. For Hannukah this year I got each of the families a Canon t7i camera and a couple of lenses. I also bought them each a class by John Greengo to learn how to use the camera and to learn some basic photography skills. He does an excellent job of teaching everything about the camera, including recommendations for every menu setting. I've taken his class on the Canon 5D Mark III and found it to be invaluable. I got the kids excellent entry level dslr cameras and I'm looking forward to being able to go out to shoot with them. I've also offered to work with them on how to process their images. They are starting by shooting jpeg images, but I am going to encourage them to shoot raw images as soon as they are comfortable with using the camera.

Happy trails to you ... until we meet again.