“WE, AND ALL OTHERS WHO BELIEVE IN FREEDOM AS DEEPLY AS WE DO, WOULD RATHER DIE ON OUR FEET THAN LIVE ON OUR KNEES.”

FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT (this quote is featured on the Freedom Wall at Father Serra Park)

In reading John Szarkowski’s 1988 book “Winogrand, Figments from the Real World” I discovered that Robert Frank and Garry Winogrand had both photographed this Father Serra Statue in Los Angeles in 1955.  The statue was rather unassuming but on May 29th 1995 I decided to also photograph the statue.  Easier said than done because the streets and been altered and the statue had been moved.  I found it and liked the position I found it in better with the lighting than what those two iconic photographers had to work with.  On the 25th Anniversary of my photograph I decided to re-photograph for no other reason than I would be passing by there on the way home after seeing my mother because May 29th is her birthday.  While finishing up photographing the statue I heard a lot of sirens and started moving towards them.  I saw numerous LAPD units going towards downtown, it was the start of the George Floyd protests in Los Angeles.  We all know the civil unrest that happened in America in June 2020, on the 20th Indigenous Activists seized the moment to topple and desecrate the Father Serra statue for climate change publicity.  On June 23rd I returned to photograph where the statue had once stood.  I fully support the right of freedom of speech in this country, but I am still pissed off that my connection to Winogrand and Frank in Los Angeles was taken away by people who had no right to destroy something that belonged to the people.