The theme of week twelve of the 52 week photography project is orange. Just that. Orange. I can do whatever I like with it. So, what imagery do I get from just thinking about the color orange?
Ten years ago, I went to federal prison for protesting against the School of the Americas (Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation is the school’s name now). When you are in prison, you have to wear a khaki uniform. If you get into trouble and end up in the punishment unit (“segregation” or “the hole”), you have to wear a bright orange uniform, just like people in Guantanamo. It’s not very attractive and most people look like oversized pumpkins. Sitting in a cage for 23 hours a day is not conducive to good physical or mental health and, in fact, is considered a form of psychological torture if a person is kept in solitary confinement for more than fifteen days.
After I was released from prison, I gave away all of my orange clothes. I didn’t want to deal with the color orange, beyond eating orange food. As it turns out, orange food is very healthy and includes oranges, carrots, squash, sweet potatoes, and more.
In 2010, I was finally given reason to give up my aversion to orange clothing. When I was on the Walk for a Nuclear Free Future, it rained hard one day. One of the Buddhist nuns who was walking with us was wearing her saffron robes. Saffron is a golden-yellow shade of orange. On top of her saffron robe, she was wearing a bright yellow raincoat. She truly looked like a ray of sunshine! Looking at that human ray of sunshine made me forget my dislike of orange and it reminded me that orange truly is just a color.
Here are my orange pictures:
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| How much more orange can you get than a fruit that is named “orange”? |
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| Coyote standing against orange sky. |
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Orange stuff
Next week: Stay tuned for the next episode of the 52 week photography challenge.
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Years ago, my husband and I traveled to Manhattan to see the installation of "The Gates" by Christo and Jeanne-Claude. It was in February, cold and dreary, yet the orange saffron "gates" were so bright. (On a side note, my then teenaged son started calling them "the shower curtains" and that's how we refer to it when we remember it.) It was a fantastic afternoon. Happy we didn't have the conditioning that made you avoid orange for a while. That made me think of the book "A Clockwork Orange", no pun intended.
I guess now you'd develop an aversion to neon. (I've seen blue and reddish versions of these "stylish" jumpsuits.)