The 19th of the 1st

PHOTOGRAPH BANNED AT BWI

I guess the airport is now called the Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport just to be totally, politically correct.  It's in Maryland which right there is enough of an explanation about "Political correctness".  It used to be called simply BWI.  Then they had to change it to assuage  some group just to show the rest of us how ignorant we were and how good they were.  Which of course is what PC is all about....the elite telling we, the less elite, what it's all about to be elite.

 Confused? Don't be it is all part of some diabolical long term  plan on the part of somebody up there on the ladder to somebody else's success or perception thereof.  Called self aggrandizement! But I'm not cynical.

I have written here in the past about how commercial fisherman on the Chesapeake Bay are, for the most part, called "Watermen".  Still are, and have been for generations.  In fact, the first waterman was probably a native American who picked up an oyster along the shore and traded it to one of the invading evil white men from Europe for three beads and a hank of red cloth.  But that is another story altogether.

Watermen fish the bay all year round despite the weather.  The fish for anything that can be sold to the buyers and in turn the general public.  Eels go to Europe.  Crabs and oyster are shipped all over the country, as are the fish fish caught.  Catfish go to catfish ponds in the Midwest and south and strippers go on my plate.  That is when I can get the wild kind.  Soft shell clams are shipped to New England for processing into clam "Chodaw".  The clams are probably the largest portion of the seafood harvest in the Chesapeake.  At least dollar wise. 

The watermen spend thousands of dollars on boats and clam rigs jut to maintain a fiercely independent lifestyle.

The work from early dawn to about mid afternoon, generally about a 12 hour day on the water and another five or six at port cleaning and maintaining equipment.  Not a ride in the park as job descriptions go.  And you gotta make a living in the winter as well.

Tough to get out of port just to work all day in freezing weather.

And the commute is a little hairy at times as well.

After all that preamble.  Yes, one of my photographs has been officially banned at BWI airport.  A few year back, I submitted an image to the add agency in New York that was redecorating the ticket area in the airport.  They chose one of my prints and with the aid of mirrors and other trickery made it into a 4 foot by 16 foot mural.  It looked good and was nice money.

However!

  One lady wrote a letter of complaint to the authorities at the airport claiming that my photo was obscene.  One person mind you.  Being politically correct, it had to come down, and down it came.  I had to replace it with some sunset scene of a marina.  I wanted a press release....which I didn't get.  Knew I wouldn't but also knew it was fun to tweak them.  This was the image, now remember 4x16 feet of something that was the biggest commercial dollar harvest on the bay.

My only reaction to all of this was my comment to the ad agency ..... "Well, obviously that lady has never seen an aroused clam"!