I avoided the enigma that is #OccupyWallStreet for nearly two weeks, despite it essentially taking place in my backyard. However, this past Friday I made my way down to Zuccotti Park around 2pm, to experience it for myself. Well, that is not completely true. I originally left work early on Friday, with a Canon 5D Mark II (with a 70-200mm 2.8 L lens) and Nikon D3s (with a 35mm f/1.4 lens) in hand (how’s that for democracy?!), at my boss’ suggestion, due to circulating  rumors that Radiohead would be performing in the park around 4pm. I was to shoot the show, if it happened, for Sound and Vision Magazine. Those rumors proved false—and that is probably for the best.

I ended up spending about 6 hours with “the movement,” on Friday, mingling about, talking to protesters, police officers, local shop owners, and bystanders alike. The day went a little something like this:

At 2pm I arrived in Zuccotti Park and found between 300-500 individuals present—most stood around one of two drum circles either dancing, playing instruments, or simply observing, while others were mulling around the makeshift sleeping areas, library, and media center.  Admittedly, the music coming from the circles was intoxicating.

By 4pm, the number of individuals in the park grew to somewhere around 3000, as a “General Assembly,” began to take place. The second and third image in this series are from that general assembly, which is a free-form open forum, in which anyone can address the crowd by shouting “Mic Check,” to which everyone in the park repeats back “Mic Check.” Messages are passed around the enormous crowd in a “telephone” like way—those standing nearest to you repeat the message back to you even louder, those who hear it then repeat it even louder to those even further away. It is by no means an ideal way to get information around, but worked surprisingly well.

By 5:00pm, the number of individuals in the park was probably somewhere between 4000 and 5000, excluding police officers. It was at this point I learned that the group was set to march down Broadway, 15 blocks, to One Police Plaza, in solidarity for those individuals who were allegedly beaten by police during a march the previous week.

By around 6pm, all 4000 to 5000 protestors had peacefully made it to One Police Plaza without any incident—their cheers upon entering the plaza were deafening. I stuck around there for another hour and a half before going back to my office.

You will notice several things in the images and audio slideshow that follow. First and foremost you will notice the immense diversity of those participating in this movement. That was by far what most impressed me. This is not a movement to support any cause in particular, in fact, I am not even sure you can call this a movement (however I will continue to as I don’t know any other name to call it).

The second thing you will notice is how dismayed, embarrassed and simply exhausted the NYPD looks in all of these images. All in all, I think the NYPD drew the short straw in all of this. Sure, a handful of police officers a week and a half ago may have abused their power and perhaps acted criminally, but in comparison to the number of times a day these protesters are marching, and the insane amount of man power it takes to keep everyone safe and traffic moving, the NYPD has beyond earned my respect. Every officer I encountered Friday was polite and courteous. In fact, I heard a protester use some pretty nasty language to a police officer who asked him to please stay off the street. The officer’s response? “Hey man, we are human too; we are just trying to keep you safe.”

I know 700 protestors were arrested Saturday for blocking traffic on the Brooklyn Bridge. There are conflicting reports from several individuals, that police tricked the protestors, saying at first it was OK for them to march on the bridge, and then arrested them all. I find this very hard to believe. Every officer I encountered Friday made it very, very clear that IF you were to block traffic in anyway, you WOULD be arrested, no questions asked. To those protestors who now have to deal with NYC municipal court, many of which I probably spoke with the day before, you have my condolences, however you have no one to blame but yourselves.

Speaking of the NYPD, other things you will notice from the audio slideshow are that a large number of police officers were equipped with video cameras and documenting the protest. I can only assume that this is the NYPD’s response to backlash from the protestors’ and journalists’ videos showing uncalled-for and illegal brutality some day’s prior. Either way, it is very interesting.

All in all, a lot has been said about #OccupyWallStreet in the past two weeks, some of it true, some if it not. If you are curious what this movement is all about, I would highly recommend taking an afternoon and experiencing it for yourself. Overall, I must say, I am impressed with the courage and passion of those core individuals who are so dedicated to this. What they aim to change, when it will happen, how it will happen, they don’t even know. But they aren’t going away anytime soon, and I think that is a very good thing.

Watch Dan’s Audio Slideshow here:

#OccupyWallStreet Day 13 from Dan Bracaglia on Vimeo.

Original Photography by Dan Bracaglia:

Dan Bracaglia is a NYC-based photographer and a former Rutgers student. His favorite instrument is the tuba. You can see some of his other images at TheLondonBroil.com. All rights reserved by the artist.

What brought you to Rutgers?

What brought me to Rutgers? Well I guess I was technically brought to Rutgers by my Mom’s minivan on a rainy August day back in 2006.

For real though: I went to Rutgers because it was the first school I applied to and the first school I got accepted to.  After that I said to myself, “Fuck it, I don’t want to be bothered filling out any more of these bullshit applications that ask me to sum up my aspirations and life”, I mean fuck I was eighteen years old, I don’t have a clue what I am doing with my life now, how the fuck did they expect me at eighteen to know that shit.  Not to mention the fact that I put in absolutely no effort (ok maybe a little effort) in high school. Well, I mean, I got by with straight B’s, but in high school, that’s no effort, regardless of whether it’s an AP class or not. So, Rutgers was pretty much my best option; and I sure as hell wasn’t going Ivy League (my parents told me my choices were a state school or Ivy League).

Also it should be noted that my mother attended Rutgers and dragged me to the college tour.  All I remember from it was that Cheese Whiz had been invented at Rutgers. That was enough for me; I was sold.

How’d you decide on your major(s)?

I knew I was going to major in journalism before I applied to Rutgers.  I always loved story telling, especially through visuals. It was a no brainer.  Funny story: I almost didn’t make it into the journalism school because I got a C in the very first journalism intro class that I took, which was also a prerequisite to applying to the school.  You needed a B in the class to apply. I had to take a Library Studies course instead.  I wrote some b/s paper about how the Segway was a complete failure (not sure now how that was related to the study of libraries).  However, I never got anything lower than a B+ after that class in the journalism major.

When and how did you develop and interest in photography/politics/journalism? How did you explore these interests growing up?

Photography is my passion.  I am lucky that I figured out what makes me happy at an early age.  Unfortunately what makes me happy isn’t exactly the most lucrative thing in the world.  As for politics, both my parents are lawyers and I was raised to, naturally, be political.  I minored in political science at Rutgers and actually only needed to take one more class to make it a double major, but refused to because it was some garbage intro class.  My parents think that was a bad decision; I think, who the fuck cares what you majored in? As of recently I have temporarily written all things political out of my life, including voting.

As for photography, I started a badass monthly “Zine” in high school called Dan’s Zine (yeah I was pretty vein).  To this day I am still trying to relive the glory of my high school days.  All I did every day after school was go out skateboarding with my friends, shoot photos, write obnoxious stories, and interview bands.  The zine lasted three years and we published 35 issues.  I had a sandwich named after me at my local town deli.  Like I said: the glory days.

What sort of aspirations did you have growing up and which of these, if any, are you putting the most effort into making a reality?

Growing up I wanted to be a rock and roll star.  I wanted all the girls to throw their panties at me when I walked down the street.  I wanted all the guys to be like, “I wish I was him”.  This is still my dream.  I want to be Bob Dylan.  He is a god to me. He is the most unexpected, shot in the dark, shit on your head dude ever.  I would love to shit on everyone’s head.

For real though, my dream is to own my own highly successful, highly controversial, super cool company, which I have complete creative control over.  I do well when I work for me.

What am I doing to accomplish this?  Gaining experience and knowledge and waiting.  I am like an assassin waiting on top of a building patiently until the moment is right to go in for the kill. That was fucking corny and untrue actually.  I am more like a dude trying to live his dream and make the right connections and gain the right knowledge first.

I just want to have complete control over my own destiny and be able to do positive things in my own way without anyone telling me what to do.

My real dream growing up was always to win a Pulitzer Prize for my photography.  If I could do anything with my time, I would photograph things that matter and change public opinion for the better through my images.  I feel I was born a slightly better than average photographer.  Photography was the first thing I realized I was good at (there were probably about 500 things I learned I wasn’t good at before discovering photography).  It would be a shame to not use my talents for positivity.  I truly believe in the power of humanity.

How did you change over the course of your time at Rutgers?

I changed a lot at Rutgers, although many of those changes are not ones I want to publish on the Internet, like the copious amounts of drugs I ingested—kidding!

My experience at Rutgers did exactly what a college education should do: It expanded my mind, taught me a lot about mysely– my strengths and weaknesses, the world around me, and the people around me.  I am very grateful for my education.

What have you been up to since leaving RU?

Since leaving RU I got into grad school, withdrew from grad school and took a job as the Associate Online Editor at Popular Photography Magazine.  I am currently working on nearly a dozen personal creative projects.  I have a live stop action short film in the works that I am real excited about.

How’d you become involved in the JVP?

Mike Stu got me in JVP way at the beginning when it was still a concept.  Despite my long-term affiliation, I have let JVP down far more times than the amount of times I did worthwhile things for it.  Although the photos that appeared with my Chris Dagget piece did win a New Jersey Press Association General News Photography Award (although they won for the identical images printed in the Targum).

In closing, follow your dreams. You can do anything you want, as long as you’re not a total bum.

I was able to make it to Mason Gross’s MFA Thesis Exhibition about two weeks ago. Having never been to a Mason Gross exhibit before, I had no idea what to expect as I walked up to the School of the Arts. I can tell you the transition from noisy New Brunswick street to silent art exhibit was equally as enthralling as the transition from 53rd street to the Museum of Modern Art.

Seeing paintings and sculptures in person always induces in me a certain gratitude for art. I think it has something to do with standing before works exactly as the artists did, seeing it from every angle they did when they created it. Brian Bufler’s paintings in particular were wild curves and lines and shapes of color. I saw people admiring his canvasses from every distance: across the room, face to face, all the while commenting to themselves, “I wonder why he chose to do this.” It was a multi-media display with a few sculptures and a looping video of a man practicing Tai Chi in a park.

Each of the artists had a strikingly unique style and seemed to have stumbled upon their own universe of renewable inspiration. Each room was a world and each painting was the nature of that world. I had my notebook on me and decided that since I had a limited amount of time in each world, I should absorb and translate as much nature as I could. Here are a few “automatic impressions” from the exhibition, titled by the inspirer’s name:

Alan Arp

African Jamaican Brazilian

fat flags of mud

Thick mounted sculptures

melting on the walls

Is it even dry?

I want to touch it

Brian Bufler

Color wheels of

every color and

every color combination

Easter stripes like rainbow

bars tracking life’s

color-moments

There is a pattern here

Leticia Luevanos

Acrylic on dream

I am Alice looking

into the depths of

crowded Wonderland

There is a painting

underneath this painting

and a dimension underneath

these strokes

Melissa Zimberg

Pencil wisps

God’s rough sketches

of heaven

Waterfalls falling

over each other

Soft tinsel trailing

into white non-existent

Nothingness

Dale Klein (no photo)

The house is on fire

The desert is lost

Pre-faint hallucinations

The broken clarity

of chaos

Is this where I die?

For me, it is always reassuring to witness the great art being produced in New Brunswick. I’ve always been aware of the art scenes here but rarely do I get the chance to experience their gems in an exhibit-style atmosphere. As an artist, it’s my responsibility to seek out the art of my home and feed off its creativity. These are the diamonds in our rough. These are the fields of Cook, the slop and slush of downtown Winter New Brunswick, as seen through the eyes of our visual virtuosos. Art is to be eaten, digested and disgorged by its audience, especially when the audience is made up of the artists’ contemporaries. We’re lucky to have a real community of artists, and to be able to see it in the exhibit, and in the streets; our fellow Mothers and Fathers of Beauty.

Some beautiful shots of February in New Brunswick, New Jersey. Bracaglia demonstrates his substantial skill with a camera, proving that in his hands, an SLR is more valuable than in those of the average Flickrer. Feel free to leave your comments below and enjoy! All Rights Reserved by the artist.

Up until this point in time, to my knowledge, no one has given these piles of valueless junk much attention, at least not in New Brunswick.  I think that is a real shame.  Over time though, through careful examination of the mass amounts of crud we human beings hold onto for sentimental or some other reason, conclusions can be drawn regarding our culture.

I have been living in New Brunswick now for four years and have probably been in and out of dozens upon dozens of homes.  While each is unique in terms of structure and décor, the one thing all New Brunswick homes have in common is “stuff”, and specifically the ways in which that stuff complements a space. For example, right now, I am sitting in my dingy (and as one individual described it, “ratty”) apartment looking at a box tucked away in a cabinet-like crevasse that is built into our wall.  Within that box are treasures beyond all comprehension: nearly twenty mini green bibles, various gum wrappers, old rolling papers, and mail addressed to twenty years worth of residents. A peak inside this box would seem to suggest that it is meant for the garbage.  But all of these treasures offer a fascinating commentary on the ways we live our lives in this fine city.

From here on out, I will be roaming around homes up and down the Raritan, looking for interesting crap, photographing it, and writing about it.  Perhaps I will interview the craps’ owners, perhaps not.  Regardless, what I hope to accomplish is some sort of random catalogue that all together will provide the most accurate glimpse of what life is like for college-age students living in the Bruns.

Now, here is where the fun comes in.  While no one’s full name or address will ever be disclosed by me or anyone at the JVP, I ask YOU, the humble and honest reader, to take a look around.  I mean right now.  Chances are there is a bit of stuff that has piled up in your apartment or home, maybe it isn’t even yours, perhaps it was even there when you moved in.  It doesn’t matter.  If you’re the kind of person whose fancy is tickled by a complete stranger taking photos of stuff in YOUR home and want to be a part of this experimental column, then I would like nothing more than to meet you OR if you know someone with a particularly interesting abode, I would like to meet them.  Send an email to johnsonvillepress@gmail.com with the subject as “Home Roam” and tell us your name.  No matter who you are, or where you live, we are interested in taking a look around and trying to further understand your style of living based on a random sample of the “stuff” you have acquired.

Now let’s get to this very first Home Roam. These photographs and the series that ultimately came out of them, was what originally gave me the idea to do this “Home Roam” column.  I was at Alex’s (our Editor in Chief) apartment one day last week, when I walked into his kitchen and noticed how fascinating the 50’s-style-appliances there were.  I instinctively got out my camera, which travels with me everywhere I go, and began shooting.  Upon uploading the photographs, I began thinking, “there is a lot of interesting stuff I see in just about every home I visit here in New Brunswick…what if I start photographing and documenting some of this stuff?”  And thus a column was born.

Because I did not have the whole concept of the “Home Roam” planned out until I shoot this series, I do not have too many conclusions that can be drawn from them other than the fact that it may very well be time for Alex’s landlord to update the apartment’s appliances; although this can probably be said for 70% of all New Brunswick homes.  Until next week, happy roaming.

Click the image below to enlarge…

You can access more of Dan’s work at www.thelondonbroil.com

You can access more of Brendan’s work at www.newblogswick .org

All photos by Dan Bracaglia. All Rights Reserved by the Photographer.

Mr. Bracaglia: Just to start off, can you give me your name, and what it was you were trying to do?

Mr. Daggett: My name is Chris Daggett and I was the independent candidate for governor of New Jersey.

Mr. Bracaglia: What were some of the reasons that you decided to run as an independent and what were your expectations from the start?

Mr. Daggett: My reason for running was that I believe, and it hasn’t changed at all despite this loss tonight, that the two party system in New Jersey is broken, that people believe that neither party steps up to addresses the issues that face the state, and that until we start to change that, we’re going to be in big trouble.

Mr. Bracaglia: What past experiences did you have coming into this that really made you feel ready to take on the roll of governor?

Mr. Daggett: I have a doctorate in education; I spent eight years in the public sector before I was deputy chief of staff to Tom Kean. Then I went off and I served as regional administrator of the US Environmental Protection Agency. There are ten regions in the country, and I ended up in [the New York Region which encompasses] New York, New Jersey, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands…it’s an odd mix. Then I came back in the cabinet to run the Department of Environmental Protection. Then I spent six years at an investment firm, I spent another fifteen years on my own doing Brownfields Development. I sit on about eight nonprofit boards; I’ve probably served on maybe fifteen in my career. So I have had extensive experience for some thirty two years now in public, private and nonprofit life here in New Jersey. And I still believe that I have a better background and better preparation for [the position of governor] than either Chris Christie or Jon Corzine.

Mr. Bracaglia: How did you set yourself apart from some of the other third party candidates who were running and make yourself THE third party candidate?

Mr. Daggett: I’m the only candidate who’s ever run for third party that isn’t on an extreme of some kind, either a socialist or a libertarian. I am the only one who has had the kind of broad-based experience that I just mentioned to you. And that is what initially set me apart. And then I was set apart by having very detailed plans for what to do about a number of issues. And I said look, I’ll stake my campaign on these plans, [and I was told] that if you come up with these issues and these plans, then you’re going to get beaten up. And in part I was.

Mr. Bracaglia: Who was your inspiration for running for governor? Was it other third party governors?

Mr. Daggett: Yeah, there was Angus King, who was a third party governor who served two terms, also Jesse Ventura, but they weren’t my actual inspiration as much as the belief that our two party system is broken and the disappointment and disillusionment that I have had about it. What I am disappointed in is that somehow I couldn’t figure out the formula for turning [other people’s disillusion with the two-party-system] into a vote. Howard Dean, when he first ran, figured out how to raise money but couldn’t figure out how to get the vote. Barack Obama bridged that gap. We have a particular challenge as independents in figuring out how to bridge the gap between all the people who are angry, and getting them to the polls and voting. Some of it’s money, some of it’s social networking, but some of it is, well, I am not sure, we haven’t figured it out yet. Independents by nature are independent! I mean they don’t follow the crowd, they don’t like to do certain things, they don’t like to be a part of a party. So how do you take a group of people that don’t have a lot of cohesiveness in terms of opinions and values and all the other sorts of things, and turn it into a vote? That’s the trick that I haven’t figured out yet and I don’t think anybody else has.

Mr. Bracaglia: Speaking of Barack Obama, one big thing that helped his success was reaching out and getting the youth vote. What were some tactics that you used to try and reach out to that same voting block?

Mr. Daggett: That’s probably the one thing that I am most disappointed in, that I think we are going to see the numbers and the people who showed up for Barack Obama didn’t show up today. And what’s the reason for that? There’s no question about it that none of us have that media star power that Barack developed. He was a master of sorts at capturing people’s attention’s and their heart’s and their mind’s and turning it into votes. And there was also some uniqueness in that he was going to be the first black president and some other things that tied into that, that became a swirl that they used very effectively. Now it was also aided by the fact that he raised $350 million dollars or something. Now, if I had had one percent of that I would have been good. [laughs]

Mr. Bracaglia: You have inspired a lot of people, reaching twenty percent in the Eagleton Poll at one point. What can you do next time, if there is a next time, to go from Ridge High School Class President to governor of the state of New Jersey?

Mr. Daggett: I could raise more money. That would be the key because it’s clear that money is a major factor. So we either need to figure out how to make money not be such a big factor or we need to be able to figure out how to raise the money to compete.

Mr. Bracaglia: Is there anything you would like to say in closing?

Mr. Daggett: Yeah. I guess I would say that I hope if nothing else in this campaign, I demonstrated to people that you ought to stand up for what you believe in and as I said to a number of college students that I spoke with as well as some high school students, I said that I have three things to tell you. One is be your own person, two, think for yourself, and three, my favorite bumper sticker, question authority. Because of the fact that we didn’t question authority is why we’re in the mess that we’re in today, because voters and citizens across this state accepted too much on face value and didn’t get into the details and become informed citizens and informed voters. That is the single greatest tragedy of our modern campaigning and modern lives unfortunately.

Mr. Bracaglia: Thank you for your time.

Mr. Daggett: Great, good seeing you.

While it was a little over a year now that I served, I feel like I was far more innocent and naïve then, but quickly began learning the ways of the real world as soon as I took on the position.  I worked closely with the Rutgers administration, student groups and even city-based groups.  The only organization that never formally reached out to me, was the city of New Brunswick.  Again, I went into this position with absolutely no biases, and like any human being, my biases slowly grew over time, but it was my job to keep them to myself.    Early on into my term I began learning about this campaign that had started with Rutgers students but was quickly catching on with seemingly everyone who felt like they were being taken advantage of in one way or another by the city.  I had a student columnist who every two weeks, wrote about the city in a most critical way.  And every two weeks I began receiving angry calls from Bill Bray, the City Spokesman, about our columnist’s most recent article that had run.  It became clear to me very quickly that the City wanted me to pull the plug on this columnist, and over the course of my term, I was provided with numerous different reasons why allowing him to remain on staff was unethical.  In fact at one point, the city went as far as to contact the Rutgers journalism school, to see if they could “convince me” to pull the plug.  I quickly realized that the city not only had something to lose by having this columnist write for us, but that their actions to try and have me ax him meant that he was clearly saying something pretty important.  And he probably was.

I will be honest with you.  From the day I began my term as Editor in Chief, my opinion on how the city regarded its citizens dramatically decreased with each interaction I had with city officials.  On the one hand, I had the public spokesperson of a major city cursing and screaming at me on the phone on a weekly basis, and on the other, I had a skinny white kid, dressed in second-hand suits coming into my office and talking to my face in a polite, cordial manor.   This was a stark contrast that spoke volumes to me.

Let me reiterate something, I am not saying I support wards, EON, or the Coalition for Democracy, I am simply saying from someone who started out impartial and oblivious to the political scene in our great city, I do not support the way this current administration, or the city council belittles and mistreats those residents that they are suppose to represent and that includes myself.  When you go out to the polls this Tuesday, before you vote Yes or No on Wards, consider for a moment whether this city has your best interest in mind, and vote accordingly.  I know I will.

The photos: these photos are from two different city events I have covered within the past two years; they were events where I got to see first hand, the interaction between the city and its residents.  Two are from Mayor Cahill’s press conference about the ward campaign that took place in the mid-summer.  The other two are from a city council meeting held in the spring.  You may have seen a few of them before, but I felt they help to document the progression of my feelings toward how the city treats its residents.