Guns & Flowers

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Find sources: "Dead Flowers"Rolling Stones song– news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR ( January 2012) ( Learn how and when to remove this template message) It had an influential effect on both the antiwar movement of the sixties, and as a visual representation of how photojournalism can help with a movement. [8] Bernie Boston was born on May 18, 1933, in Washington, D.C., and graduated from the Rochester Institute of Technology with a degree in photography, after which he studied at the School of Aviation Medicine in the U.S. Air Force. He served in the Army for two years while in Germany practicing radiology "in a neurosurgical unit." In 1958, he left the Army and returned to Washington, working in custom photofinishing. Boston, Bernie (October 21, 1967). "Flower Power". The Washington Evening Star. Archived from the original on October 13, 2012.

Tired of working as a freelancer in photography, he joined the staff of the Dayton Daily News in Ohio five years later. After three years, he returned to Washington and joined the staff of the Washington Star, within two years becoming the director of photography. He remained in that position until the paper closed in 1981, moving on to work at the Los Angeles Times. In 1993, for his body of work–including Flower Power and his Pulitzer-nominated 1987 photograph of Coretta Scott King unveiling a bust of her late husband, Martin Luther King Jr., in the U.S. Capitol [10]–Boston received the Joseph A. Sprague Memorial Award from the National Press Photographers Association, their highest honor. [11] In a 2006 interview, Bernie remembers thinking things could have got ugly when all of a sudden, “this young man appeared with flowers and proceeded . . . [to] put them down the rifle barrel,” Boston told National Public Radio. “And I was on the wall so I could see all this, and I just started shooting.”Guns and flowers represent two extremes. The gun as a weapon designed to threaten, defend, maim, or kill. The flower, structured with both female and male organs and alluringly coloured, shaped and scented to ensure its ongoing pollination. As imagery, both have been deployed within the work of artists eX de Medici and Sidney Nolan. This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. For both artists, the beautiful flower is not always what it seems, and the gun can seduce and control without a shot being fired.

Specific exhibits and discussions have been curated solely around the photograph to display the political, cultural and social aspects of the Flower Power movement. The exhibit From Kennedy to Kent State: Images of a Generation, was shown at Worcester Art Museum in Worcester, Massachusetts, which displayed Boston's image as a large gelatin silver print. The image was included as a representation of the antiwar movement. [9] After he took this famous picture Washington Star publishers didn't see the value of the image and buried it the A section of their paper. Not deterred Bernie Boston sent the image out to various photo competitions which resulted in a number of awards, prizes, and international recognition. George Washington University student photographer Berl Brechner took a photograph of the same moment from a different angle, published in The Hatchet, October 24, 1967, with the caption, "Flower Power." [13] a b Ashe, Alice (2005). "Bernie Boston: View Finder". Curio. James Madison University College of Arts and Letters (School of Media Arts and Design). p.12. Archived (PDF) from the original on September 20, 2009 . Retrieved July 15, 2022. He came out of nowhere, and it took me years to find out who he was ... his name was Harris.The National Mobilization Committee to End the War in Vietnam's March on the Pentagon took place on October 21, 1967. When the antiwar demonstrators approached The Pentagon, they were confronted by a squad of soldiers from the 503rd Military Police Battalion (Airborne). [1] The soldiers pointed their rifles, marched into the crowd and formed a semicircle around the demonstrators to prevent them from climbing the Pentagon steps. Bernie Boston, newspaper photographer for The Washington Evening Star (shortened to The Washington Star in later years), had been assigned by his editor to cover the demonstration. [2] Boston was sitting on a wall at the Mall Entrance which allowed him to see the events unfold. [3] In a 2005 interview he said, "When I saw the sea of demonstrators, I knew something had to happen. I saw the troops march down into the sea of people and I was ready for it." [4] A young man emerged from the crowd of demonstrators and started placing carnations into the barrels of their rifles. [3] Boston captured the moment in what would become an iconic image and his signature photograph. [3] Dead Flowers" was written during the period when the Stones were stepping into country music territory, when Richards's friendship with Gram Parsons was influencing his songwriting. Jagger commented in 2003: