This photo was taking last spring while on a trip to New Orleans with my wife. Early in the morning, hoping to get to the historic gardens district to see the stately mansions and gardens we set out aboard one of those charming old wooden trolleys that provide transportation service to various areas of the city and were on our way. Well into the trip, it became clear we seemed to headed in a different direction than intended and after a while we got off to re-board another one to correct ourselves. While sitting on the bench, a woman of color and her granddaughter heading to work and school sat down beside us and expressed the obvious that we must not be from from that particular area. We confirmed, had a nice conversation in the morning sun and in a little while we were back on track to our original destination. On the increasingly crowded ride back toward town, more and more we became the sole minorities in the car as it filled with folks heading to work and such. For some reason, when this young fellow sat down in front of me, I was mentally taken back to a time in my childhood when my daily racial experience was much more integrated than it is now, living in semi rural Pa. As a child, even though I was young and didn't fully understand the completeness of the civil rights issues as I do now, I remember hearing the speeches and the feeling of that movement during that uncertain time in our country. Suddenly in that moment, I sought to make a B&W image that would express that feeling for me. Leaning forward with a really wide angled lens, I was just inches from his back as I worked to frame the window, his shirt and the background as I waited for the right scene to pass by and for him to turn his eyes outside. In an instant as this classic building came into view, it all came together and as I pushed the shutter, I was for that moment back in the 1960's of my youth.
