OWS Photos by Vanessa Bahmani

My name is Vanessa Bahmani, and I'm a Brooklyn based artist and photographer. I've been working on an Occupy portrait series since early October. I want to share this work with your group and be part of larger occupy arts collaborations.

My work is a compilation of over 1,000 black and white film Occupy Wall Street Portraits taken at the various occupy NYC and occupy Oakland, locations. I simply set up a photo booth on-site, hand people a dry erase board and marker, and ask them to write their reasons for being at OWS. Since early October I have photographed over 200 veterans, pilots, families, children, students, doctors, investment bankers, and even wall street employees and members of the 1% that seek change for our country. The thoughtfulness and sincerity that people have shown has inspired me to pursue this work and expand it. One of the unique things about my work is that I've grouped images into collages for example families, children, students, teachers and graduates. I did this to show that despite the various ethnic, financial or demographic differences, they all share the same concerns and values for the future of this country.

My work has been featured at the RUSH Arts gallery in Chelsea (Dec. 2011), and on the CURATE NYC on-line exhibit. This project is important because it is documenting a moment in history when thousands came together with the common goal to create a more just and fair society for everyone.  I believe that by giving this work exposure, I can amplify the volume of the voices of the 99%.

This work has been featured in the Huffington Post, Global Grind, and Turnstyle.

Thank you for your time and consideration. Happy New Year, may 2012 be occupied by your dreams and aspirations!

Here is a link to my Kickstarter to put it all into context: http://bit.ly/occupyportraits

- Vanessa

http://vanessabahmani.com/OWS/OWS.html

OWS Puppet Guild Kickstarter

Help our puppeteers meet their fundraising goal of $999! They're almost there, with only a couple of days left in the campaign!

Click HERE to go to the Kickstarter page... for Occupy the Holidays!

Occupy Painting Kickstarter!

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1930846724/liberty-plaza-painting

Hi all,

I have begun a kickstarter campaign to make a large (at least
48″ by 72″) painting of Liberty Plaza pre eviction. It will be set
around mid October, when all the working groups were in full swing and
the infrastructure was at its peak. I will be doing this in A&C common
space that we are establishing. I also will be depending on input,
ideas and criticism from all of you to make it the best possible
painting it can be. I have only got a few backers so far, but this may
be because I have no idea how to really publicize it. I put it on my
facebook page and will re post it there. I could use OWS help though.
If anyone else would mind re posting this for me, or if you can make a
donation, I would sure appreciate it. I know times are tough though.
If they weren’t so tough I wouldn’t even need to do this, I would be
able to buy the supplies and reproduce the prints myself.

Thank you,

James

OCCUPY THE HOLIDAYS KICKSTARTER

To visit the Kickstarter for OCCUPY THE HOLIDAYS, click HERE.

About this project

Occupy the Holidays: The Occupy Wall Street Arts & Culture Working Group along with the OWS Puppet Guild are bringing a giant puppet & performance spectacle to the streets of New York City.

Occupy the Holidays will showcase many different performance groups (masked performers, dancers, puppeteers, stilt walkers, musicians...) in a travelling piece of street theater as we tell the tale of Mayor Michael Scroogeberg and his quest to find the best (and moste expensive!) gift this Holiday season.

The OWS puppet guild has had an overwhelming amount of support for our unique artistic contribution to the movement.  As has been show for hundreds of years, puppets are a very special and potent tool in the battle for a new consciousness.  They help us educate ourselves and others, and they help us celebrate what we've accomplished so far.  They will help us tell our story and continue to grow this movement and re-inspire our faling democracy.

But making giant puppets in nyc is expensive!  We learned a lot in Occupy Halloween about the cost of storing, transporting, feeding volunteers and this new ambitious budget will help us create a revolutionary theatrical event like no other. Any size contribution will help!  

And if you can't donate, please repost/retweet/share this link widely!

THANK YOU!!!!