"Al Denelsbeck" wrote:

Ken Nadvornick - It's hard to define this one, though I lean towards
"irony" because of the reputation Disney has for happy-happy-fun-fun.
Definitely has some impact because this is far from what is typically
envisioned by "Teamster", but at the same time, the guy's thumbs-up
coupled
with the happy-face mask takes all the protest out if it (please note - he
has five fingers, and no white gloves, so this is obviously a Mickey
imposter). The harsh shadows and the looser framing lend other elements in
there, including that strong ramp above, but not to any particular effect.
A little scattered in message and composition.

This *was* difficult, hence the archive image. Both of my original ideas
fizzled, so I had to fall back to something from a much earlier time.

Working at Disneyland until 1981 was my college job, so when this first-ever
employee strike happened in 1984 I was able to pick up my camera and walk
the picket lines as a known face to most strikers. This allowed me to
overcome the hesitancy of the union representatives regarding having their
picketers photographed and gave me more or less unfettered access. The
resulting series, encompassing several hundreds of images, formed an
interesting history of this unique event.

As I recall from the time, this particular photograph was made with an eye
toward exactly the definition of "irony" you read from it. I remember
standing under the monorail track ("that strong ramp above") at the
northwest corner exit to the, at that time, guest parking lot. At that
point there is/was a crosswalk leading across the street to the Disneyland
Hotel. I was chatting with the picketers you see in the photo as shadows in
the lower right when this fellow -- whom I did not recognize -- crossed over
from the hotel side of the street. As he stepped into the low-angle, direct
axis light I was struck by both the irony and incongruity of the scene you
see.

I raised the camera with 24mm lens -- already preset for correct exposure
and hyperfocal distance -- to my eye. He saw me do this and paused
momentarily. This gave me the opportunity to quickly reframe to include the
picketer shadows and the monorail track/pylon and to place (to both center
and hide) my shadow across his body. I released the shutter and both he and
the shadow people moved on.

I've always enjoyed what I felt to be a certain surrealistic feeling about
this image. In an original print it is possible to see the human eyes
behind the mask, which I feel contributes much to this sense. And for those
of us -- and any of you -- who may have had an opportunity to work at The
Park, the feeling of irony is pretty strong indeed.

So... you never worked at Disneyland, now, did you Al? If not, nice read
after all these years...

Ken

For the interested, here's another photo from the set. This one depicts
strikers camped out at the main entrance to the parking lot, right off
Harbor Blvd. As I remember, they were occupying a small sliver of territory
deemed "public" by the courts and attempting to "dissuade" potential
visitors from entering. When the union representatives caught wind of this
unauthorized action, they quickly ordered the sign removed...

http://home1.gte.net/kjnadvor/Disney...GotoKnotts.jpg