Roadrunner Blocked by U.S. Border Wall Wins Best Bird Photo of 2021(petapixel.com)
petapixel.com
Roadrunner Blocked by U.S. Border Wall Wins Best Bird Photo of 2021
https://petapixel.com/2021/09/01/roadrunner-blocked-by-u-s-border-wall-wins-best-bird-photo-of-2021/
34 comments
The description for the photo on the organization's web site (linked in the Petapixel article) reads,
> The image tells an important story of habitat fragmentation, and how structures such as the border wall can prevent wildlife from migrating and moving into other areas. The wall dominates the image, with the roadrunner seemingly powerless and small in the frame.
So they're not really being coy about this being a statement. The Petapixel article also has longer quotes from the artist about how disruptive he feels the border wall is for wildlife. I don't think it's a statement about immigration politics, per se, as much as a statement about unintended consequences of the way our actions affect the environment.
> The image tells an important story of habitat fragmentation, and how structures such as the border wall can prevent wildlife from migrating and moving into other areas. The wall dominates the image, with the roadrunner seemingly powerless and small in the frame.
So they're not really being coy about this being a statement. The Petapixel article also has longer quotes from the artist about how disruptive he feels the border wall is for wildlife. I don't think it's a statement about immigration politics, per se, as much as a statement about unintended consequences of the way our actions affect the environment.
Yeah, the statement is literally just "the exact specific thing we said this project would cause happened." Lamentably the people listening already knew that, and the people who need to hear it won't listen. Honestly the wall doesn't even need to be political to be a bad idea. We could stipulate that every single reason given for needing to build it is true and it'd still only keep out roadrunners. :\
That is 100% why this was chosen.
I think that's a fair assumption when the winning bird photo is ~0.25% bird (by pixels)
[deleted]
Roadrunners can fly, can't they?
"flying is limited to gliding from a nest or perch to the ground, or between perches"
"Male roadrunners perch atop fence posts and rocks"
https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Greater_Roadrunner/lifeh...
"flying is limited to gliding from a nest or perch to the ground, or between perches"
"Male roadrunners perch atop fence posts and rocks"
https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Greater_Roadrunner/lifeh...
Roadrunners lack a keel on their breastbone and have relatively small pectoral muscles. They can fly a little, but my 4 minutes of internet research say it is unlikely that bird can fly over that wall.
I don't claim to have done more than 4 minutes of research myself, but supporting a negative proposition is a lot harder than finding evidence for the existence of something.
That was the political message — right?
The political message is bound to be either that the border wall is an insurmountable barrier with devastating consequences, or that it's trivial to get past and a complete useless waste of money.
It's logically possible for it to be both at once, depending on context but it's an interestingly contradictory aesthetic.
It's logically possible for it to be both at once, depending on context but it's an interestingly contradictory aesthetic.
Maybe, but I wouldn’t be able to say for certain what that statement is. I think anyone would enjoy this photo no matter their political stripes
I assume in bird photography circles, they would be more concerned with the ecological impact (which is in a way also political)
> But am I the only one that thinks this was also chosen for a political statement?
For what it's worth, the competition site says [0]:
> Typically, an awarded photo will:
> Be properly in focus,
> show good use of exposure and lighting,
> display technical excellence in its execution,
> and capture a unique moment, behaviour, or story.
The last criteria seems like it could answer your question.
The announcement page also has this blurb [1]:
> The image tells an important story of habitat fragmentation, and how structures such as the border wall can prevent wildlife from migrating and moving into other areas. The wall dominates the image, with the roadrunner seemingly powerless and small in the frame.
[0]: https://www.birdpoty.com/news/judging-bird-poty-how-we-decid...
[1]: https://www.birdpoty.com/2021-winners
For what it's worth, the competition site says [0]:
> Typically, an awarded photo will:
> Be properly in focus,
> show good use of exposure and lighting,
> display technical excellence in its execution,
> and capture a unique moment, behaviour, or story.
The last criteria seems like it could answer your question.
The announcement page also has this blurb [1]:
> The image tells an important story of habitat fragmentation, and how structures such as the border wall can prevent wildlife from migrating and moving into other areas. The wall dominates the image, with the roadrunner seemingly powerless and small in the frame.
[0]: https://www.birdpoty.com/news/judging-bird-poty-how-we-decid...
[1]: https://www.birdpoty.com/2021-winners
>But am I the only one that thinks this was also chosen for a political statement?
A lot of notable and iconic photographs are political.
A lot of notable and iconic photographs are political.
As someone who pays a decent amount of attention of wildlife photography, and this contest, amazingly detailed photos of birds end up being a dime a dozen in contests like these. What really gets you noticed is something that tells a story beyond "I'm a bird." Not necessarily political, but something that really tells a story in one single frame.
If anybody cared about the wildlife, the wall could have had holes big enough for roadrunners to get through. The jaguars and bears would still be SOL.
Unless we took it down. We got along without for a damn long time, and the reasons to put it up in the first place always turned out to be entirely made up and contrary to well-established fact. Is observation of stupidly, massively overpriced construction that has, objectively, no desirable result, but is massively disruptive for wildlife, political?
Only through an implicitly political lens.
Unless we took it down. We got along without for a damn long time, and the reasons to put it up in the first place always turned out to be entirely made up and contrary to well-established fact. Is observation of stupidly, massively overpriced construction that has, objectively, no desirable result, but is massively disruptive for wildlife, political?
Only through an implicitly political lens.
not exactly strange that the media loves immigration and hates anti-immigrationist people...after all, the media is funded by big corporations that hire Labor...It always was Capital vs Labor...always...
“The bosom of America is open to receive not only the Opulent and respected Stranger, but the oppressed and persecuted of all Nations and Religions; whom we shall welcome to a participation of all our rights and privileges…” — President George Washington
“Freedom of emigration is due to the general interests of humanity. The course of emigrations being always, from places where living is more difficult, to places where it is less difficult, the happiness of the emigrant is promoted by the change: and as a more numerous progeny is another effect of the same cause, human life is at once made a greater blessing, and more individuals are created to partake of it.” — James Madison
“Freedom of emigration is due to the general interests of humanity. The course of emigrations being always, from places where living is more difficult, to places where it is less difficult, the happiness of the emigrant is promoted by the change: and as a more numerous progeny is another effect of the same cause, human life is at once made a greater blessing, and more individuals are created to partake of it.” — James Madison
Lovely sentiment but it doesn’t translate to actual immigration policy.
And, chances are, these two presidents were probably talking about white immigrants, given the racism and slavery of the time. Are you familiar with James Madison’s policies with Native Americans? He privately thought they couldn’t be civilized and wanted white immigrants to eventually mix with and displace them into irrelevance.
And, chances are, these two presidents were probably talking about white immigrants, given the racism and slavery of the time. Are you familiar with James Madison’s policies with Native Americans? He privately thought they couldn’t be civilized and wanted white immigrants to eventually mix with and displace them into irrelevance.
It translates to immigration policy. Plenty of people support freedom of immigration (note, immigration is not naturalization), a policy of letting people freely come to the US to live and work (as opposed to quotas, work permits, work requirements, residency restrictions, etc.).
The "immigration not naturalization" people fall into two camps:
[1] People who want cheap low-skilled labor but don't want that "labor" to have any political power.
[2] People who are lying about the "not naturalization" part.
I suppose that there are also folks who don't realize which group they're in.
I suppose that there are also folks who don't realize which group they're in.
I don't really get this line of reasoning. If the Founding Fathers were in favor of immigration, but in practice their immigration policy was racist, shouldn't the conclusion be that if we want to adhere to the spirit of their policies that we ought to favor immigration but discard the outmoded racist views?
For better or worse, that's exactly what happened, so Madison's policy appears to have been quite effective.
Hey, at least you didn't just quote the Emma Lazarus couplet and leave it at that, as if that by itself guarantees unlimited open borders for the United States for all time.
Now, someone is going to ... quote said couplet and leave it at that. So:
First, Lazarus's bad poetry was added to the base of the Statue of Liberty 20 years after the statue itself, as a fundraising effort.
Second, poetry (regardless of quality) does not policy nor law make.
Third, in any case, every single person who came through Ellis Island
* was a legal immigrant
* had passed a medical inspection
* had proof of having enough resources to pay for their upkeep in the US, or a US financial sponsor guaranteeing same
* was turned away if failing any of the above tests, with no possibility of appeal
I, for one, am very much in favor of reinstating such barriers to entering the US.
PS - One more thing: Every single person who came through Ellis Island was coming to a country with an enormous demand for unskilled labor. This is no longer true.
Now, someone is going to ... quote said couplet and leave it at that. So:
First, Lazarus's bad poetry was added to the base of the Statue of Liberty 20 years after the statue itself, as a fundraising effort.
Second, poetry (regardless of quality) does not policy nor law make.
Third, in any case, every single person who came through Ellis Island
* was a legal immigrant
* had passed a medical inspection
* had proof of having enough resources to pay for their upkeep in the US, or a US financial sponsor guaranteeing same
* was turned away if failing any of the above tests, with no possibility of appeal
I, for one, am very much in favor of reinstating such barriers to entering the US.
PS - One more thing: Every single person who came through Ellis Island was coming to a country with an enormous demand for unskilled labor. This is no longer true.
The folks coming through Ellis island were, on average, higher skilled than the average person already here.
I'm all for brain-draining other countries but ... (IIUC, Australia and New Zealand are very selective along those lines.)
I'm all for brain-draining other countries but ... (IIUC, Australia and New Zealand are very selective along those lines.)
> Every single person who came through Ellis Island was coming to a country with an enormous demand for unskilled labor. This is no longer true.
It is still very true.
It is still very true.
The photoshop battles thread on this photo on reddit was pretty fun: https://www.reddit.com/r/photoshopbattles/comments/phrclh/ps...
Though personally I was holding out for seeing the roadrunner amongst some orcs on ladders climbing up helm's deep.
Though personally I was holding out for seeing the roadrunner amongst some orcs on ladders climbing up helm's deep.
Is the "longhorn sheep" an actual animal, or is this some sort of mistranslation of bighorn sheep from US to UK English?
Guess that Wile E Coyote had the last laugh...
[deleted]
The Berlin wall looked pale in comparison. What i'm missing are the machine gun towers ? Were they not quoted in the initial offering ?
Meep meep!
But am I the only one that thinks this was also chosen for a political statement?