Hall of Infamy

Looking back now it's hard to believe that world was so divided into warring camps by the competing ideologies of Communism versus Capitalism not all that many years ago. Europe was divided, hell Germany was divided and Berlin had a wall seperating the two sides from one another. Our troops had only recently given up on Korea and were still going at it hot and heavy in Viet Nam.

The Russian bloc in Europe was frightening enough but the Red Chinese in Asia were expanding their influence in country after country. Nobody could have ever imagined that a bit more than a quarter of a century later Europe would once more consist of a bunch of essentially democratic independant countries practicing capitalism, the Russians would be our friends, and China would become our biggest trading partner.

Now we buy clothes and shoes made in China, the Kodak film you buy at the drugstore is made in China, the list is endless. Back then, however, being a communist was not a popular position here in the United States. In addition to the Republicans and the Democrats we've often had a minor party or two, and one of those was the American Communist Party. Gus Hall was the head of the American Communist Party.

I forget what publication I shot this for. It was a typical asignment to get some casual shots during an interview. In this case the editor and I met up with Gus at some ritzy gourmet bistro, hardly the sort of place you'd expect to find in a communist country, but here in Miami there were a lot of them, and it was going on the expense account anyway. Gus was passionate about his beliefs while being pragmatic enough not to turn down some good food and drink in posh surroundings. The editor and I wore suits and ties but Gus seemed to look more the part of "the worker" wearing the open neck short sleeve shirt. As was my usual practice I shot B&W because that's what the asignment required and shot some color for possible stock sales later.