My photobook, OWS, may look like reportage on the fall 2011 encampment in Lower Manhattan’s Zuccotti Park, but it’s not. What I’m after is much closer to street photography than journalism, celebrating spontaneous moments that make strong, telling pictures rather than capturing news.

When I went to Zuccotti Park, I found a cultural movement rather than an overt political demonstration. That OWS didn’t have a “clear agenda,” as it was widely criticized at the time for lacking, seemed irrelevant; what I felt was a startlingly powerful sense of place and time—a vibe, if you will. I was immediately reminded of Berkeley in the late ’60s (where I was a student). What I sensed was that long-lost ’60s world of cooperation, passion, and idealism stirring anew.

I was deeply moved. And so came these photos.

In OWS, I’m after a time-tested street vision unexpected in our time, yet also setting down what’s new and original in Occupy Wall Street—a force strong enough to have already changed our national discussion. What will last longer, I believe, is the stirring of old ideals and visions, nascent in Zuccotti Park in 2011, but true and vivid before me every time I turned around.

Two new developments for OWS. Photos from the book are included in ICP's Occupies Governors Island show, open on weekends until the end of September—here's a link to a photo of the wall of photos that includes the OWS book photo.

And also a laudatory and sympathetic review of OWS on the Propaganda Photos blog.

Purchase signed copies of OWS online:

From The Strand's Rare Books case - $15

From Dashwood Books - $15

From Printed Matter - $15

Find OWS at ICP Libary

Robert Dunn is a writer, teacher, and photographer.

He’s published widely, including poetry in The New Yorker and an O. Henry Prize story, as well as the novels Pink Cadillac (a Book Sense 76 pick), Cutting Time, Soul Cavalcade, Meet the Annas, and (in 2011) Look at Flower. He’s also worked for The New Yorker magazine and Sports Illustrated, as well as teaching fiction writing at The New School in New York City. In the 1980s he was the writer Bernard Malamud’s personal assistant.