(Editor’s note: the following is a preview for Greg McCorkle’s photography show that will be on display at Proletariat Pizza in White Center as part of White Center’s Art Walk. McCorkle is a freelance photographer who has covered many events – from house fires to snow storms - for the West Seattle Herald/White Center News and Highline Times over the years. Please click the image above for a slideshow preview of his show.)

The specifics
What: WE ARE: Images of the Occupation. Images from Occupy Seattle and Occupy Olympia by Greg McCorkle

When: February 18th to March 16th, 2012 at Proletariat Pizza, 9622-A 16th Ave S.W., White Center. The show officially opens at 6 p.m. on Feb. 18 (along with many more shows that open at White Center businesses on the third Saturday of each month).

Who: Greg McCorkle was very active documenting Occupy Movements in Seattle and Olympia in 2011. He will be sharing 13 images from his travels. McCorkle has degrees in fine art and graphic design and several years experience running art galleries in Pioneer Square (OK Hotel and Alias). In 2008 he left the gallery scene to go back to school. He is currently working towards a commercial photography degree at Seattle Community College along with creating a book documenting 12 Seattle craft breweries through his lens. He grew up in Everett.

McCorkle and the Occupy Movement
“As a child of the 60’s I remember the anti-war movement and (the Occupy Movement) began to remind me of how that began and how it grew into a full-on movement where it wasn’t just disenfranchised kids … it was families, the middle-aged, the elderly,” he said. “Everyone is affected by this economic meltdown that we are in the middle of and they are getting angry and they want some change.”

“The core of it is getting money out of politics – mostly corporate money … so that we actually have a voice,” he explained.

“Please come to the show and look at it and try to appreciate and think that unless you are a multi-millionaire, you are part of the 99 percent movement,” McCorkle said. “It’s cross party – it affects Republicans, Democrats, Tea Party members, Libertarians - all of them. If they are not millionaires, they have been affected: they have lost their homes, they have lost their jobs, maybe with cutbacks they have lost their health insurance … it’s not about a party it’s about people of the United States, the 300 million of us out there.”

As for choosing Proletariat Pizza, McCorkle said he was approached by the Art Walk organizers and they gave him a choice on open venues.

“I thought, well how appropriate to have an Occupy show at Proletariat Pizza, it just seemed to make sense.”

About the photographs
“I wanted a somber look and they are all a little dark,” McCorkle said. “What I ended up doing was desaturating, which is pulling almost all of the color out of them to where they are almost black and white but there are still bits of color in it. To me color is life so it’s like we all have a little life in us, but everybody is so down right now I just felt that was the feeling. And that’s why I chose a dark frame; I want to have this uneasiness, this constriction, because it is an uneasy time for everybody.”

McCorkle’s photos document protesters from a wide variety of backgrounds.

“It becomes this cross-generational gathering of people and then you can see this is affecting every aspect of American life,” he said.