Windblown bronze.

Without the time for a lengthy blog post, I leave one that I honestly mean to have no political implications whatsoever. This statue of former president George H. W. Bush may be among the most widely familiar of my photographs; it comes from his heavily trafficked George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston.

Regardless of whom it represents, the fact that his sport coat billows behind him instills the presence of wind. But the material that this statue of Bush is made of has a weight and density that even the strongest breeze would hardly stir. I know that plenty of other inanimate sculptures convey motion effectively despite the fact that they derive from inert materials, but the implied wind here only intensifies the sense of an apotheosis beyond the statue’s basic memorializing intentions. Or maybe former President Bush is bravely staring down a gale so mighty it really could blow his jacket behind him—perhaps he’s looking dead into the eye of last year’s Hurricane Ike. The billowing jacket doubles the hero worship.