Until then I am thrilled to share the clips from my migrant death and identification project which are featured in the current issue of Mother Jones Magazine. I am excited for so many reasons. Mother Jones has been a favorite magazine of mine since early on in my college days. Their in-depth investigative journalism is, to this day, a refreshing example of why I do what I do. Because of this, it has been a big goal to work with them and to finally see my work in the publication is really an honor.

Mother Jones was also the first publication I contacted for credentials almost two years ago for this project. I have to give a super big thanks to Mark Murrmann, the photo editor at MJ, who immediately made a pitch for my project and gave his support from the beginning. It is rare to find an editor who is so willing to fight for photographers. While my story wasn’t timely one year ago, it came back this summer and Mark was quick to call me when the magazine editors wanted to run a story. He fought hard to get extra space for the images and such a nice layout.

There will be a photo gallery on the Mother Jones website in a couple weeks. I’ll update when it comes online. Go and grab a copy of the magazine. It is worth it.

I got my first test roll back from the lab on Friday…I am very, very excited.

A good sign indeed. I am thrilled that the Puffin Foundation awarded me with a grant! From the acceptance letter, “Our board was truly impressed with the nature of your proposal and the commitment you have made to fulfill the objectives outlined in your proposal.” This may be a standard acceptance letter, but I am truly grateful for the honor. This money will go to great use and will quite possible be the difference for going back to Italy in December to shoot more. Film is expensive!

Check out the Puffin Foundation’s website to find information on future grants. Here is their mission statement:

“Since its founding in 1983, the Puffin Foundation Ltd. has sought to open the doors of artistic expression by providing grants to artists and art organizations who are often excluded from mainstream opportunities due to their race, gender, or social philosophy.

The Puffin, a species whose nesting sites were endangered by encroaching civilization, were encouraged to return to their native habitats through the constructive efforts of a concerned citizenry. We have adopted the name Puffin for our Foundation as a metaphor for how we perceive our mission, which is to ensure that the arts continue to grow and enrich our lives. In so doing we have joined with other concerned groups and individuals toward achieving that goal.”

The window shades in the background really made the photo for me. The tones of the downtown buildings in the background gave the image a nice 70s look. The moment isn’t too special, but the setting made up for it. Attached is another take on the same image…with a nicer moment.

We are excited to begin editing, and I am equally excited to develop my film. It will still be another month or so before the film is developed, scanned, and toned. Because of my focus on film, the digital camera stayed behind for much of the summer. As a result, I haven’t had much to update.

I did make a couple of iPhone montages of graffiti in Naples and a little set of tourists in Florence from a short weekend visit for a wedding. This will have to be it until I return to Dallas.

Graffiti - Naples, Italy

An Afternoon in Florence - Florence, Italy

On this day last sumer, I was returning from a pre-production shoot for Campania In-Felix (unhappy country), to continue on my Migrant Death and Identification project. I had spent about two weeks with the Border Patrol Search and Rescue team and had a good month left to spend in Southern Arizona’s Sonoran Desert. At that time, I had reached out to several editors with high hopes of selling the story. There was little talk of immigration throughout the press due to the economy and health care overhaul. I returned to Dallas in early September and received little news from editors for several months.

As I was preparing for my return to Italy in April, I was thrilled to receive a call from DISCOVER Magazine’s photo editor Rebecca Horne hearing they were going to run the story in their yearly Invisible Planet double-issue. I went back to Tucson for an extra four days of shooting and had a fabulous time getting to know Saguaro National Park and the migrant trails on more of a landscape based photo shoot. In the end, they ran a great eight page spread. Being a science magazine, the emphasis of the edit was science related and mostly used photographs of DNA and forensics. I haven’t seen the actual publication yet, but needless to say I was pleased with the layout.

I am still awaiting the website inclusion of the story and will be sure to update with a link as it comes. Until then, I will be doing little besides eating pasta and cannoli, as I skip rocks on the shore of the Mediterranean. I know…you feel bad for me, right?

Our first week was spent meeting with potential subjects and working out logistical matters for the project. The past two weeks has been full of video interviews, still portraits and visits to toxic waste sites.

We have narrowed down our main subject list and look forward to spending more time with the Cannavacciuolo family. While the family has already been featured in previous documentaries, their story is quite moving and has yet to be fully developed. We have interviewed Alessandro, one of the children, a young guy in his 20s who grew up during the most difficult years for the family business – years when all the sheep were contaminated by dioxin.

Alessandro appeared angry when we spoke at home. From the 1990s up to this day, he meticulously collected clips from newspapers that relate directly or indirectly to the environmental emergency in Campania and in particular to his family. He took out several bags full of archival material and he showed us what he thought were the pivotal moments of the crisis. He also emphasized how from his great-grandfather up to his father everyone grew up as a sheepherder. Because of this environmental crisis and the death of his uncle, this profession is now out of family traditions.

Last week, we also visited a couple of dump sites in the countryside. We were lucky enough to have access in a site of ecoballe where all the toxic and non-toxic waste from 20 years of illicit dumping activity has been collected and put together into huge piles of trash covered by a black tarp. We got several close up shots of the ecoballe and one of the workers on the site let us shoot the leachate that has been deposited from the ecoballe. Leachate is the liquid that drains from toxic waste material in a landfill. To receive continued and more frequent updates on the project be sure to look at the website for Campania In-Felix (Unhappy Country)

Here are a few video frame grabs from the past couple weeks. All the still photography is being shot with film and will not be developed until August.

A video frame grab of leachate coming from a site of ecoballe located directly next to a farm in the Triangle of Death area

A video frame grab of Alessandro in his home in Acerra surrounded by documents and newspaper clippings

A video frame grab of Gennaro Esposito, an activist doctor at a toxic waste burial site

I will be returning to Dallas in late August after an additional two weeks of vacation in Sicily, my grandpas huge 90th birthday bash in New Jersy, a week of meetings in NYC, and a few days at the University of Vermont Film & Video conference in Burlington, Vermont (where Ivana is screening her film Beyond The Notes and presenting a paper.)

While in Naples, email will be the best way to get a hold of me, although I will be getting a phone within the first couple weeks. I will be available for assignments in Naples during my time in Italy and would be happy to shoot any upcoming assignments any editors want to throw my way.

To receive continued updates on our project and whereabouts throughout the summer please join the Campania InFelix (unhappy country) facebook movie page.

Here is my most recent email promo which was mailed out today. These Neapolitan boys were more than happy to pose for us during last years shooting.

See you in August!!!

There is nothing much to add beyond these bad ass flower pics…so I’ll just let you check them out. The Times ended up using a picture I took of a family feeding an Addax at Fossil Rim State Park. It is a cool place offering 1,700 acres of land for 1,100 animals to roam freely in large pastures. But…there were no flowers so I didn’t show them. I also had to shoot an iPhone Montage with it. I also included a couple other random snaps from the trip.

I have several updates to share before I leave, so I’ll just get right to it.

A month or so ago I drove down to Crawford, Texas to do a followup on the town after years of tourism and media frenzy surrounding President George W. Bush’s ranch. If you’ll remember, there were the Cindy Sheehan protests, which created the media circus in the first place. Bush was also known to invite world leaders to actually hold meetings in Crawford. The President’s presence in Crawford brought activists and media as well as tourists bringing money and numbers to this small country town.

New York Times reporter James McKinley was interested in what this town is up to after eight years of Bush. Apparently not much. Of the five memorabilia shops operating, only one remains. Crawford only has one main street…and several of the stores are no longer in business. One of the stores, The Yellow Rose, still houses all the memorabilia, only to see it collect dust.

“Yet long gone are the days when this town of 750 people played host to foreign heads of state or teemed with journalists, protesters and White House officials.

And as Mr. Bush has settled into a quiet retirement in Dallas, appearing rarely and seldom speaking about politics, so too has this town near which he spent his vacations in office.

He still comes to his 1,400-acre ranch on holidays and on some weekends, but he does not arrive with the thwap-thwap-thwap of helicopters anymore. He slips quietly through town in a black sport utility vehicle and leaves just as quietly, townspeople say. ”

What remains are the local people…who for the most part are obviously Bush supporters. There is the local coffee shop restaurant, and a new bank, and the sole remaining memorabilia store. Crawford, Texas seems to have returned to what it was…another small Texas country town.

The Times ran a cool little slide show of Crawford, Texas with the story and a nice clip in the paper.