I had a great end to the summer with a short dessert vacation through New England up to Vermont. I have a little sample of blur taken from my train from New York to Vermont. Obvious inspiration comes from Danny Ghitis, Daryl Preveto, and my favorite, Paul Fusco’s RFK funeral train pictures.
I got my first test roll back from the lab on Friday…I am very, very excited.
I had an amazingly fun assignment to drive down Texas Highway 281 and Hill Country for the New York Times Escapes section. There is nothing like an amazing field of Blue Bonnets to make smiles appear from nothing. Just love em. There are also Indian Paint Brush, Indian Blanket, Winecup, Black Eyed Susan, Daisies, and probably 15 others I am forgetting. Please let me know if you see any I did not mention.
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.
As the spring comes to a close and the humidity of summer begins, I am less than a week from departing for Italy to continue production on Campania Infelix (unhappy country). Be sure to join the Unhappy Country documentary facebook page to get news on the project throughout the summer.
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.
Texas had its gubernatorial primary elections a couple weeks back. It was just the primaries, but this is Texas, and we all know no Democrat has even a chance of running this state. The Republican ticket sure got heated though as Rick Perry and Kay Bailey Hutchison sparred in a heated campaign. There was also Debra Medina making some noise, but she never really had chance.
I had two assignments in a week to cover Kay Bailey during the end of her campaign. She started strong and looked good in the polls until the last few weeks when she simply fell behind. She was pleasant enough as she shifted through the smiles and handshakes of a seasoned politician. Yet, you could see there was no drive left in her campaign. The tour bus made all the usual stops around the DFW area, resting at all-American cafes, retirement homes, and town-hall style Republican meetings. The other media and I only had access to one leg of the drive between locations, but that was more than enough time to catch Kay Bailey dividing her gifted cupcakes amongst her team.
I also shot the Kay Bailey watch party. Everyone pretty much knew she was going to loose, but the media attention was spectacular considering it was only the primary election. I must say, I am surprised the New York Times found such interest in state politics.The watch party was at Eddie Deen’s Ranch near downtown Dallas. It was very fitting for Texas…the walls are lined with western themed store fronts and the place has obviously hosted a line dance or three.
I do like politics.
***I would like to point out that I was mistakenly given credit for Ben Sklar’s photo of Governor Rick Perry in the sweet clip that ran on the front of the National section. I did take the other two.
Back in September when President Obama had high hopes for the now impossible passage of the health care bill, the Tea Party movement was just gaining attention. I had a two day shoot for The New York Times, one in Waco and the other in Dallas, to cover rallies by these people as they traversed the country towards Washington. The rallies culminated in a large overly stimulating and uneventful protest in the capital. I use the term “these people” in an unusually derogatory manner, at least for me. Let me explain…It is unimaginable for me to see how these people feel so strongly against Barack Obama and government in general, yet do so in such a hateful and ignorant manner. Forgetting the clearly ridiculous signs and shouts portraying Obama as a Nazi, which are so undeniably offensive it is barely worth noting, these claims of the Democrat’s direction towards socialism really get me going. How is having affordable health care socialist? How is raising taxes on overly rich people communist? Obama is so far for nationalizing government it is almost comedic to listen these critiques. I see this movement attracting more people. I am not so much offended by their expressing ignorant and hateful ideas, as much as I’m simply shocked by the ease at which people can believe this stuff. The likes of Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin are obviously just personalities looking to gain power, or maybe just money, but how can so many American’s follow their phony ideals so blindly. At times, I question the intelligence of this country. Even for a Republican party that is working non-stop to defame and humiliate our president with a no vote on everything, the Tea Party takes it to another level. Perhaps it will work against them…speaking out against the GOP may turn out hurting both the Tea Party and the old elephants.
What was so interesting at these rallies is the urgent desire to appeal toward peoples patriotic hearts as a method to attract followers. Is it really that patriotic to bash the president presiding over two wars and such a deep economic crisis?
Take a look at the great article by David Barstow on the NY Times website. He has a great article describing the general platform (or lack there of) for the Tea Party Movement. He does a great job describing how there is no one group which dominates or defines the ideology of the Tea Party. Rather, the party attracts a number of groups who have nowhere else to turn.
“The Tea Party movement defies easy definition, largely because there is no single Tea Party. At the grass-roots level, it consists of hundreds of autonomous Tea Party groups, widely varying in size and priorities, each influenced by the peculiarities of local history,” writes Barstow.
“Local Tea Party groups are often loosely affiliated with one of several competing national Tea Party organizations. In the background, offering advice and organizational muscle, are an array of conservative lobbying groups, most notably FreedomWorks. Further complicating matters, Tea Party events have become a magnet for other groups and causes — including gun rights activists, anti-tax crusaders, libertarians, militia organizers, the “birthers” who doubt President Obama’s citizenship, Lyndon LaRouche supporters and proponents of the sovereign states movement.”
I hope this works out in the end by making it difficult for any one leader to gain too much popularity as a result of trying to reach too many different ignorant minds.
The Times also ran a nice slide show which featured 5 of my photos. Despite running my images 5 months after I shot them, they did run a huge picture in color. That was pleasing.
I got to take a portrait of oil man turned wind man T. Boone Pickens for The New York Times. He is continuing his advertising push to promote wind energy and natural gas as a way to get off our oil problems. He claims it is a matter of national security. The man has some points. He also avoids others.
I did shoot a speech, but by far, the highlight was taking his portrait and visiting his office in Dallas. The only other office with more of a “museum” feel is the Perot offices. Boone (what a name!) has a great Western painting collection. The best place to take the portrait was his office. I had some other ideas, but after waiting two hours for Mr. Pickens to finish his lunch I only had three minutes to shoot. After three minutes (exactly three minutes…17 frames to be exact) I was told “you got it.” I think I did OK. Without being sarcastic, this is not to say Boone is rude. He was extremely nice and I was impressed to see he remembered my name immediately (after all, Matt is an odd one.) He introduced me to people wherever we went and we had a great conversation about his amazingly large ranch in Texas.
The New York Times ran a great 5 column picture in print. I also liked the shot of Boone looking out the window into downtown Dallas. The curtains give it a cool old look. You can see the article written by Cliff Krauss online.
I had an awesome gig about three weeks ago to shoot a story about illiteracy for The Wall Street Journal. The news peg was about Barnes and Noble closing their B. Dalton bookstore, making Laredo the largest city in the US without a bookstore. This reflects a multitude of issues primarily including the state of the economy and literacy along the border. Laredo’s location as a border town presents a unique view into immigration politics as well as the English-Spanish dichotomy facing any immigrant to the US.
I was excited to be working with photo editor Taylor Umlauf and we immediately saw the potential for a larger story. My pitch was to work it into a longer piece extending beyond the closing of the book store. I had four days in Laredo and realized after day one that I would need more time.
Laredo is quite the town. When I arrived, I had two hours before my first meeting. After checking into the cheapest hotel I could find (the Loma Alta), I briefly walked around the closest three blocks to my hotel. Amidst the many Mexican pottery import stores and mechanic shops adorned with signage brightly painted in Spanish with Mexican motifs and iconography, I forgot I was in the US. For my first two days in Laredo, I did not see another white person and did not hear English. Needless to say, it was great to feel like I was out of the country again…and refreshing to find a community like this in the US.
The problem with shooting such a wide ranging story in four days is that you can’t possibly understand all the dynamics that come into play and expect to know why Laredo has such low literacy. I met many interesting characters and was able to establish a base for further exploration. I feel that the combination of the economy, Laredo’s location on the border, the overwhelming majority of Spanish speakers and the culture of non-reading all mix to prevent reading from progressing.
Not all was bad. I spent some time at an elementary school, where students had written letters to corporate headquarters asking to keep their book store. These kids were smart and more than impressed me with their bi-lingual abilities and outgoing personalities. The problem became clear after talking to the kids for a short while. It isn’t that they can’t read, as much as their parents are not English speakers. Kids speak Spanish at home and leave their English at school. I believe this lies at the heart of the issue and presents a clear clue as to why illiteracy remains so high. Parents are often first generation immigrants to the US and simply don’t have a need for English in their everyday life.
I did find an adult ESL class studying English. It was in conjunction with a US history class to prepare for the citizenship exam. Many of the people I spoke with mentioned the desire to help their children with homework as a primary reason for taking the free class held at a local high school.
I connected with one particular family and spent a day with them. They were exemplary of everything I have mentioned. The mother was Mexican and the father was from the US. They own an apartment complex in Laredo, but like most Americans, have been facing tough times in the past year. In addition, they have two children ages 9 and 11. The mother is participating, out of her own will, in the adult literacy class. Not only does she desperately want to help with her children’s studies, but she will be taking over the day to day operations of the apartment complex as her husband find another job. She was a banker back in Mexico, but has had trouble in the US due to the language barrier. I really felt bad for this family. They were so nice and really seem to be struggling. I am sure the mother’s English will be great…I am hoping their economic situation improves. (I did not use their names, as their photos have not yet been published. You will have to wait for a future post.)
I met a man who had lit a fire in an abandoned cantina because his home had not heating. At first, I didn’t know how this would fit in the story. It became clear…he has lived in this country for several years and has trouble finding work. He speaks little English. Seems to top off the story.
The plan was to create a four part series online using all the elements I shot and the over three hours of audio recordings I made. Luck would have it that the Associated Press ran an article on the bookstore a day after I finished shooting and drove the article to publish early. We had to scrap two parts of the story including the one involving the family. I was still very pleased with the six column picture they used on A3 as well as the two slide shows.
Check out the article written by Stephanie Simon found on the Wall Street Journal site. The also ran a short audio slide show featuring some of the kids I photographed and made a nice update to their Photo Blog.
***I want to write an update to address several comments and thoughts regarding this post. People have expressed concern over this issue and suggest that I was presenting negative impressions of Laredo. I would like to point out that I never spoke poorly of Laredo and continue to feel that I had a great time and found the community very welcoming. Any negative perceptions regarding West Laredo do not come from me. Others have suggested that my post is one sided. This story was never meant to generalize Laredo as a city in general. It is a story specifically regarding illiteracy in a city ranked with the lowest literacy rate in the country. I invite people to offer their opinions as to why Laredo has trouble with literacy. We did make a point to talk about the many bi-lingual classes and other aspects which Laredo can be proud of. In addition, I would like to point out that I did not write the article which was published in The Wall Street Journal. I welcome criticism and enjoy the dialogue. I look forward to hearing more comments. Thanks, Matt
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