Taz doing MaKaylah's hair

In our neighborhood...Forest Ave.

In the next few weeks I'll be working on my First Ward neighborhood project. These are just a few "breaking the ice" pictures.
On Forest Ave. I stopped to photograph 13-year-old Brittany and her brother Willie, 8. They were having a combination lemonade stand/yard sale in front of their house.

Sanford Ave.

At Taz's house.

All that red, white and blue

Glory, glory hallelujuh

My new Canon 5D with a 50mm 1.2 just arrived, after 2 days of waiting diligently at home for FedEx to deliver.
I think I'm in love...

After the show

Tameka

In our neighborhood

“This neighborhood is stereotyped, like, you know, most people ride through here and they think that they’re too good to be here, or there’s something bad. They stereotype so much that they don’t actually take the time to actually figure out what this neighborhood is about. If you come here in the summer, there’s kids like everywhere. There’s kids having fun. They look at the bad things. They don’t come here… it’s one day that makes them think that this is a bad neighborhood. If you come here more than one day you’ll see that it’s not as bad as it seems. If you come here you can see kids outside playing. Kids that you would see in a good neighborhood, or a richer neighborhood. We do the same things they do. There’s kids out here having fun, kids out here jumping rope, playing basketball. When people stereotype you underestimate people. I don’t think that’s right.”
–Tameka Griffin, age 13

Crystal

Hirth & Worley

One of those days....

Room 710: A portrait

I participated in a 1 day photography workshop led by Danny Wilcox Frasier (Driftless). 11 students descended on Paquin Towers, an independent living residence for the elderly and disabled in downtown Columbia. We were each paired with a resident, and given the task of documenting their everyday lives. I spent the day with Myron Woodson, who literally sat in his chair for the almost 8 hours that I was there. To further the challenge, Myron keeps his curtains drawn, and the only light in the room came from the tungsten bulb behind his chair.
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With his television, drawing pad, bobble head collection and frequent visits from his girlfriend, 52-year-old Myron Woodson has everything he needs within arms reach in his Paquin Towers apartment. A resident since 2002, Woodson moved to Columbia from St. Louis to be closer to family. Now he rarely sees his four children, and has built a life of his own that doesn’t demand getting out much. Debilitated by elephantiasis since his 30s and a recent tracheotomy, he spends the majority of his time in his apartment, where he spends most days sitting in his comfy golden chair.

Fayette, MO: What the fu*k are you doing?

I thought it was a reasonable enough question... one I was asking myself, actually.
I had stopped to take pictures of a rather shabby looking house on Maple St. in Fayette, when someone from inside started screaming at me. Before I could see him, I heard the anger in his voice: "What the FUCK are you doing?! You're making my dogs bark!"

The Minnie Mouse curtain in the front wondow had intrigued me- a happy note on an unhappy-looking home. Also the huge pile of black trash bags. But I couldn't help but think that he had a good right to feel fired up that I was "taking" pictures of his house without asking. It was my first visit to a town where I was hoping to "find" a story, and I didn't know yet what I was doing either.

UNIFORMS

I photographed Kate Dranegines, a 16-year-old Rock Bridge student, who has her first job working at Taco Bell. We didn't have time to do the audio, and she keeps changing plans on me... but hopefully a slideshow (with audio) will be up soon.