Rambles

I wasn't home a whole lot last month. I started November with a week in D.C., and I finished it on a road-trip with Adron to the midwest. I've tried this new thing where I put my camera away sometimes and engage with what's at hand some more, but in both places - on an afternoon walk and during a brief stop at Niagara Falls - I had a little lens time. 

Perfect light in D.C.:

And the falls:

On the farm

I recently completed a story series for the Berkshire Eagle about the past, present and future of the local food economy in western Massachusetts. As America confronts the realities of globalization (both welcoming and opposing it), there is an agricultural movement to keep local food economies alive and sustainable. I interviewed and photographed four of these local producers in the Berkshires: the fifth-generation Fairfields Dairy Farm, the dairy-turned-agritourism operation at Ioka Valley Farm, Indian Line Farm (where the Community Supported Agriculture model started), and Sky View Farm, a newer year-round meat CSA. 

Fridays

The last few Fridays, I've been on assignment for the Berkshire Eagle across the county. I've tried to force myself to grab images for my "Rediscovering the American Spirit" project in between the main story moments. I've been looking anywhere for visuals that emote or somehow feel timeless. Here's what I got in Sheffield, Pittsfield and North Adams:

Freedom to speak

Of all the events I've covered for newspapers, protests, demonstrations and individual political expression seem to hold civic weight unlike anything else. So last week I photographed two demonstrations in Park Square in Pittsfield, Mass. The first, organized by the nonpartisan Four Freedoms Coalition, was a "standout" for DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) recipients following President Trump's announcement that he planned to repeal President Obama's executive order protecting people brought to this country as the children of unauthorized immigrants.

About 40 people stood in the rain last Thursday and advocated that Dreamers continue to have legal protection. Congress has six months to come up with a program that effectively continues DACA.

Generally speaking, NAACP Berkshire County Branch president Dennis Powell told me that activism has been on the rise in the area ever since Donald Trump was elected. The Four Freedoms Coalition was created this past January, for example. 

"To be perfectly frank white people are now feeling the oppression and concerns that black people have felt all their lives," Powell said. 

An unrelated but second protest - "Save the Art Demonstration" - occurred Saturday morning. A couple dozen people voiced their opposition to the Berkshire Museum's plan to auction off 40 paintings to fund renovations and add to its endowment. One lone counter-demonstrator was there. 

Snagged moments

The last month has been a little crazy - one final move, a second MFA submission, my first freelance journo gig after leaving the Monitor. I tried to catch a few photos for my "American Spirit" project in between things (I also gathered a lot of inspiration from the Norman Rockwell this museum after visiting this last week). 

Here's to hoping these posts become more regular, and in the meantime, a few photos from around the Berkshires.

1. The beautiful: I couldn't help but stop alongside the old Green River Farms fields in Williamstown and by Pontoosuc Lake in Pittsfield on a perfect, early August afternoon. 

2. Revisiting revitalization: Remember all those sunrise photos? I went back to one site of renewal, Greylock Works. The 150-year-old North Adams cotton spinning mill is undergoing redevelopment as a new hotel, condominiums, a value-added food production space and an event space. Brooklyn couple, Karla Rothstein and Sal Perry of LATENT Productions, are working on the project. Karla told me they invested in the property because of how great the underlying structure was, and the opportunity it presented to be a mid-way point between the Williamstown and North Adams cultural scenes.

3. The Great American Solar Eclipse: Well...duh. Met cousins Lennon Kirby, 4, Reigahn Henderson, 8, and Lennon's mom Raya, all of North Adams, Mass. They sat Raya's mother, Beth Fedotowsky, of Williamstown, in the fields behind the Williamstown Elementary School. Amazingly apolitical day about pure, natural wonder. 

Regeneration

On my second outing for my "Rediscovering the American Spirit" project, I woke up reallllly early last Friday and photographed the dawning of a new day in North Adams and Williamstown. 

What struck me was all the regeneration going on: an old manufacturing building turned into artists' lofts, a city skyline dotted with old church steeples and a newer wind turbine project, a mobile home park flooded by Tropical Storm Irene in 2012 bought by the town of Williamstown and repurposed into a recreation area. 

It's all quite beautiful.

Starting a search for the "American Spirit"

In the middle of my third month of living in Williamstown, Mass., I've officially begun a longterm photography project based here in the Berkshires. I'm calling it "Rediscovering the American Spirit," in a nod to painter Norman Rockwell, who lived and worked in Berkshire County, Massachusetts, and in reference to "The American Spirit" motto scrawled across the bottom of the Massachusetts license plate. 

After reporting on presidential politics for a year and a half and hearing a lot about what people don't like about their country, their political opponents, their government, I started looking for a way to find what people do like about the United States, what they want to preserve, what they want to see in themselves and each other. Basically I wanted to ask the question, "But okay, what holds us all together?"

Rockwell articulated his post-WWII vision of America in his "Four Freedoms." I'm hoping to articulate, through documenting various aspects of Berkshire County in Massachusetts (the "Premier Cultural Resort of America" that is also familiar with opioid addiction, an aging population and poverty), the "American Spirit" that we all can recognize post-2016 election. 

It seemed fitting to book-end my project with Independence Day celebrations. So I started on July 4, 2017. Here are just a few photos, some from the Pittsfield Parade, one from the swimming hole at Bellevue Cemetery in Adams, and one from the Williamstown fireworks show. I'll be posting as regularly as I can as I continue the project. 

7/29/17 UPDATE: After another edit-through, I've added a couple of photos to this post. It feels as though I'm finding my own style all over again through the project - so want to include a wider scope to choose from at the end. 

Alaska

Two weeks ago, my mom and I went to visit my cousin Michaela in Anchorage, AK, where she is stationed with the U.S. Air Force. We spent a moody, wilderness-y week in the city and a little ways south in Seward. Among my favorite things: mountains everywhere, moose tracks on my runs, Twizzlers, blue-green ocean water, and a smiling, social harbor seal at the Alaska Sealife Center. 

Maintaining wonder

It's been awhile since I've seen something happening outside, grabbed my DSLR and sprinted to the door. But after a week away from my job and assignments, I couldn't resist when a sunset rainbow appeared at the end of an on-and-off rainy day in Concord, N.H.

This is what got me into photography in the first place: wonder, wanting to capture it, and share it. 

Naturalization ceremony, goats and moving

Without much time to post these past few months, I wanted to throw up some highlights. These include some extra photos from my "Beyond the Mosque" project for the Concord Monitor, a "Goats and Yoga" class I covered last week, and a few preliminary photos around Williamstown, Mass., where I move next week before I begin graduate school and venture into the freelance world.

On Feb. 17, 2017, I tagged along to the U.S. District Court in Concord, N.H. with Yusuf Bility, his wife, Tina, their mom, Massa, and kids Mohammed and Massa. All attended Tina's naturalization ceremony, where she became a citizen after fleeing the Ivory Coast as a refugee six years ago. The moment came three weeks after President Donald Trump signed an executive order restricting travel from majority-Muslim countries and temporarily halting refugee arrivals in the United States. 

Goats and yoga... do I really need to explain more? The new fad is putting tiny little Jenness Farm in Nottingham, N.H. on the map. 

A few photos from a long winter of driving to and from Williamstown, Mass. to visit Adron. (Yes, we did go sledding in a plastic box). In a week exactly, I'll be moving here, with many more photos to come. 

The game

I've photographed tense situations before: contentious town meetings, emergency responders following an accident, and the 2016 election. Sitting in a Boston living room with some die-hard Patriots fans during the Super Bowl last weekend blew all of those out of the water. 

Witnessing change

Sometimes I'll become immersed in a story and think about it for a couple of days, maybe even three or four. I don't know that I've ever spent a week thinking this much on one (undoubtedly important and all-consuming) topic. 

The election was eight days ago and I'm starting to feel almost back to normal - though none of this is normal and there will be no "going back." That's how change works. Unlike everyone who has been able to write Facebook or Twitter posts, hang around on the porch and talk, or protest (on either side), my job has been to just witness the outcome of Donald Trump's becoming the President-elect.

There's been little space for expressing my own thoughts about the topic except for a couple private conversations. But I've been grateful for the period of internal, quiet contemplation. In the midst of that has been all my reporting, which I've used to both inform and also challenge my own ways of thinking. 

Now, I'll keep watching. In the meantime, here's what I've seen so far.

Election day at the polls (including long lines, supporters on both sides, a poll monitor, and a dog):

Voter portraits:

Gov. Maggie Hassan's election party (with tired and/or sad attendees as the night stretched on. She ended up winning the U.S. Senate seat...):

The "silent majority" for Trump around New Hampshire on Wednesday:

And lastly, an anti-Trump protest in Manchester on Saturday:

Escaping a political arena to...DC

On the weekend eve before the election, I took a three-day swing through Washington, D.C. as I usually do this time of year. I usually arrive to feel the exciting atmosphere of our government's center, and then leave to return to the quainter, quieter doldrum of New England. 

Not this year. DC turned out to be a perfect respite from New Hampshire's battleground state chaos - when I landed in Manchester Monday, the air crackled the tension that will hopefully, if not be gone, at least lessen after Tuesday.

I really sucked at taking urban photos when I actually lived in DC, but I'm really happy with some of the photos I walked away with from this weekend. You really can't go wrong with a cats and coffee cafe, Georgetown cupcakes or wandering in Dupont Circle alleyways with your college teammate. 

Race day

After running in high school and college for eight years (and 24 consecutive seasons), I've happily taken on the role of support crew for Adron as he competes post-collegiately. After almost a year of dealing with and coming back from injuries, he got to run a full season of cross-country this fall. Being the great (and patient) person he is, Adron let me document his last race of the season Sunday at the Mayor's Cup race in Boston.

FALL

This is a shameless foliage photo post. For whatever reason I didn't have the chance to get out and take many leaf photos the first few weeks of October, but this past week, I went CRAZY. Here are some shots from both work and time off - there's so. much. color. 

Work photos in Canterbury, Concord and Pittsfield:

 

Play photos in a pumpkin patch in Plainsfield, a lone marigold in Concord, field explorations and a misty hike up Mt. Kearsarge in Warner: