This photo is of Judd Newcomb, a well known guitarist in Austin, TX. This picture was taken during my first newspaper assignment—which was for the Austin Chronicle. This photo of Judd was my favorite but it was not the one that was published.
This photo was taken in June of 1995. It is along the Dempster Highway about 100 miles south of the Arctic Circle a little bit after midnight. The horses appeared to be strays as there was no signs of anyone living in the area. The strange color in the sky was due to a large forest fire farther to the South. Later on in my trip I would be stuck in Dawson for several hours because that forest fire had closed all roads out of town.
It’s kind of a funny story. After a long absence I was trying to get back in with the Willamette Week (a local newspaper) as a freelance photographer. It was the aftermath of the May Day protests. I heard there was another labor rally going one and I asked if WW if they needed any photographs. They said they already had someone taking pictures, but they could use more. It was an ongoing story, and they were going to need a lot of photos about it. Now, I thought that “it” was the labor dispute between a local union and Powell’s chain of bookstores. After all, that was what the rally was about. So I photographed the protest. In fact I shot 5 rolls of the protest. I turned them all into the Willamette Week. When the next issue came out I discovered that the story they were covering was the police presences, since there had been some controvertial uses of force during the May Day protest. Needless to say, my photos were of no help and none were bought. But, while looking at them tonight, as I was filing some old work, there were a bunch I really liked. So I thought I would publish a couple here.
This is the campus of the Texas School for the Deaf where I worked during the 96-97 school year. This tree was my favorite live oak. I looked at it for months before trying to photograph it. I worked on the second floor of the building right behind the tree. I was a Dorm Parent for high school boys.
Here is another portrait. This one is not of me, but then again, EVERY portrait is a self portrait. This one was taken in Santa Fe, NM while I was working at the Santa Fe Photography Workshops.