I discovered Dorthea Lange in 1967, I was 10. I obtained a book with photographs the Farm Security Administration commissioned to document the Great Depression.
I look back now and see that as a defining moment in my life. I understood the look in the mother's eyes of Lange's famous photograph "Migrant Mother." I had seen it first hand. Oddly, it was reassuring.
No wonder I chose photography early as a solution to the difficult life I was dealt. No wonder decades later - after I stood back from a pen and ink I had been working on - did I recognize that photograph in my work.
I want to be hired by our Government to photograph and document what is happening to overlooked and disenfranchised individuals along with the emerging seeds of change I am expecting in our culture. I want an opportunity to tell Americans stories as I hear them, unhampered by commercial goals.
Of course, if I want that then I know others even more qualified would too. But, I am willing to compete in that arena with a portfolio. I think there is room for many in this endeavor, the more the better.
Please President Obama find room in our stimulus recovery to document our changing America.... and include me... me, among the 350 million that want your attention...
True, this kind of cultural documentation does happen on a volunteer basis, or by dedicated artists and even some commercially viable projects are to be hailed. But, there are risks to that record, skewed as it is by popular culture and the happenstance of market exposure in this information overload society. The FSA stores over 250,000 emulsion photos. Thousands are online now. Seems like nothing today, given we talk in billions and trillions...
What a pipe dream huh? But, I do have the appropriate higher education: agriculture, law, teaching and practical job expereince in photography commercial and news and many other areas, from industrial chemistry to farming (no kidding - I have milked cows for money. I have way more life experience than one person needs, I should share. Not only am I modern migrant offspring - 15 moves/12 public schools/three states before I left home at 17 (we were even homeless before it was fashionable..in 1970, fortunately for just a few months and in the driveway RV of a friend) but, my list of amazing and challenging life experiences contributes to my decidedly different point of view. And proudly. No one else could do this job just like me. Or you.
I have a long long history of people telling me their stories simply because I ask to hear them stories. I really get a lot out of just a few minutes with any person. My compassion for people comes from experience. I believe almost all of us try as we are able to, it is a rare individual who confesses no effort to get along in this life... if we just take the time to understand and educate each other.
And this record I (we) would contribute to? That is the Education and Understanding that we must employ in this Nation State of 350 million and planet of 6 billion......we can't stop trying in that arena, if we don't we risk everything we strive for.
Democratic Government organized and sanctioned as the vehicle for this record? Well we see a beautiful and effective effort in the FSA documentation and I want to see it again. I trust Obama to allow it.
Most importantly, I have a desire and need to do something like this, but a subsidy would be necessary.... I would need to create a portfolio (those darn over photographed kids of mine and digital photography have left me "file challenged"). In storage are literally thousands of emulsion negatives, at some point I guess I need an audience or commission, otherwise I feel just, well - self-absorbed.
Perhaps this year I can turn my attention to that pent up creativity that ends up not expressed under the weight of obligations... I have my doubts.. I hear the ching chang ... "Oh, St. Peter don't ya call me." So, I would prefer to apply for an existing opportunity... it would motivate me to at least get half way back on the road to recovery of my soul.