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Backyard Photo Project Begins with (what else?) Kittens

May 23, 2016 by Michael Webster Leave a Comment

Kittens by Kayak One of the most common pieces of advice given to young documentary photographers is to “photograph your own backyard.” I’m not a young photographer and from what I can tell, young documentary photographers who actually want a career would be better served flying off to a war zone or famine ravished region, though there are plenty of notable exceptions. Danny Wilcox Frazier, for example, started off photographing his home and has successfully expanded from there.

Anyhow, I’m not much interested in any of that, but for whatever reason, have decided to photograph my own backyard. If I don’t fall prey to short attention span syndrome, I figure I’ll take a different approach than usual and document my progress here.

So this is the first photo. On a cold and rainy day a couple weeks ago, I was sitting out back and noticed three skinny, terrified kittens creeping through the back yard, looking like they were not long for this world. So I went inside to get them a bowl of milk to help them along the way, which scared them off, temporarily, and resulted in one hiding under a car and getting run over.

The other two, however, made it back, and have been hanging around ever since. I’ve got a lot of questions on how to handle it, but for now, here’s a photo.

Washington Post Botches Take on “Reality”

February 13, 2016 by Michael Webster Leave a Comment

Member of Washington Post Editorial Board considers different scenarios for the 2016 presidential race.

This should come as no surprise coming from a publication whose fact checker doesn’t understand the basic definition of the word “fact.”

In a what-would-otherwise be a jaw dropping failure to understand the meaning of the word “reality,” a new editorial by the Washington Post’s editorial board accuses Democratic Party presidential candidate Bernie Sanders of launching an “attack on reality.”

Sanders’ alleged attack on “reality” took several forms. First, the Post’s Editorial Board objected to him characterizing Hillary Clinton’s claim that he had made personal attacks on President Obama as a “low blow.”

In the very first paragraph, the Editors write “while she made his criticisms out to be more personal in nature than they were…”

So, according to the Washington Post Editorial Board, falsely claiming someone made personal attacks does not fit the definition of a “low blow.” But if making personal attacks is a low blow, then falsely claiming someone made them is as well. At least in the moral universe most of us inhabit. That’s reality.

Then they proceed to the talking point that argues only incremental change is possible. Yea, tell that to Franklin D. Roosevelt, or Martin Luther King, or Lyndon Johnson, or Ronald Reagan, or thousands of others in the history of the world who have accomplished revolutionary change in a short time frame. That, again, is reality.

And although this particular anti-Sanders editorial doesn’t mention it, his plans for universal healthcare and access to higher education are also loudly deemed unrealistic by establishment Editorial Boards, right wing propagandists and the Clinton campaign, but a quick look at the western-style democracies in Europe, Canada and elsewhere show that their “reality” has nothing to do with actual reality.

Good Kids – Bad System

January 28, 2016 by Michael Webster Leave a Comment

Girl in front of chalkboard at the Monroe Academy for Business and Law (MABL) in the South Bronx. — Tameka Edwards from “The Good Kids”, at the Monroe Academy for Business and Law (MABL) in the South Bronx. © Michael Webster 2010

A couple days ago, I saw a story in the New York Times about Thomas Porton, a renowned high school teacher at the Monroe Academy in the South Bronx. I had met Porton when I was working on my “Good Kids” project at the the school. I didn’t interact with him much, but I heard a lot about him and saw some of the results of his work. He had been there forever and had carved out his own little kingdom, mostly independent of the numerous principals and assistant principals that had passed through over the course of his career. From the NYT article, it sounds like that was responsible for his eventual downfall. The principal who was there when I was photographing had a great deal of respect and appreciation for him, but I sensed the assistant principal and a few of the newer teachers resented him, and what he was able to accomplish with the students.

Anyway, it’s another sad example of how difficult it is for someone who is dedicated and does a job well to prosper in a corrupt system; and of a school where kids come, at best, a distant second to the fragile egos of careerist bureaucrats.

LaToya Ruby Frazier

January 19, 2016 by Michael Webster Leave a Comment

Photo of Latoya Ruby Frazier at her Brooklyn Museum Show

I took this poor quality IPhone photo of Latoya Ruby Frazier at her Brooklyn Museum show in 2013. I was looking for it awhile back when she won the MacArther grant, but couldn’t find it, having forgotten it came from the phone. Anyway, I loved her work and was fortunate to see her there discussing it. Her stories about how the photos came to be were interesting and she was very gracious in person. I’ve been very happy to see her get even more recognition.

Out of Africa

January 19, 2016 by Michael Webster Leave a Comment

I’ll start with a bit of an update on my personal history, for both those who sort of know me, and those who don’t. After dropping out of high school in the late 1970’s, I moved around quite a bit, both in the United States and abroad. Eventually, and pretty much inevitably, I reached New York where I lived for about 13 years and rediscovered my vocation as a photographer.

Before New York, I’d lived eight years in Tucson, so I’d already narrowed my travels, preferring to get to know my current surroundings more deeply rather than always flitting off somewhere new and clawing against the surface for a year or two.

But although the time frame had grown significantly, after about 10 years in New York, I began feeling restless and increasingly confined and began looking about for somewhere new to explore, eventually settling on Gabon in Central West Africa. So I set about preparing for the big move, arranging for my son to attend the American University there, buying camera equipment, getting properly outfitted with jungle gear, a four wheel drive vehicle, and then arranging for a shipping container to haul all my junk over there. In the meantime, I’d spend a couple months in my hometown with my aging parents as it was very possible I would never see them again.

I’d been to Africa several times before, and knew without a doubt that everything would not go perfectly; but I did not expect for every single aspect of my plans to fall through. Yet it happened and I ended up staying in my hometown until my kid finished high school.

So I’ve been here for a little over two years now. I took a job as a small town sports photographer, then became editor, inevitably got fired for some combination of insubordination and pissing off the wrong people (circulation increased during my short time in charge), then started my own online publication.

Covering local politics got me at least marginally interested in local politics. I am now on the Community Corrections Board where I try to ensure that people convicted of petty crimes do not suffer indentured servitude by ongoing court fees as is common in so many places these days (fortunately, the legal powers that be generally agree). I am also now an elected official, having been caucused in when the election winner resigned. It was an election, nevertheless, and I actually campaigned and won against a much more experienced candidate. Who would have thought? Anyway, without going to far into the weeds, I use my position to fight against drug testing of very poor people who need emergency, temporary, aid to pay for such things as electricity or prescriptions. I’m outnumbered by Republicans so have no real influence, but at least if future historians study our era, they’ll find that not every single person in the county was an asshole.

Lately, I’ve been working on creating a tourism website for the county, which has been fun and somewhat profitable by journalistic standards.

Between the journalism, politics, and website work, I know just about all the prominent people in the county as well as those who work for them. It’s far and away the most social I’ve ever been, which is both a gift and a burden.

Anyway, so here I am. My son graduates in a few months and I’ll probably be moving on again, but it’s not for sure. Life is easy here and I have incredible access for photo work. But I’ve made a lot of trips to Nashville and it looks like a place I could live for awhile. Or maybe Detroit? Or back out west? Or even back to Africa. We’ll see.

Strong Winds, Faltering Worlds

January 18, 2016 by Michael Webster Leave a Comment

A first post is a necessary thing, so I will start with this quote from Charles Bowden’s Dreamland: The Way out o Juárez.

“Of course, there is corruption, greed, imperialism, racism, so many words we can fly like pennants in the strong winds whipping now across the deserts of faltering worlds. We stand out under the moon, drink in hand, and chant these words until our breath fails us and the moon goes down and still everything moves as before and nothing gets better and the footpads of the desperate beat past us into hopes of new lives.”

I always think of Chuck’s work when I see photo essays about Juárez, of which I’ve seen a few. In one vein, I wonder why people risk their lives to tell a story that’s already been told so much better than they can possibly tell it? Why not tell some other story as yet untold? But I can understand an unwillingness to believe that a story has been told in such a way that it can’t be told better, or at least have another dimension added to it. And young men risking their lives for a photograph, or whatever reason? I’ve certainly been there, done that.

What I can’t understand in these essays is why they never credit Bowden’s groundbreaking work on the subject. Are they not aware of it? Or do they just have bad manners? Either way, it’s unfortunate.