Ingredients of a Campaign Trail
For those of you who keep up with my blog, you all know I’m a terrible self-editor. I don’t much mind putting up expanded edits, so long as y’all don’t mind looking at larger selections of work. When it’s important, I have editors I respect and love and meet with, and they pull magic out of the muck. All that to say, I have yet another expanded edit – this one from my time on the presidential campaign trail, back in January.
What I found was, I wasn’t too interested in the candidates. Hold on, precursor: I know what my job is as a photojournalist, and I know what frames need to be made, and I enjoy taking those photos, too. It’s just that, this specific blog post is a personal collection of my favorite frames, a separate selection, that collectively say something different- these the images that have stuck with me.
Anyway, the candidates: they just seem a bit obvious. We all know what Mitt Romney, or Rick Perry, or Michele Bachmann look like, and the candidates are all so controlled, managed: I just don’t think photos of them say much. The photos say, “Rick Santorum stood next to an American flag.” “Ron Paul spoke at a lectern.” But, it doesn’t say much about what is going on.
I’m interested in making frames that comment on the state of politics in America, comment on the direction our nation is headed, comment on the media, comment on the state of the country. In saying something about the people that make up the US, and how we interact and the topics that matter most to us – economics and religion and social issues. And I’m interested in looking at the facade that is created in the process of a campaign. That’s my goal, anyway.
So that’s what this edit is about. Looking beyond the candidates and the hype. Looking at what exactly makes up a campaign. The work is chronological, from Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina. Thanks for looking.
All images © Getty Images, 2011 & 2012
