Sothern Exposure
Places No One Would Want to Settle
It’s 1973 and I’m somewhere in north Florida or maybe south Georgia, behind the wheel and stuck in the moment. I pass tumbledown bars and markets with screen doors that slam in the wind. People old and young planted upright in the weeds watch me roll...
Inside a Satanic Hoedown in the Valley of the Damned
The year is 1985, and I've got a gig taking pictures at a satanic hoedown. A warlock in a black cape ushers us into a two-bedroom apartment where about a dozen devil disciples are hanging about, plotting the end of days.
Multiple Wives and Plastic Lovers
It's 1983 and I’ve got a year-long gig in Saudi Arabia. Subcontracted by Aramco Oil, I've been hired to make slide/tape training programs, which means I fly around in helicopters taking pictures on oil rigs and at gas-oil separation plants. On my days...
Coffin Nails and Faith Healing
On a short visit to the old homestead in Springfield, Missouri, I borrow my mother’s car and drive to Bass Pro Shops, a local success story about a country boy tying fishing flies to sell in his father’s liquor store and turning it into a national...
On Decks and Doors
It’s 1982 and I’ve got a gig on a Navy aircraft carrier, the USS Ranger. I climb aboard at Coronado Island across the San Diego Bay and get off seven days later in Honolulu, Hawaii. Three or four layers below deck I set up a portable portrait...
Changing the Guard
I’m a high school freshman face down on the desk in English class when the loudspeaker interrupts my sleep. The president is dead. Killed in Dallas. School’s out for the rest of the day, which is good news.
Girlie Show
She takes my head into her hands and plants her lips on mine, puts her tongue into my mouth, and squirms into my soul.