The Local Lens
I've waited over two years to make this blog post!
In May of 2022, I met Nate Brooks for lunch one day at a Korean-style seafood restaurant on Richmond Road in Lexington to discuss a large-scale photo book project that he had in mind. The seafood restaurant was a bit much, but the book project turned out to be one of the greatest photographic projects that I've ever done in my life. Nate and I are both from Powell County, but a generation apart. I went to school with his mother and have been great friends with both of his parents, Troy and Deana Brooks, for many years. It was kind of bizarre to be involved with a multi-year project with so many moving parts, with a kid that's the same age as my kids, and someone I've known, literally since he was a newborn. I'm not sure if it was bizarre because he's that young or because I'm that old, HA!
At the time, Nate was about to finish a podcast series that he did for the Powell County Health Department titled The Local Lens. The podcast was funded through the CDC in Atlanta and Nate used it as a tool to explore and to educate on all aspects of the drug epidemic. Ultimately, he did 74 episodes and interviewed over 100 people. Here are my opening comments in the book...
When I began this book project with Nate Brooks in 2022, I truly didn’t understand the depth of Powell County’s drug problem. I grew up in Powell County, specifically on Black Creek in Clay City, during the 1970s and 1980s, and was a photojournalist there in the early 1990s. There has always been a drug problem in Powell County, but it wasn’t until I came back home for a couple of months during the summer of 2020, when my father was dying of cancer, that I got a small glimpse of just how much the problem had grown since I had moved away in 1995. I realized then that something had changed and my little hometown had changed with it.
One day during that summer, I almost ran over a man who had passed out in a sharp curve beside the road with his head lying about a foot away from the white line. With a population of only 1,200 people, Clay City had over 100 homeless people living within its borders that summer, mainly because of the drug epidemic. At the same time that I was witnessing all of this, Nate was beginning to produce a podcast called "The Local Lens" highlighting the different aspects of the drug epidemic that not only had infested Powell County but Appalachia as a whole.
I soon made a correlation between addiction and a ripple. At the epicenter of the ripple effect caused by drug abuse is the user. Immediate family members are located somewhere in the first two rings of the ripple, with first responders and police officers occupying the third and fourth layer of rings. Spiritual warriors providing faith-based rehab programs and resources serve as a bridge between the user and the road to recovery in rings five and six.
As the rings of the ripple gravitate further away from the epicenter it becomes less personal, but no less important, with healthcare professionals fighting the epidemic in rings six and seven. Professionals in Frankfort, and Washington D.C. may not know the user, and the user may never know them, but they still feel the effects and they occupy the outer rings of the ripple. They too are an integral part of the road to recovery.
Then multiply all of the rings times every user in Powell County. Then multiply the rings of every user in Kentucky. Then Appalachia. Then the United States. Many of the rings overlap and share similar threads of the story. It’s overwhelming to think about all of the people who are affected by this monster and the countless toll that it has taken on so many lives.
For me, creating this photo book was extremely personal. I haven’t lived in Powell County for nearly 30 years, as Richmond is where I live, but Clay City will always be my home. My genuine hope is that this book will somehow make a difference as we tell the story.
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This photo of Misty Dehart standing in a field of mustard flowers, in an area of Powell County known as Turkey Knob, became the signature photo and cover for the book. Misty, who has been in recovery for several years and is now a nurse, represented freedom from addiction. I called it the Titanic pose. Photographically, I wanted to create an angle that people weren't used to seeing. People are used to driving down KY HWY 15/11 looking out at the flowers, but not in the flowers looking back.
Powell County minister Brad Epperson helps inmates transition back into life outside of jail with the Substance Abuse Program (SAP) at the Powell County Detention Center.
Rebecca Stone analyzes suspected drugs that have been confiscated by local police departments in Central Kentucky at the Kentucky State Police crime lab in Frankfort.
The needle exchange program at the Powell County Health Department.
Nate interviewing nurse practitioner Heather Deel during the series' last episode at WSKV radio station in Stanton, December 2022.
With Powell County having one of the highest overdose rates per capita in the country, Jazmen Thorpe is one of many of a generation of children who have grown up witnessing the terrible effect and the grip that drugs have had on their parents.
Responding to the drug epidemic can be extremely expensive for a small rural community with law enforcement and first responders. Former Powell County Judge Executive James Anderson advocated a proactive approach to the problem, such as the Syringe Service Program at the health department. Sadly, Judge Anderson died in an accident before the book was completed.
Stanton Police Officer Ian Morton, above, and Clay City Police Officer Rob Williams, below, are on the front lines of Powell County's drug epidemic.
Oshia Haddix runs the Powell County Homeless Coalition in the Bottoms of Clay City.
The book expanded beyond Powell County by looking at programs in neighboring Montgomery County, with Tabitha and Tony Barrett leading Recovery Montgomery County, top, and Angie Gregory, above, with the Montgomery County Health Department, running a program that works with women in the Montgomery County jail who have been arrested on drug charges, which is about 85 percent of the women there.
I didn't want all of my healthcare professional photos to look the same, so I asked my childhood friend Dr. Julie Kennon to roll her pant legs up and wade out into Hardwicks Creek in Clay City with her white coat and stethoscope, because her medical career was literally born out of Hardwicks Creek, where she fell out of a tree in middle school and broke her back. Dr. Kennon still practices in her hometown of Clay City.
Dr. Taufik Kassis at his clinic in Stanton.
Nurse Practitioner Scott Seitz in Winchester.
Nurse Practitioner Heather Deel at her clinic in Stanton.
Husband and wife team John and Donna Isfort at their clinic in Irvine.
Jenell Brewer is at the epicenter in the battle against addiction in Powell and several surrounding counties with Casey's Law and SPARK Ministries.
Estill County coroner Jimmie Wise and his wife Sheila have seen more than their fair share of overdoes in neighboring Estill County.
Lisa Coffey and Jeanette and Wayne Ross, affectionately known as Pastor and Momma, lead a very effective faith-based recovery program at Shepherd's Shelter Ross Rehab in Mount Sterling.
Paula Adams of Irvine, holds a picture of her son Dalton, who died of a drug overdose in 2019.
Van Ingram is the Executive Director of the Kentucky Office of Drug Policy in Frankfort.
Jerrica Brandenburg, an alcohol and drug counselor at Marcum & Wallace Hospital in Irvine, holds a box of Narcan that is somewhat of a miracle-drug that has saved so many people from dying of an overdose.
Marti Hackworth, Laura Helvey, and Rebecca Wolfinbarger lead a Narcotics Anonymous (Nar-Anon) meeting for mothers of kids suffering from Substance Abuse Disorder.
Neil Hamilton and David Howard of the Powell County Detention Center see the revolving-door effect of repeat offenders.
Powell County native Will Arvin, who went from a hardcore drug user to an evangelist and church pastor, had an incredible story to tell. Will, who now lives in Fort Gay, West Virginia, just randomly raised his Bible into the air as I was finishing his shoot in the rain, near a crossroad with two iron bridges. It was a great impromptu moment!
Powell County Health Department Public Health Director Stacy Crase approaches the epidemic with a concept known as harm reduction, which accepts the fact that, for better or worse, drug use is part of our world, and works to minimize the harmful effects of drug use rather than just ignore it or condemn it.
What started in May of 2022 finally came full-circle August 21, 2024, with a celebration and launch of the book in Stanton.
A few behind-the-scenes, top, working down...Nate's Mom Deana helped me with some of the early photo shoots while Nate was off hiking the Camino de Santiago in Spain. Nate and I had an all-day design session in the basement of his parent's house when he came home from graduate school in May.
The funniest thing happened in June...we decided to order a few books to proof one last time before making the large run later in the month. Nate was working an internship in Washington DC and I was in DC for the Washington Youth Tour when the books arrived. While my copy was home in Richmond on my desk, Nate brought his copy to my hotel and we looked at it together in the lobby of the Crystal City Marriott. Looking at the book together like that, after so much hard work and time was very gratifying.
Like I said in my opening...working on this book was extremely personal. Richmond is where I live, but Clay City will always be my home.