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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.
Old School With My K1000
When I first started doing photography in third grade my Dad started me out on a completely manual Agfa viewfinder camera. Then when I got into middle school he gave me a Pentax K1000. I was so excited just to have a camera with a light meter inside. It became my main camera for several years, including high school and college. I used this camera during my days as news editor and photographer at my hometown newspaper, The Clay City Times in the early 1990s. I used it so much, I tore the grip off of one side. It had a telephoto lens that came with it, but I mainly used the 1.8 50mm. That was such a sweet little lens! The K1000 itself was a great camera. It was the last American-made camera that was made of metal, not plastic. Professionals who shot Nikons at the time, would keep a K1000 in their trunk as a backup. Those cameras were indestructible. You could drive nails with them.
I recently found a lady in Waco that will do small-run t-shirt orders. So I had her make a t-shirt with a K1000 on the front of it. I love it because it's old school!
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The camera and the shirt.
One of my early mentors was a guy named Bimbo Reed. He taught me a lot when I was in high school. He even had a color darkroom set up in his trailer. He was the one who told me that it was okay to take a vertical picture every now and then, ha! Bimbo took a picture of me with my K1000 on his couch, New Year's Eve 1990.
A much skinnier version of myself snapping a few shots at Daytona Beach with my K1000, June 1988.
I kind of laugh at this cheesy picture now, but, let's just say, I took my job as a journalist seriously. My trusted K1000 is beside me, October 1992. I ran several hundred rolls of black and white film through it while I was working in newspapers. It and a police scanner never left my side.
2024 Washington Youth Tour
One of the best parts of my job as a freelancer is that I get to make two trips to Washington DC each year. One of those jobs happens each year in June when I travel with about 60 high school seniors from all over Kentucky, spending a week in DC on the Washington Youth Tour, which is sponsored by the Kentucky Electric Cooperatives. This year marked my 14th trip. I mainly document the week with photos for the state's electric cooperatives to use of their students, but my main job is to create a magazine cover for each co-op to run in Kentucky Living Magazine later in August and September. We usually switch up the location on the cover photos and this year I did them at my favorite site in DC, the World War II Memorial. Good photos tend to create themselves there, regardless of the light or angle. I'll admit, I don't necessarily enjoy riding a bus that many hours because it usually makes me sick, but I thoroughly enjoy being around a group of 17-18-year-olds for a week because it helps to keep me young at heart.
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The trip always starts with a visit to Thomas Jefferson's Monticello in Charlottesville, Virginia. Locals pronounce it Monti-chello, but I have yet to find the H in Monticello. I'm sure the folks in Wayne County could correct them on the proper pronunciation of Monticello.
Next on the agenda was George Washington's home at Mount Vernon.
The Sunset Parade at the Marine Memorial (Iwo Jima statue).
The Kentucky students come together with several hundred other students from all across the country during the NRECA Youth Night. Our Kentucky kids never disappoint!
For years, I sat up a complete light system to do the cover shots, but the last couple of years I've gone with a small speed light (a flash) on a remote and used one of the other chaperones as a human light stand, which you can see Joey Frakes' shadow on the ground in front of me. If I start early enough in the day while the light is calm it works.
I have photographed the WYT for several years with my good friend April Burgess, who works for Inter-County Energy in Danville. She brought her husband Rudy along on the trip this year. They were so funny, and really good people to hang out with! April is easily in the top five of my favorite chaperones (inside joke, ha!).
I don't care if you're a Democrat or Republican...what a great moment when Mitch McConnell, the Senate Minority Leader takes a few minutes to come outside and talk to you on the steps of our nation's capitol. I told the students that they will appreciate this photo more and more as they get older in life.
The Great Shoe Exchange of 2024: Blisters are a real thing when walking 5-6 miles in dress shoes.
If the World War II Memorial is my favorite site in DC, then the Holocaust Museum and the Pentagon 911 Memorial are right there with it. Maybe someday I'll do a blog post about these two sites because it would be hard to do either one of them justice here in this post. If you ever go to DC these two are definite must-sees! They both are made up of so many moving parts, but yet, so well-done, so intimate, and so sad!
Back home six days later at Base Camp at East Kentucky Power in Winchester.
A Mere Shadow of Myself
I have shot with two cameras for several years. I keep my 70-200 on my right shoulder and my 24-70 on my left shoulder. It took a long time for me to build up enough equipment to do that. I remember how happy I was when I could finally afford to buy two professional-level camera bodies. People love to ask me why I do it that way instead of just changing out lenses with one camera body. I do it mainly for speed, meaning, it takes time to change lenses out, and on certain assignments, especially with news and sports, you can miss the money-shot while you're changing lenses. Plus, the constant changing of lenses allows more dust to get inside your camera.
I use vertaical grips that have a shutter button on the side, which means the shutter button on my left side is always resting against my hip, and likes to take it's own pictures. Everytime that I'm shooting, I usually come away with about a dozen or so shots of the ground because of my hip. A few weeks ago, I came home after working in Taylor County and downloaded cards and found these. I thought they were pretty cool to be an accident.
The bottom picture looks a little phallic, but I promise I'm not happy to see you, HA!
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Derby 150
With the running of the 150th Kentucky Derby coming up Saturday, I thought I’d do a little reminiscing about the 11 Derbies that I shot for either the Louisville Courier-Journal or the Lexington Herald-Leader, as well as a few corporate gigs that I did at the Derby for Xerox.
I shot my first Derby for the Herald-Leader in 2004, which was the year of Smarty Jones. I didn’t work at Churchill Downs that year, but I covered the Derby at Keeneland in Lexington. Turns out, that place is packed each year for the Derby, and is a great atmosphere if you don’t want to go to Louisville.
The following year, I made it to Churchill and covered the infield during the day, and then the First Turn during the race for the Courier-Journal. The CJ does a piece each year in their print edition called “Around the Track,” which is a series of panoramic photos that show where each horse is during the race, and my part was at the First Turn. Jockey Mike Smith and Giacomo crossed the line at 50–1 odds in 2005 and came within a few feet of me as they made their victory lap back to the winners circle.
I remember it was so hot that year as I sat at my spot on the track, waiting for the race to start, that I paid some kid $5 to go get me a screw top 20 ounce Pepsi. After I drank it, I thought to myself that I may never have an opportunity to sit on the track and photograph the world’s greatest horse race ever again, so I scooped up dirt from the track into the empty Pepsi bottle to take home as a souvenir. Turns out, I made it back to the First Turn nine more times.
One of the most interesting moments of my entire career came in 2008. Just seconds after Big Brown won the Derby, he was making his way back to the winner’s circle, and instead of staying in the middle of the track as NBC’s reporter Britney Eurton interviewed jockey Kent Desormeaux, Big Brown pushed the outrider to the outside rail. He was literally on top of me, as I pushed as hard as I could against the chain link fence behind me to get enough separation for a shot. Technically, it wasn’t the greatest shot ever, but the fact that the Kentucky Derby winner was within inches of my lens, it was a pretty damn good shot!
But the joy ended there, because once Big Brown got past me, I saw that another horse was down on the track, back toward the back stretch. It was Eight Belles. She had to be euthanized on the track for a broken leg. I had a very graphic photo with the track’s vet pulling off the syringe cover with his mouth as he stood over top of the filly. At first, the CJ refused to run it all, which kind of confused me, but eventually they buried five of my photos in the online edition. I had mixed emotions about that because it was news and it happened in front of 158,000 people and on national television. But, in retrospect, it was probably too much reality for the general public, especially after Barbaro had died just two years earlier. Channel 36 in Lexington did an interview with me that explains it more.
I thoroughly enjoyed my time covering the Kentucky Derby. It was never about the money because I only made $250 for the day, which was a great day-rate for newspapers, but was only a fraction of what I make for the day as a corporate freelance photographer. I always loved the atmosphere of
the Derby because it was such a cultural paradox. In the grandstands you could see dresses, suits, cigars, and hats, that literally cost thousands of dollars, or you could go to the infield and some girl in a tank top and a pair of cut off jeans would flash her tits…just for the heck of it! You never knew what to expect in the infield.
I worked a couple of years for Xerox in addition to the CJ and made it up to the fringes of Millionaire Row. While there, I once stood in a buffet line and talked with NFL legend Terry Bradshaw, and once got a glimpse of Queen Elizabeth and Prince Phillip. But for the most part, I enjoyed the opportunity to photograph and document The Greatest Two Minutes in Sports, with ordinary people on all sides of the economic spectrum. As long as I live, I’ll never forget what it felt like to stand on the dirt, on the track of this famed venue, listening as they sang My Old Kentucky Home each year. It was one of the greatest treasures of my career! There’s nothing else like it. Weep no more my lady!!!
Eventually, my kids grew up and started going to prom, which was always on the first Saturday in May at their school. As much as I love photography, it’s like a mistress that is constantly pulling me away from my family. I decided that I had been there and done that with the Derby long enough, and that it was more important to be a Dad in Richmond than it was to be one of hundreds of photographers working the Derby in Louisville. With that, I shot my last Derby in 2014, and I now enjoy watching it on my couch, in the comforts of my own home, with a cold beer that didn’t cost $12!
And they're off....
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2014 First Turn
My first First Turn, 2005
Jockey Mike Smith celebrating after winning the 2005 Kentucky Derby with Giacomo.
I still have that Pepsi bottle with dirt from the track in my office.
The Eastern Progress Photo Editors Club working the Derby in 2009. Left to right, Kevin Martin (2000), myself (1991), Mark Cornelison (1989), & Rob Carr (1986).
Working for Xerox in 2010.
Working the infield.
Big Brown stuck his nose in my lens just a few seconds after winning the 2008 Kentucky Derby.
Eight Belles went down during the 2008 Derby.
The parade of owners and trainers before the race is always a specitale at the First Turn!
Calvin Borel celebrates with Super Saver after winning the 2010 Kentucky Derby, in a mudfest, seen below.
This guy from Chicago got creative with sneaking liquor into the infield. Is it a loaf of bread, or is it a pint of bourbon? Hard to tell!
The media center was the largest that I have ever worked in, with about 300 credentialled photographers. But you notice I'm up top looking down on the commoners, ha!, with the Courier-Journal, the Herald-Leader and the Associated Press. And the food there was freaking awesome!!!
Two Louisville Courier-Journal legends here. Michael Clevenger, left, and the venerable Bill Luster, right.
Self Portrait
My last view from the office, 2014.
My 2008 Interview with Channel 36 about the Eight Belles tragedy.