Desert Tango

These images are the first in a series of posts about a recent trip I made to Tuba City, Ariz. on the Navajo Reservation to photograph people affected by the Bennett Freeze. The Bennett Freeze is a 1.6 million acre tract of land known that, for over 40 years, has been frozen from development due to land dispute claims between the Navajo and Hopi. Because of it’s disputed nature, no federal dollars could go into improving and developing the land, leaving many with no access to running water and electricity. The freeze was officially lifted in May of this year by Congress, but I wanted to take a look and see what, if any, effect this may have had to people living on Bennett Freeze land.

This particular part of the series focuses on the family of Irene George with emphasis on her daughter Denise Almeida. About three years ago Denise’s mobile home burned to the ground, leaving her family of 9 with nowhere to live. They ended up in a small travel trailer on her mothers property on the outskirts of Tuba City, sleeping eight people in the smallest of spaces with nothing but a small electric heater to keep them warm. For a variety of reasons, Almeida has not been able to receive help.

After spending three days shooting in Tuba City, Arizona on the Navajo Reservation, I’ve spent the past two days editing images from the three separate stories I worked on while there. I think I’ve got an edit down, which will run as a centerpiece and photo page in this Saturday’s edition of the Gallup Independent. Meanwhile, I wanted to share this fun photo from one of those stories. It doesn’t quite fit in with other images in the edit, but I love the color and simplicity.

I photograph a lot of kids. They’re easy features, what can I say? The top photo is from a Trike-a-thon at the University of New Mexico Gallup’s daycare center. The kids at the daycare had trike races and a few other games on a beautiful sunny New Mexic0 afternoon.  It was pretty funny watching the little ones zoom around. The other photo is from a parade of sorts.  Some kids from a local elementary school received a grant from the city of Gallup and had a parade to celebrate.

While I was out feature hunting a few weeks back, I came across Ric Sarracino, owner of the Gallup business “Signs of the Times”, painting a billboard along Historic Route 66.  I’d met Sarracino before when I photographed him painting the Gallup Hispanics mural as part of Gallup’s Downtown Mural Project. This time around, I was amazed as I sat there watching him to learn that he hand painted all of the letters on the sign. A better overall photo can be found here.

On Wednesday, Veteran’s Day to be exact, I was walking back from a spot news assignment that turned out to be a bust. No big deal, because on my way back to my home (the spot news happened to be a block away from my house) I came across these kids and their father, who was burying them up to their necks in sand. It took a while before the kids would stop staring at the camera and go about their business as usual, but I was pretty pleased with the results once they did.

This summer I spent a few days at the Navajo Nation Fair in Window Rock, Ariz. While I was there a big gorgeous thunder storm rolled through the area.