Untitled Podcast Project

Blending photography and podcasts

This project was birthed out of the contentious political situation surrounding the 2020 election, and the clear political divide between urban and rural areas. It was frustration over countless urban-dwellers turning up their noses at rural areas, or acting as if their concerns were somehow less important. I wanted to create a project to foster empathy across the urban/rural divide, and show the hardships a lot of rural people are facing, and how that may not differ too much from the hardships faced by those living in urban poverty.

The fact of the matter is that rural America and small town America has been completely gutted by the corporations that gutted my city. The industry is gone; the wealth is gone. This is what informs my ideology and worldview.

I wanted to create a podcast and photo series together to solve a couple of problems.

1. The problem of no communication or understanding given to rural people by urbanites or vice versa

2. The problem of the arts ignoring or exploiting poverty, rather than understanding it or seeking to aid it

3. The problem of the arts being seen as some out of touch or bourgeois engagement, rather than a fundamental tool for fostering empathy and understanding of our world

These problems can be addressed by marrying the vernacular of a podcast, which is popular, consumed, and informs people’s thinking, with the tradition of street and portrait photography, which are strictly in the world of fine arts.

The early forays in this project were focused on Colorado, highlighting the towns of Elizabeth and Brush. Brush sits as a shadow of its former self, and Elizabeth struggles with the expanding Denver suburbs threatening its way of life. Both have incredible stories to tell, and the photographs speak for themselves. I then conducted interviews with someone from each town to discuss what it is like to live there, who they are, and how they think about the world around them.

I soon realized, however, that these issues I was touching on certainly exist in Colorado, but are not unique there. This is a project that deserves a regional or even national approach, which I will be pursuing in 2021.