FOTOS

 

JL:  Can you tell me about the town of White Clay?

DMK:  The town of White Clay is just across the border from Pine Ridge (they have a population of about 20 in that town) and they sell more alcohol in that town than in any other town in the state of  Nebraska because that is where all of the Indians go to drink. 

Here is kind of the beginning of the landscapes and the people.  This is the beginning of the series.  All of these landscapes are on Pine Ridge and all of the people here are Lakota people.  So this is where I was going with this.  I find it interesting because even though I am showing poor people, people that are drinking; I still think that there is a pride that comes through these people.  So it kind of became important to me after doing the two series of dancers to start showing this other side of their life.  And so, this series began.

At about the same time this series began, the rest of my life fell apart.  This is like in the late nineties.  This was one of those crisis points that everyone seems to go through once in a while. I got divorced after 25 years of marriage.  My son went away to school and then my house burned down.  The shit just hit the fan big time.  Then I spent a year and a half rebuilding the house. The only good thing from that period is that I met a great girl, Heather Howard. Somebody came along and wanted to buy my house and so I sold the house and bought the airstream and Heather and I started traveling America.

Downtown White Clay Nebraska , February 2003

Bed hwy 27 1TL
Gordon, Nebraska
November 10, 2004
 

JL:  So where did you head out first?  Did you have a plan?

DMK:  A had a little bit of a plan. I had a friend in Omaha, Nebraska that owns a really big building here; he's another photographer, the guy's name is Dan Templeton - a very good photographer.  He had a big basement in the building that wasn't being used for anything so he told me that I could put my darkroom there. So we set up the darkrooms in Omaha, and then I just took off down the road.  When I did it, I thought that it would be just a year.  At the end of the year, I would have some great pictures and I would have a good idea of where I wanted to live and then I would just settle down.  And now in February, it will be two years and I have no intention of settling down, I really like being out on the road. 

JL:  So it's kind of gotten into your blood - the nomadic type of lifestyle.

DMK:  Yes, but also the photographic type of lifestyle.  Initially I thought that what I was going to really enjoy the most and what was going to have the most meaning for me was going to be the landscape work.  I was really thinking of it in terms of touring America and photographing landscapes.  The portrait aspect of it I didn't really get at that point, but now what I am finding is that the portrait work that I'm doing is becoming more important to me than the landscape work and you know it's amazing to me because I tour down the road; sometimes I'll stop somewhere for a week or several  days and other times I'll be driving every day and I'll see interesting people and I'll just stop and start talking to them and only after a couple of minutes I'll just say I would like to do your portrait, can I do your portrait - and it's amazing how everybody says yes.  They don't ask why.  Sometimes I explain what I am doing.  But, most of the time they don't ask why and I'm shooting with a very weird 4x5 camera on a tripod and my portrait exposures range from 1/2 a second to a one second exposure; so they have to hold still - which really involves them in the process.  And I am just loving what I am getting.  It's just amazing how open and honest people are.

 

JL: What are the new works like?

DMK:  Wait till you see the new stuff.  I am just now finishing up all the stuff I've done up to this point - there's some new cowboy stuff.  It just gets better every time.  And hopefully in about a week to two weeks, I'll have everything scanned and on the web.

JL:  What other places have you traveled to besides out west?

DMK:  We have been to the eastern, northernmost tip of Maine to California.  We spent a lot of time in Louisiana, in Maine, a lot of time in Texas.  The only area that I hadn't really done is the pacific northwest.  I had just left Yellowstone Park up in Wyoming and I was heading up into Montana when I freaked out - I couldn't find an internet connection, I couldn't find fed ex, I couldn't get my mail.  We were up in a primitive place.  We have been pretty much all over the country.  There are subsections in there that I like.  The long horns in Texas. 

JL:  The long horn photos in Liberty Texas are really nice .

 

Longhorn1
Liberty Texas
June 2004

Trailer 1C
Merritt Reservoir
Nebraska
October 27, 2004

 

JL:  You've got some great portraits here.

DMK:  We met VR Hilton there.  We pulled into a gas station.  The airstream was parked next to an old truck that had a cattle hauler in the back of it with a long horn in it was really great.  So I asked the guy if I could photograph it.  The end result was that they invited us to their ranch.  We spent three weeks in Liberty Texas staying with this guy VR Hilton who was an all faith minister living in his place going out everyday photographing his long horns.

JL:  You got some amazing shots.  Another one that is really interesting is one from key west Florida of that house with the bicycle hanging off of the second floor railings.

From what you have experienced traveling across the US and with what is going on at this time. What are people's sentiments like, or what are they thinking about?

 

DMK:  It is interesting in that people seem to be kind of positive.  I am a bit surprised in that with all the bad stuff that's going on in our country right now, I sort of thought that people were going to be more hostile, more uptight - there's a lot of people that seem really kind of worried and freaked out by everything that is going on, but there is a spirit - there's a positive- ness - there's a belief in humanity that seems to run through everybody - there's a picture that is going to go up very soon - a guy named Clarence and his wife Betty.  Clarence and Betty they must be in their late 80s.  And Clarence just had a heart attack about 4 years ago.  Amazing people.  Clarence made an electric tractor like 30 years ago.  He built it and it runs totally on solar electricity.  This is from scraps.  Then he built solar panels to heat his house and all his hot water, and the basic component was beer cans.  He built this 20 years ago. 

JL:  You photographed this?

DMK:  Yes.  It is just going out and seeing the ingenuity that they have and the positiveness and the taking control of their own lives, it is very refreshing.  It has been very refreshing and a very positive experience meeting all of these folks.  And seeing that even with all of the adversity that's going on they still have a belief in themselves and in other people and in life.

 

Tommy Chambers 1TR
Salton Sea CA

Boat in Fog
Bass Harbor
Mount Desert Island, Maine
August 3, 2004

JL:  Is there any particular place that really stood out in your mind more than any other places, or one particular experience that you've had that you would like to talk about?

DMK:  So many of them.  I loved Wyoming.  I spent time with a wonderful photographer - a guy named Elijah Cobb.  I used his dark room.  Elijah was a photographer for 18 years in New York City and then he moved to Wyoming.  It was wonderful spending time with him.  VR Hilton was an amazing man.  Everyone was just amazing.  Everywhere I go I am meeting incredible people and incredible land. 

JL:  Are you thinking of doing an exhibition at some point or doing a book?

DMK:  Most definitely.  An exhibition and a very big book. I have always wanted to do a book - but I didn't want to do a celebrity book or an Indian book; but now I have a very clear definition of what I want to do.

 

www.davidmichaelkennedy.com