VA: Remote Area Medical 2

Stella Barr & Montana Mccall, 21, Gladsprings, Va.
Last year, Stella's daughter, and Montana's girlfriend, Andrea had both her wisdom teeth pulled, this year it's Stella's son Tommy's turn. The Barrs and company arrived the day before the clinic began and all received numbers in the single digits and teens. Tommy arrived after his shift that night and received a number in the 700's. The following day he decided not to wait in line for hours on end, despite the pleas of his mother and girlfriend.

VA: Remote Area Medical 1

Mitchell Boggs, Pennington Gap, Va.
Last year Mitchell had all of his teeth pulled. The first day we met he said they would be mailing his dentures to him the next week. The day after he had been entered into a lottery and wasn't sure if he would receive his dentures or not. After an entire year without teeth Bogg's friend Ralph said he had lost a lot of weight and I relied on Ralph to translate Mitchell's garbled speech.

I spent this past weekend in Wise, Va. photographing a Remote Area Medical expedition for NPR. The gallery follows one woman through her experience over the course of the weekend but along the way I encountered many touching, heart breaking, and even infuriating stories. It was such an honor and pleasure to work side by side with a reporter and producer, their sound really captured the essence of the place and people and our photo editor complemented the piece beautifully with stunning portraits of patients and doctors. It's the type of story that reminds me time and time again why NPR is such a remarkable place.

I wish I had collected some of my own tape to give these other people a voice. Next time...

DC: BBQ

"You know we're getting old when the fridge is full of good beer..." throw in some good friends, and good food, and you've got the perfect equation for a summer afternoon.

NYC: Chinatown

I spent an amazing weekend in NYC a few weeks ago and shot my first roll of color film in years. I have been tangled in a long passionate affair with film since my mom gave me my first yellow plastic point and shoot when I was 13. Now, like then, I find shooting with a set number of frames, with no idea what may end up on the reel, both terrifying and exhilarating. After roll upon roll of black and white, a friend of mine, and devout Eggleston follower, asked me why I don't shoot in color. I didn't have a good answer. Getting back this roll felt a lot like magic.