Recently I had the opportunity to follow a family of three dealing with problems leading up to the deployment of the mom, Joy Mack, for an 18 month tour of duty in Afghanistan. Many people in the local community are volunteering to help her in these last few weeks before she was set up to ship off to the Middle East.
Mack lives in Puyallup Washington with her two daughters Kori and Megan. Members of the local American Legion along with a volunteer from the Seattle Seahawks, the NFL team based in Seattle. Here are some photos from my first visit with the family. I was sent to cover the volunteers helping the family. On this day a few volunteers came over to help clear the yard of the overgrown blackberry bushes and other debris that the family obviously could not find time for in the rush to get prepared to go off to war.
The younger daughter Megan, was pretty much in love with my camera. It's always tough in those situations to shoot accordingly. As a photojournalist the most important thing I strive for is capturing real moments that would have happened as if I were not there. So whenever she would do goofy things, obviously just because I was there I would take a few photos to make her happy and then just sort of filter away into the background letting her do her own thing. Usually while shooting regular assignments it's tough to really 'disappear' and have the subject fell totally comfortable with you there. That's why it is great to get into longer term stories, where you become something of the norm and the subject becomes comfortable with you around taking photos.
Here are some of my favorites and a few examples of how hard it is to just blend in and shoot in a new environment.
Thanks for looking,
Brad Vest
Listening to: Falling down, Oasis
Joy Mack is an Army Specialist being deployed for training in January before being sent for a tour in Afghanistan sometime in March, Sunday, December 14, 2008, in Puyallup. Mack is receiving a lot of help from the American Legion and other volunteers before being deployed.
(Brad Vest/Seattle Post-Intelligencer)
Joy Mack, left, along with volunteer Mike Flood, the Vice President/Community Relations & Special Projects for the Seahawks, help clean up around Mack's yard by clearing blackberry bushes and other debris on Sunday, December 14, 2008, in Puyallup.
(Brad Vest/Seattle Post-Intelligencer)
This is a photo I've taken hundreds of times. I shoot the person straight on with a little of their clothing showing and then record an audio clip with their name and information for my captions. Sometimes they turn out to be great portraits even though I am just shooting them randomly and quickly moving from subject to subject.
Army Specialist Joy Mack, left, kisses her daughter's, Megan, 6, injury from a blackberry bush while working outside with volunteers to clean up around Mack's yard by clearing blackberry bushes and other debris on Sunday, December 14, 2008, in Puyallup.
(Brad Vest/Seattle Post-Intelligencer)
The daughters were very into drawing and other forms of artwork. They spent a lot of time showing my their artwork. Again, it is sort of hard to work and make pictures when you are obviously having an impact on being there. It was fun how open the family was and accepting they were to having me there documenting their lives.
Megan gets her boots on to go outside an help her mother cut back some of the blackberry bushes that have overgrown their lawn, Sunday, December 14, 2008, in Puyallup.
(Brad Vest/Seattle Post-Intelligencer)
Megan puts her hat on to go outside an help her mother cut back some of the blackberry bushes that have overgrown their lawn, Sunday, December 14, 2008, in Puyallup.
(Brad Vest/Seattle Post-Intelligencer)
Army Specialist Joy Mack, left, helps her daughter, Megan, 6, with her gloves while working outside with volunteers to clean up around Mack's yard by clearing blackberry bushes and other debris on Sunday, December 14, 2008, in Puyallup.
(Brad Vest/Seattle Post-Intelligencer)
Joy Mack gives Mike Flood, Seattle Seahawks Vice President / Community Relations & Special Projects, a hug after he helped clean up around Mack's yard by clearing blackberry bushes and other debris on Sunday, December 14, 2008, in Puyallup. Mack has seen an outpouring of support for her and her family in the last few weeks before heading off in January for training and her upcoming tour in Afghanistan.
(Brad Vest/Seattle Post-Intelligencer)
At some point in time I was attacked while taking pictures outside. It is tough to blend in, especially around kids sometimes that always just want to play and have fun. You just have to let them do what they do and eventually their interest in the new guy with a camera will fade.
7 comments:
hahaha the last one is hilarious. good stuff.
yea i like the colors in the straight on portrait.
It's also hard to stay hidden when you are a giant. I know your pain.
Yeah, the portrait of the little girl is great. I would have liked to see some more of the other shots closer up too- if you'd moved in close with the wide angle or a 50mm. That moment with the hurt finger from the blackberry bush gets lost in the wide frame. I want more close-up, medium, overall variety. Definitely a nice story though. That's awesome that the girl latched onto your leg. Gotta love kids just being kids. Nice stuff dude.
omg, that was me when i was younger.... heheheh...im 13 now, and i still remember some of times. :) thanks for the comments :) glad you liked seeing me when i was young and being silly .
I'm Kori, Joy's other daughter :) she's re-married, she met my stepdad while she was deployed in Afghanistan and they got married in 2010, she is in school currently and is getting her Masters in Social Work. Megan and I are now teenagers, I'm 19 and Megan is 14. This is really nostalgic, I love looking through these photos. Thank you so much for being there and documenting this. You're a really great person and your photography is lovely!
And she's divorced again and screwing my husband.
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