Missing Aurora

Lately I've been missing my time out in Aurora. It felt like the work that we did out there meant more to the community. Sure, the circulation out there was better than where I'm at now, but it also seemed that the stories themselves had more complexity; something which isn't the product of sales, more the desire on behalf of the reporters and photojournalists to do good work. But I also don't want to idealize the paper either. There were a lot of head-scratching assignments there as well, just not as many.

Even this assignment, a ride-along with an ice cream truck driver, had deeper implications within it. For instance, it turned out that most of her colleagues wouldn't drive the route she took because it went through the Jericho Apartment Complex, which has a historically high crime rate, and where I took this picture of the child on the curb.

She would tell me that other drivers had been jumped while winding through the complex, simply because the teenagers there were bored or wanted money. For the younger kids, there was absolutely nothing to do. The complex itself is sort of enclosed and on the edge of town by some farms, but not near anything. The kids mostly have to fend for themselves.

Rough Draft

When I take pictures of friends, I often use the opportunities as a "rough draft" for future assignments to shoot. This particular picture of my girlfriend is based on an earlier picture that I took a year before, and most likely will manifest itself in a different way sometime in the future. As it is there's no real meaning to the photo; its usefulness is as a sketch for something farther along.