To Find Shelter (ongoing project)

Portrait Series/Photo Essay I started last week for class:

To Find Shelter

On the road trips of my youth, I remember brief stays in motels with nightly rates of thirty or forty dollars. Along the arterial highway system of middle America, thousands of motels welcome travelers and transients. More hidden are those who call these places home.

Motel owners, young families, the mentally and physically ill, the lonely and the fulfilled all call these places home. Some arrived as travelers and chose to stay. Others arrived with one suitcase knowing this would be home. Whatever their story, necessity brings them and keeps them in the motels of Cave City, Kentucky. 

For most, being near family and loved ones in enough. The motel setting is secondary. Sitting in her room with her two grandchildren, Janice Shore explains: ”My grandkids are my heart. I always want them around.” She is preparing to celebrate Christmas with them and has a present for each under her small tree in the corner of her room.

In another room, Kansas and Ben Shepherd raise a small baby dolled named Jovy Marie as their own children. At 51, Kansas explains that her baby is everything. “Every day that I take a breath, it’s because of her. I believe she is the reason I am here. She gives me life like I used to have with my kids.” 

To find shelter is one of man’s oldest struggles–a human struggle alive and well today.




First Video Assignment

So here is my first stab at video. The assignment was to find a musician in the Bowling Green area, interview them, and mix it with B-roll. I’ve got a long ways to go, but it was certainly a fun–slightly stressful–time.

Using Format