Monthly Archive for September, 2013

TV cameras roll as fireworks explode over a crowd gathered to see Punxsutawney Phil’s annual prediction in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania on Thursday, February 2, 2012.

Matt Eich

Fear and Self Loathing in America

[ EPF 2013 SHORTLIST ]

ESSAY CONTAINS EXPLICIT CONTENT

For the last eight years I have catalogued the American experience in pictures, trying to understand this country by focusing on specific places, on community and on the issues they embody. My hope was that these examinations of microcosms of America would allow for a deeper view of the nation as a whole.

My generation lives in a constantly changing world, swept down a river of information with our eyes to the future and a shrinking awareness of the past.

On a personal level, I am apathetic and I am impassioned. I am afraid of being alone; I am afraid of being around people. I fear losing my family, but I fear fully being a part of it. To reconcile these conflicting impulses, I make pictures all the time. For me, to photograph is an extension of seeing, and to see is to acknowledge. It is a ritual and a compulsion. It is a way of filtering the world, of marking things as beautiful and collecting them. It is a way of understanding things that confuse me; and trying to articulate thoughts that are still forming, ones I have yet to find words for.

A dancer is reflected in the glass ceiling of the world famous Mons Venus strip club in Tampa, Florida on August 7, 2009.

Danny’s Softee Freeze on the outskirts of Ashland, Pennsylvania on Wednesday, February 8, 2012.

A hymnal lays open to the song “Amazing Grace” and is held open by a rock at the site where a church once stood in Joplin, Missouri on June 25, 2011. When the Joplin tornado of 2011 hit the town, a wall collapsed in the church, killing several congregants.

A man rides a plane from Charlotte, North Carolina to Norfolk, Virginia on July 10, 2011.

A man leans a cross upon a naked tree, next to a tattered American flag outside of a church that was destroyed by the Joplin tornado, on June 25, 2011 in Jopin, Missouri.

Dawn breaks over the TVA coal ash breach in Harriman, Tennessee on Saturday, January 3, 2009.

Curtis “Rebel” Rageur plants a second bullet in the head of a gator that kept moving after being hauled into the boat while hunting for alligators near Shell Island, Louisiana on September 20, 2009. Each gator is then tagged before being piled in the bottom of the boat.

A masked girl watches the Mardi Gras parade pass by her home in Mamou, Louisiana on Tuesday, February 16, 2010.

Mardi Gras celebrations in Mamou, Louisiana on Tuesday, February 16, 2010.

Horses are hitched in front of a convenience store during Mardi Gras celebrations in Mamou, Louisiana on Tuesday, February 16, 2010.

After the swearing-in of congressmen at the beginning of the 112th Congress at the United States Capital in Washington, DC on Wednesday, January 5, 2011.

A chef rides the elevator at The Capital Hill Club during a gathering for Freshman Congressman Adam Kinzinger, 32, (Republican, Illinois) with supporters after being sworn in to office at the United States Capital in Washington, DC on Wednesday, January 5, 2011. He will be a member of the 112th Congress, and represents the 11th Congressional District.

Assignments for magazines such as Esquire, TIME, GQ and others have taken me into places I wouldn’t otherwise be allowed. With support from BURN I will explore places the magazines will never send me and see parts of this country that I only dream of. The disenchantment of my generation is reflective of our nation’s transitional status from superpower to something less absolute. I will use this funding to continue creating a catalogue of a country in decline.

The photographs are not to be read as condemnation, but rather a call for people to question the things they hold as truth, and to challenge our notions of the world we inhabit. By asking for your support, I am requesting the ability to move freely, to see without constraint, and to soak in the American experience, distilling the photographs into a series that poses the questions that rattle around in our minds as Americans during this time of flux.

People disperse after a cabinet meeting in the Statehouse in Columbus, Ohio on Friday, February 25, 2011. Governor John Kasich is a advocate for Senate Bill 5, which would eliminate collective bargaining rights for state workers. Governor Kasich claims this a necessary reaction to the state’s current budget crisis.

Diesel drums in cars explode after being shot with tracer bullets at the Knob Creek Machine Gun Night Shoot in West Point, Kentucky on April 9, 2011.

(L-R) Ryan Slagle, 10, (hand visible), Justin Kaitchuck, 10, and Kris Clark, 10, carry recently caught snakes near the river in Thermopolis, Wyoming on Sunday, August 21, 2011.

A woman exits the subway in Manhattan in New York City on April 16, 2013.

Steve “Spud” Evely calls the dogs after “cocktail hour” where the dogs are allowed to socialize the night before a hunt at Hard Away Whitworth Hunt Club in Greensboro, Alabama on December 8, 2012.

Roy McMillan protests Jackson Women’s Health clinic in Jackson, Mississippi on November 9, 2012. This is the last abortion clinic in the state of Mississippi.

Mike Sells (center) dons a mask and hops in a casket outside of the 55th Annual Sweetwater Rattlesnake Round-Up in Sweetwater, Texas on Saturday, March 9, 2013. Sells puts the casket outside each year as a way of pranking folks driving by.

Madelyn Eich, 4, looks on as her great-grandfather Eugene Martin embraces his girlfriend, Anne Stultz, prior to his 89th birthday at his home in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, on September 24, 2011.

A quincea–era ceremony at St. Joseph’s Catholic Church in Dalton, Georgia on July 17, 2011.

The Whitehall Trojans High School football team practicing in Whitehall, Montana on Tuesday, August 23, 2011.

An older man and woman drive the highways of Virginia on August 7, 2011.

An American flag hangs in the doorway of an abandoned shop in the Williamsburg neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York on April 15, 2013.

Bio

Matt Eich was born in Richmond, Virginia in 1986 and is the oldest of four children. He studied photojournalism at Ohio University and works for clients that include GQ, Esquire, Mother Jones, TIME, FADER, Harper’s, National Geographic, Apple, Tiffany & Company, Republic Records and others.

Matt has been named one of PDN’s 30 Emerging Photographers to Watch and participated in the Joop Swart Masterclass in 2009. He is the recipient of POYi’s Community Awareness Award and numerous other accolades. He has received support of grants from NPPA, ShootQ/Pictage, Aaron Siskind Foundation, Alexia Foundation and National Geographic Magazine. His work has been shown internationally in galleries and festivals and his prints are in the permanent collections of The Portland Art Museum and The Museum of Fine Arts Houston.

These days Eich lives in Norfolk, Virginia with his wife and two children while compulsively documenting everything around him.

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Matt Eich

Philanthropist Dede Wilsey (left) talks with Boaz Mazour and Lucy Hamilton during intermission at the San Francisco Opera Opening Night Gala. Arts organizations in San Francisco rely on the patronage of wealthy donors for the majority of their funding and throw elaborate parties with the hope that making patrons feel part of a community will inspire large donations.

Laura Morton

The Social Stage

[ EPF 2013 SHORTLIST ]

San Francisco, California has a thriving culture of what is often referred to as high society. This small group of wealthy people attends numerous glamorous social events with each other throughout the year to socialize while financially supporting local cultural institutions and other charity organizations.

These elaborate events give participants a chance to dress up, mingle with one another and generally see and be seen on the social stage. While some donors prefer to keep a low profile, those who attend the parties generally do so to put themselves on display and be part of the scene. Such an outright display of wealth seems ostentatious to many outsiders, but the cultural institutions and other charity organizations in the city rely on the patronage of these donors for the majority of their funding. The goal of the parties is to keep patrons happy and make them feel like their status as a donor makes them part of a special community so that they’ll continue to give large sums of money.

Socialite Charlotte Shultz walks past a model dressed as a temple guard from “Samson and Delilah,” the opera being performed that night, during the San Francisco Opera Opening Night Gala.

Guests of the San Francisco Ballet Opening Night Gala descend the stairs of City Hall while making their way from dinner to the performance. The galas are often all night affairs consisting of a cocktail hour, dinner, performance and an after party.

Tanya Powell, Marie Ralph, Aimee West and Marie Hurabiell (left to right) chat with one another during the cocktail hour while attending the San Francisco Ballet Opening Night Gala at City Hall. Many patrons participate in numerous social events with one another throughout the year and some become close friends.

Susan Tamagni (center) leads other opera patrons from the cocktail hour to the dinner tent during the San Francisco Opera Opening Night Gala. Tamagni held the prestigious position of co-charwoman of the event that evening and was responsible for organizing the gala.

Vogue Editor in Chief Anna Wintour (center) sits down to dinner with California Lieutenant Governor Gavin Newsom and the actress Mia Wasikowska during a gala for the opening of the exhibit Balenciaga and Spain at the de Young Museum. A Vogue editor curated the exhibit and as a result the gala drew a more fashionable and famous crowd than what is usually seen in San Francisco.

Jewelle Taylor Gibbs takes a sip from her cocktail during a gala to celebrate the first anniversary of the Museum of the African Diaspora at San Francisco City Hall.

Chip Zecher, Mark Wagoner, Alan Malouf and Matthew Kimball (left to right) compare their cufflinks with one another during intermission at the San Francisco Opera Opening Night Gala at War Memorial Opera House.

Gary Shansby, O.J. Shansby, Yurie Pascarella, Seth Matarasso and Carl Pascarella, left to right, all regular fixtures on the San Francisco social scene, joke around with one another during intermission at the San Francisco Ballet Opening Night Gala.

Dede Wilsey walks to dinner while attending the San Francisco Symphony Opening Night Gala. Wilsey is one of the most important patrons of the arts in San Francisco and a favorite on the social scene.

Nancy Kukacka stands outside the opera house before entering the San Francisco Opera Opening Night Gala.

Deepa Pakianathan gets a thumbs up of approval on her gown from Daniel Diaz (left) while arriving at the opera house to attend the San Francisco Opera Opening Night gala. Pakianathan, a venture capitalist, is one of a new breed of socialites who mix high-powered careers with their social obligations.

When I first came across this world I was fascinated by the way these events bring to the surface several aspects of human nature that I was interested in exploring and I began to document how people behaved when they put themselves on display in this public arena. I’ve found the parties to be a place where feelings of pride, ambition, power, envy and anxiety are on full display.

Documenting this world also provides a glimpse into the lifestyle and personality of a certain group of America’s privileged upper class. When the recent economic crisis worsened what was already a widening gap between the wealthiest individuals in the world and everyone else, I became increasingly interested in examining wealth and the effect it has on the individuals who have it. I plan to continue photographing not only in San Francisco, but also hope to document this community in other parts of the country and explore of what this type of wealth looks like across America.

Deepa Pakianathan gets a thumbs up of approval on her gown from Daniel Diaz (left) while arriving at the opera house to attend the San Francisco Opera Opening Night gala. Pakianathan, a venture capitalist, is one of a new breed of socialites who mix high-powered careers with their social obligations.

Trevor Traina and his wife Alexis Traina walk past Charlot Malin (left) during intermission in the hallway outside the box seats at the San Francisco Opera Opening Night Gala. The boxes are the most coveted seats in the opera house so the hallway outside is the place to see and be seen during intermission.

Kate Chung (right) and her husband David Chung mingle with other guests of the San Francisco Ballet Opening Night gala during a performance intermission.

Joy Bianchi (center) tries to make her way through the crowded hallway outside the box seats during intermission at the San Francisco Ballet opening night gala.

Gala chairwoman Shannon Cronan (left) checks out the decorations with other members of the ballet auxiliary before the start of the San Francisco Ballet Opening Night Gala at City Hall.

Shannon Bavaro (left) tries on jewelry designer Amber Marie Bently’s ring while attending the Midwinter Gala at the de Young Museum in San Francisco. The party is a fundraiser designed to get younger patrons interested in the museum and is one of the major fashion events of the year for those who attend.

Belinda Barry, Roger Barnett and Gary Shansby (left to right) survey the scene while arriving at the cocktail hour during the San Francisco Ballet Opening Night Gala.

Paul Pelosi leans in to speak with socialite Denise Hale, one of the most respected grande dames of San Francisco society, during the cocktail hour at the San Francisco Ballet Opening Night Gala.

Alan Malouf (left) helps his friend Elisabeth Thieriot keep her gown dry while moving from dinner to the performance during a rainstorm at the San Francisco Ballet Opening Night Gala.

First Anniversary Gala Celebration at City Hall for the Museum of the African Diaspora. (Laura Morton/Special to the Chronicle)

Fashion designer Jean Paul Gaultier, his muse and former model Farida Khelfa and society columnist Jennifer Raiser (left to right) enjoy a private party in Gaultier’s honor to celebrate the opening of an exhibit of his work at the de Young Museum.

Vanessa Getty leans in to speak with her friend Juliet de Baubigny during cocktail hour at the Modern Ball, a fundraiser for the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.

Deepa Pakianathan dances during the after party for the San Francisco Ballet Opening Night Gala. Galas often have an after party where patrons mix with a younger crowd with the hope that the next generation will become interested in the organization and someday become patrons.

Bio

Laura Morton, born in 1984, is a freelance photojournalist currently based in San Francisco, California. She grew up in Maryland and then attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Laura graduated in 2006 with a degree in Political Science and Journalism. After completing photography internships with The Seattle Times and San Francisco Chronicle, Laura started her freelance career in San Francisco where she continued to work as a regular contributor to the San Francisco Chronicle. Some of her other freelance clients have included The Wall Street Journal, Corbis Images and The Los Angeles Times. Laura’s project ‘The Social Stage’ was awarded in the 2012 PDN Photo Annual and was a winner of the 2013 Hearst 8 X 10 Photography Biennial. In 2012, she was selected for a scholarship masterclass organized by Look3 Festival of the Photograph with photographer Bruce Gilden. Laura is also a winner of the 2013 Magenta Foundation’s Flash Forward Emerging Photographers exchange.

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Laura Morton