Author: erikeisele

More to do…

Things just don’t seem to get any less busy.

F.E.M.A. is in town to help clean up after Irene, and the police department has a crisis on its hands that requires a special town meeting. Today I tried to write complex stories that just didn’t seem to be able to find a way out of me. If I were to sit down and explain it to readers one-on-one it would work, but with all the twists and turns it felt like I kept running into dead-ends. Luckily toward the end of the day it all started coming together.

These have been crazy weeks lately. I’ve got piles of stories I’m sitting on because they aren’t time sensitive and I don’t have the time. A month ago I had the opposite problem. I guess too much to write about is better than too little, but I’m looking forward to the weekend!

9/11 Early

Yesterday I interviewed a woman who was blocks away from the World Trade Center buildings when they were hit. An officemate found two men who were working in the Pentagon when it got hit. A week or so ago I interviewed a soldier who was awarded a medal for his actions in Afghanistan. We are planning what should be a fantastic September 11 issue, much of the coverage directly linked to what happened that day or what came from it.

On Marketplace last night, however, they covered what impacts the policy shifts after 9/11 wrought. It’s a subject worth delving into, even though it’s ephemeral. I’m interested to see how other major media outlets approach the subject. What will reflection bring? What will the ultimate legacy of 9/11 be? Someone on Marketplace compared it to how the previous generation viewed JFK’s assassination—everyone knows where they were when they heard what happened. Those stories are bound to come out. What I want to know is how we approach 9/11 going forward. Hopefully the national media has the clarity of vision to ask those questions going forward.

One Lane

This is the bridge D.O.T. has installed over the Sawyer River on Route 302. It went in yesterday. Before that, people had to climb down into the debris and then out.

I saw a guy walk his bike over it and then continue on, so obviously it’s working. Not as well as some people would like, however. The guys working there said they expected to get the temporary bridge in and operational in three weeks. It will go on the foundation of the old bridge, which I was told got taken down 40 years ago.

So people are making do. It isn’t ideal, and a number of people have told me they can’t go to work because of the damage, but the darkest days are likely past.

Check out my Conway Daily Sun coverage so far:

Monday

Tuesday

Wednesday

And surely more to come.

GO, GO, GO!

Four days into Irene coverage, Gov. John Lynch stopped by. It was the same day a presidential candidate stopped in, and the same day I decided to tour the area hit hardest by the storm, and a day after someone got killed by their own tractor.

Some days come faster than others.

A guy this morning was driving through Transville Acres, where numerous houses got flooded, dropping leaflets on cars destroyed in the flood saying he buys junk cars. He wasn’t trying to profit off other people’s loss, he said, but these people could probably use a couple hundred bucks.

One guy lost something like eight guitars. Another guy lost thousands of dollars in power tools. And Buddy Roemer couldn’t stop calling me “Virginia,” after he asked if I was from Texas and I said no, I was born in Charlottesville.

Days like this are few and far between, but it had me shooting photos, pushing a Harvard educated economist, former congressman and governor on trade policy, asking the governor what the state would do for these people and talking with a guy whose trailer got tossed like a horseshoe.

I love this job. Every day should be as good.

Weddings and Hurricanes

My sister got married on Saturday, and on Sunday my wife and I got stranded in Portland trying to make our way back home to New Hampshire during the tail end of Irene. Several rivers near our house flooded, knocking out all roads. We got the call and detoured to a friend’s house in Portland.

So I’ve been trying to shoot more photos lately, and I was excited for this weekend to be able to shoot my sister’s wedding. Little did I know how many photos I’d be able to take once I got home. The only problem has been all the reporting I need to do. Between major roads being closed and individuals losing everything they own I haven’t had much free time. I stayed out extra-late trying to talk to people whose homes got wrecked, but that turned out to be a bit of a bust. I did get to go into this woman’s house, but the man who let me didn’t let me take any pictures. He said it was his father-in-law’s girlfriend’s house. The water was up over her kitchen counter and already the place smelled like rot. I didn’t get to take any photos with me, but the smell was something I’ll hold onto.

So all I’ve got right now are wedding photos, so they are what I’m posting. Soon enough, however, I should be able to land some flood pictures, just as soon as I take a break from writing about it.

Full wedding photos here.

STOP DRIVING!

Luckily I was the one driving at 45 m.p.h. when I saw a tractor in a field and the voice in my head screamed PULL OVER! I had a bag full of camera gear slated for my sister’s wedding, and there was on way I was going to miss the chance to capture a fantastic representation of a late summer day.

This was the first photo of the weekend, one thus far dominated by trying to capture the atmosphere at the festivities. I’m not the photographer for the ceremony, but I wanted to be able to give my sister a bunch of shots to remember her day. I’ve still got a few hours before the wedding itself starts, but here are a few from the rehearsal.

Sometimes You Don’t Know What You Have

I shot this photo today of Steve, a 21-year-old man just back from Afghanistan. He won several medals while he was there, and his grandmother is from Fryeburg. I’m writing something up for our 9/11 10 year anniversary edition. Steve is going to send me some photos of him from while he was in Afghanistan, so the photo was an afterthought. I was flipping through the images on my computer tonight, however, and I came upon this one. Now, granted, I know he was part of team that was attacked after an IED attack, and he was one of those who counterattacked and maybe saved someone’s life. I also know he was at his base when IDF—indirect fire—started raining down, and he and the rest of his platoon left the protection of the bunker to respond with M240 Bravos. And I know when I was his age I just as easily could have joined the army because my hometown seemed boring. But the fact is I look at this photo, his anchored gaze, and it catches me. I feel like he can see me now, hours after I thanked him for his service. It is an incredibly powerful image, because it shows just who is risking and sacrificing for the United States: kids. Well-intentioned, friendly kids. Kids who loved the Red Sox in 2001, when the war he just returned from started.

That’s why I love photojournalism—one photo can change your entire day, your entire experience, your entire life. One shot can tell a story. This one does for me.

(Unfortunately the colors don’t reproduce well here. I’ve got to figure that out.)