Manic American, Author at The Manic American

Summary graphic: People fool around on an empty train car during late-night service hours.

Up All Night: Riding the Late Night T Service in Boston

On: 03/30/2014

In 2014 the MBTA restored late night subway service to Boston on weekends. I stayed out all night the first two nights of the service to see who took advantage of it.

Summary graphic: A young Black man stands behind a counter, surrounded by menu boards and family photos. He is smiling and spreading his hands out across the counter.

An Introduction to Memphis

On: 03/13/2014

In: Memphis, Photo Essays

These are the people of Memphis, the people whose drive, whose passion, we have captured in our photographs.

Summary graphic: A man bends over, exhausted, over a not-yet-set up tent in a grassy field crossed with tire tracks. Behind him, the sun sets through sparse trees and over what might be drainage openings in a retaining wall while a woman unloads a car.

Alone, Surrounded, and Haunted: Two Nights at Mississippi’s POW Lake

On: 02/18/2014

In: Deep South

We look at one another. Are we really going to camp here? We’re in the middle of nowhere Mississippi, we have no map, there are no other people, and the forest may or may not be haunted by Nazi ghosts…

Biloxi Strong

On: 02/13/2014

In: Deep South

Four years after Katrina, the devastation wrought by the storm was still visible along the Mississippi coast. The resilience of the local community was just as easy to see.

Summary graphic: A Waffle House at night. The composition of the photos and the people inside the restaurant are reminiscent of Edward Hopper’s “Nighthawks” painting.

“Wafflehawks”

On: 02/09/2014

In: Deep South

It’s night. A group of figures sits around a counter as light streams out of the building. You don’t know who they are or what they are thinking, but the scene feels familiar nonetheless.

Summary photo: Construction workers work on the exterior of the Basilica de la Sagrada Familia beside scaffolding.

10 Photos: The Workers of La Sagrada Familia

On: 01/30/2014

In: Europe, Photo Essays

While most visitors are gazing up to the heavens, something else is happening at Gaudí’s soaring La Sagrada Familia. Teams of workers are busy building the basilica.

Summary graphic: Two people, mother and son, pose for a photo outside of Snow’s BBQ during a break in their work. The son wears overalls, both wear Snow’s branded t-shirts and aprons. The composition echoes Grant Wood’s “American Gothic” painting, but is by no means a recreation.

An Introduction to American Barbecue

On: 12/22/2013

In: American Barbecue, Photo Essays

Barbecue is an American tradition that reveals as much about those who make as it does about the location where it is made. These twelve photos will introduce you to some of the places we’ve been and people we’ve met so far.

Summary graphic: A man chops whole hog barbecue in the kitchen of a restaurant.

The Capital of East Carolina Whole Hog Barbecue: Photos from the Skylight Inn

On: 11/24/2013

In: Carolina BBQ, Photo Essays

Known as “Pete Jones” to the locals in tiny Ayden, North Carolina, the Skylight Inn is probably the most famous stronghold of East Carolina barbecue.

“East Somerville”

On: 10/31/2013

In: Boston, Dignity Hunts

Elements of “old” and “new” East Somerville collided during the East End Grille’s Oktoberfest party, and we were able to capture this commingling in one image.

Manic American (Page 8)