I went to Mount Vernon, Iowa, with the aim work as an ‘embedded’ photographer at a small town in America. This resulted in a short ‘internship’ at the local newspaper, The Sun.
Besides the local news they provided, their employees and offices play a central social role in the Mount Vernon community. Teaming up with a reporter of The Sun we went to local events where I took pictures to illustrate the items for the local newspaper.
Meanwhile I continued to shoot pictures on the side in a documentary style. As I planned the process of taking news pictures influenced the documentary pictures in this book.
I found myself in the middle of community life and got insight in the everyday life and worries of the local people. During my two-week stay everything revolved around pre- Halloween, the autumn, the harvest, city council meetings, football and unfornunate who got ill. Besides these reoccurring events nothing really happenend. Looking for some action I went on patrol with the local police. During the night patrol we got bored so the policeman introduced me during his shift to his family. Together we drove to the woods and looked for deers with te police spoltlight to pass time.
Fortunately I wasn’t looking for ‘breaking news’, but to experience and photograph every day life in a small American town.
