2017 Rich Mahan Best Student Portfolio
Gabriel Scarlett
2017 Rich Mahan Best Student Portfolio
Home for Brittany Hester, Jamal Wiley and Jamal Jr. is wherever they can be together, says Jamal, usually in a family shelter downtown. Jamal Jr. struggles with autism, which can at times exacerbate their already-precarious situation as a homeless family on the streets of San Francisco, but Jamal explains that the only solution is patience. In one of the wealthiest cities in the United States, income inequality is grossly apparent. "Remember what it was like to be low, so when you're high you can be kind," says Brittany. "When you're homeless, people tend to treat you bad and rudely. Remember when you're back on top to have compassion."
Gabriel Scarlett
2017 Rich Mahan Best Student Portfolio
Julian Rodriguez with his boy Christopher, the child that changed his life. Two years ago, with Christopher on the way, he chose sobriety and says that the bad will always come with the good. When I cried, I cried alone. I decided that I was done crying alone. When asked about his tattoo, Julian spoke of his brother called "Bone Head." He described him as a man that he adored and feared and depended on until the day when he died in a brutal firefight with the law. That's why Julian wears the bone face on his, so that every day he is reminded of the brother that he lost.
Gabriel Scarlett
2017 Rich Mahan Best Student Portfolio
From left to right, Hayley Hoback, Izzy Rager, Morgan Goetz and Rachel Shipp lean on one another at a vigil to memorialize their Alpha Gamma Delta sister, Stephanie Campbell, on Wednesday, Sept. 28 at the AGD sorority house. Campbell passed away Sunday, Sept. 25 as a result of a single-car accident on the Western Kentucky Parkway. "She has tattooed on her foot 'You can breathe,'" remembered Hayley Hoback at the vigil. "And that's what I can say to her. 'You can breathe now.' She's in a better place now."
Gabriel Scarlett
2017 Rich Mahan Best Student Portfolio
In an area of Farley, Kentucky nicknamed "Farlem" for its low income demographics, Jamie Ward searches through his home for enough pennies to purchase a six-pack of beer.
Gabriel Scarlett
2017 Rich Mahan Best Student Portfolio
A Navy sailor "mans the rails" as horses rush by during a race on Derby Day at the 143rd running of the Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs on May 6, 2017. The tradition originated with sailors standing at attention in a harbor waiting for incoming ships.
Gabriel Scarlett
2017 Rich Mahan Best Student Portfolio
Colorado Rockies pitcher German Marquez throws from the mound as the Rockies take on the Chicago White Sox on July 7, 2017 at Coors Field in Denver, Colorado. German pitched for seven strong innings while the Rockies offense came up with a 12-4 victory.
Gabriel Scarlett
2017 Rich Mahan Best Student Portfolio
Members of the Major Redz file out of the Downing Student Union before Western Kentucky University took on rivals Vanderbilt on Saturday, September 24, 2016. The group knelt during the playing of the national anthem in protest of the treatment of African-Americans across the country.
Gabriel Scarlett
2017 Rich Mahan Best Student Portfolio
Story Description: On July 16, 1945, the first atomic bomb detonation took place in a test explosion near Socorro, New Mexico, setting into motion an arms race that needed one main raw ingredient: weapons-grade uranium. Land in the American Southwest that was made up of barren desert scrub brush and sandstone mesas was found to be incredibly rich in uranium ore. The people of the Navajo Nation sat on some of the largest uranium deposits in the world. Hundreds of mines were opened and a boom began. But as is so often the case with indigenous populations, the vast majority of Navajos did not benefit from their own natural resources and unemployment now rests above 40 percent. Decades of irresponsible mining, chemical dumping, and radioactive spills have left large swathes of the Navajo Nation with crystal clear, yet contaminated and undrinkable ground water. More than a decade has passed since the last uranium was mined on Navajo land, but the death and disease it brought is far less removed. Over 30,000 sick Navajo miners have been compensated under the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act that awards a cash sum to those who can prove that they are sick or dying from their time spent working in the mines. Many more will die in the coming years, but their legacy is lost on much of the country. The president has called for a second nuclear arms race as miners still die from the first. In Navajo tradition, four sacred mountains are said to mark the edges of the Navajos land and are believed to watch over the people. In one prayer, the four mountains speak to the Navajo saying: My child I will feed you, give you good health, and I will give you strength and courage. My child I will give you clean air and clean water to drink. I am your Life. But from beneath the mountains on the Navajo Nation Reservation have come some of the richest deposits of uranium in the world, and with them sickness, suffering, pain, and loss. Today, the Navajo know this bitter irony all too well. They live it. ************************ Do you want me to show you where I dreamed of the water running? Desaire Gaddy muses. All through here, just blue water and dolphins. As dusk approaches, Desaire explores the dry scrubland that surrounds her rural home outside of Thoreau, NM. Gaddy was moved back onto the Navajo Nation Reservation from her life in Florida to stay with relatives who live without running water due to the ongoing water crisis. Most children grow up on the reservation knowing nothing of another life, but not she.
Gabriel Scarlett
2017 Rich Mahan Best Student Portfolio
A young Navajo boy plays with water spilled from one of his family's water barrels. The average American uses between 80 and 100 gallons of water each day. According to international water charity Dig Deep, many Navajo people use less than ten gallons each day in order to make it last and Navajo people are 67 times more likely than other Americans to live without running water. Were the forgotten ones, were the forgotten Americans, explained a struggling father who wished not to be named.
Gabriel Scarlett
2017 Rich Mahan Best Student Portfolio
Laticia Roman cries after getting shampoo in her eyes while her hair is washed in a small tub in the living room of her familys home near Thoreau. She always gets some of the soap in her eyes when she is washed in this way. Raising five children without running water means constant hardship for LaCinda and John Roman, but they remain positive. Its not the best place in the world, admits John. But being there for your kids is the only thing you can do.
Gabriel Scarlett
2017 Rich Mahan Best Student Portfolio
Larry Gordy struggles to explain the pain of raising a family on what he calls "a Native American prisoner of war camp." Living on poisoned land has killed his family members and affected his livestock, but he cannot imagine leaving the land of his Navajo people.
Gabriel Scarlett
2017 Rich Mahan Best Student Portfolio
Larry Gordy looks for his cattles tracks on an abandoned uranium mine near his home in Cameron, Arizona that has been left unreclaimed. As a child on the impoverished Navajo Nation Reservation, he remembers his excitement when he would camp out at the site alone, oblivious to the deadly radiation that maxes out most geiger counters. It was a pretend fort for him, the largest structure for miles was his playground. Now the mine stands as a painful reminder of what an industry did to his family and his people.
Gabriel Scarlett
2017 Rich Mahan Best Student Portfolio
Any time I think about it, I speak about it, I get angry. A retired uranium worker of over two decades reacts in frustration and anger as he explains the harmful practices he took part in during his years as an employee of the United Nuclear Corporation at their Church Rock Mill. His name is withheld for the safety of himself and his family. While working at the Church Rock Mill, he remembers taking part in chemical dumping, burning of official medical documents, and he vividly remembers the faulty practices that led up to the Church Rock Spill, the largest spilling of radioactive material in North American history. "Ive got stories about what we did, about what was done by the companies, about how they dont care about the people... A lot of times I shed a tear. I think about the elderly, I think about the kids." Now he is suffering from COPD associated with his elevated radiation exposure, but has still not received any benefits or compensation.
Gabriel Scarlett
2017 Rich Mahan Best Student Portfolio
Esther Atene began working as a RECA advocate after several of her family members passed away from cancer and respiratory diseases linked to their work in the mines. She holds a chest X-ray of one of the 50-plus Navajos for whom she has helped obtain compensation. This man has since died.
Gabriel Scarlett
2017 Rich Mahan Best Student Portfolio
David Neztsosie and his wife Helen at their home near Tuba City, AZ. Sick from his time in the mines, David now breathes off bottled oxygen. He recalls his many friends who passed away before him and the two young daughters that he buried before they reached high school. Both died of "Navajo Neuropathy," a deforming disease linked to the uranium he brought home on his clothes after his shifts in the mines.
Gabriel Scarlett
2017 Rich Mahan Best Student Portfolio
David Neztsosie rarely visits the gravesite of his two young daughters as visiting the dead is taboo in Navajo culture. He can no longer remember the names of his daughters who were confined to wheelchairs in middle school before passing away from what is believed to be exposure to uranium he brought back from the mines he worked in decades ago. Their condition was known as Navajo Neuropathy, and was likely contracted in utero as their mother was exposed to radiation.
Gabriel Scarlett
2017 Rich Mahan Best Student Portfolio
In her home in Monument Valley, UT, Elsie May Begay shows two of the sons she buried after their struggles with diseases she believes are linked to their exposure to uranium. Begay has lost count of the families members (at least one dozen) who have died. She wishes that uranium had never come to her family and her people.
Gabriel Scarlett
2017 Rich Mahan Best Student Portfolio
A moonrise can be seen from a Navajo home on the South Chavez Loop in New Mexico. Water barrels mark the entrance to many homes on the Reservation. With no running water in most sinks, kitchens just blend into the rest of the living area and centralized water barrels become almost like the heart of the home. In an interview with a reporter for Vice News, NTUA Deputy General Manager Rex Kontz stated that he does not believe that the crisis will be resolved in any fewer than 50 years and for any less than $5 billion. Many Navajo who have lived their whole lives without running water understand this and have decided to live the best life they can with what they have. I don't think about that no more," says Alice Long about being connected to the water lines. "I gave up on that a long time ago.
Gabriel Scarlett
2017 Rich Mahan Best Student Portfolio
Shawn and Taneka Hill brought their children to Colorado for a better life and for Shawn to find steady construction work. Despite his skill level and $25/hr wages, Shawn was never able to get his family in permanent housing and they shared a one bedroom unit at the Kings Inn Motel. The surge in housing prices has kept thousands in Denver area from escaping homelessness. For over a year, the Hills enjoyed the close knit community at Kings until new ownership took over and rent was increased several times. The evictions soon began and the they found themselves struggling to survive, moving from one motel to another. A family, on the brink. *************************** On a typically hot evening in July, Taneka Hill argues with fellow residents of the Kings Inn Motel about how to handle their current situation.
Gabriel Scarlett
2017 Rich Mahan Best Student Portfolio
Taneka takes another look across her family's room at the Kings Inn Motel as she gathers the possessions they most need. The ownership has frequently locked out residents who could not pay, often leaving their belongings in the parking lot.
Gabriel Scarlett
2017 Rich Mahan Best Student Portfolio
Taneka clutches her daughter Nessa close as a social worker takes her family by bus to another motel. They are hopeful for a better life once permanent housing is found.
Gabriel Scarlett
2017 Rich Mahan Best Student Portfolio
Taneka dries off her baby Nessa after a bath at the Stay Inn Motel. She spends each day caring for her four children while Shawn is out looking for work.
Gabriel Scarlett
2017 Rich Mahan Best Student Portfolio
Taneka's husband, Shawn Hill, reacts in frustration and begins to cry as he explains his family's situation to a relative. "I'm a man and I just can't do my job as a father to provide for my kids," he yells. "I know that however we come out of this, I will never forget this year. I will never forget how it felt to be this low."
Gabriel Scarlett
2017 Rich Mahan Best Student Portfolio
Taneka's son, Jaydon Carter, watches television late on the night before his first day of school. Because of the family's move, he is unsure of what school he will attend and if he will be separated from his closest friends.
Gabriel Scarlett
2017 Rich Mahan Best Student Portfolio
Taneka embraces Jaydon as he starts at a new school. The future was hopeful as Taneka spent the day searching for permanent housing for their family. But they only spent three more weeks in Colorado before the motel living became unsustainable and Taneka was forced to bring her family to stay with relatives 1400 miles away in Atlanta. A family on the brink, they simply could not afford Colorado.
Gabriel Scarlett
2017 Rich Mahan Best Student Portfolio
Jaydon waits between buses on his way to school. He has to make his to school each day from the motel, but he said he is excited to be reunited with his friends.
Gabriel Scarlett
2017 Rich Mahan Best Student Portfolio
Story Description: After a summer spent in Colorado, what remains with me is a place and a people that exists far from the cliches and conventions of this state so shallowly understood. Colorado has a little bit of everything, and this is my incomplete record, these my disjointed vignettes. This is the Colorado of poetry, the Colorado that I love. This is the Colorado that brought me to my knees. I took the good with the bad, the strange with the beautifuland this is what stayed with me. ********************* A young First Communicant wanders through a distracted crowd, following her holy sacrament at a church in Pueblo, Colorado on June 18, 2017. Her congregation is now celebrating the Feast of Corpus Christi with a procession after Mass.
Gabriel Scarlett
2017 Rich Mahan Best Student Portfolio
Mathias Svalina begins delivering dreams (individually-written poems) on bike to subscribers in the Denver area every day before dawn. Dreams, June 2017: "You are walking in the desert before dawn when you come to great pit. The pit extends as far as you can see. It is full of scaffolding & cranes & half-built skyscrapers & new condos. Workers in hardhats & orange vests rush about, lifting beams & digging trenches & welding things to other things. They are building a brand new city in the pit, a city of right angles & white paint & freshly cut stone. A city of tomorrow. Then the sun rises over the horizon & sunlight beams into the pit. Where the sunlight hits it melts the pit-city, the half-built structures turning into water, the scaffolding collapsing into puddles. They have built pit-city out of ice. They must have known it would melt when the sun came out. You decide to write a song about this, a song called The Ballad of Pit City. Before you can write the song you need to find a guitar. You walk down into Pit City, hoping to find a music store or a pawn shop, but all the buildings have melted. The workers are huddled in the shady edges of the pit. You walk up to a worker & ask where you might find a guitar. Not here, the worker says, not now. But you should try tomorrow. We rebuild this city every night once the sun goes down. You thank the worker & walk through the flooded puddles of the melted city. And who is this person walking beside you, carrying a bundle of firewood? It is enough to know they are a friend."
Gabriel Scarlett
2017 Rich Mahan Best Student Portfolio
Birds fill the sky near Salida, Colorado.
Gabriel Scarlett
2017 Rich Mahan Best Student Portfolio
At a meet up for Fort Collins Flat Earth, a woman shields her eyes from the camera. All members are skeptical of the science behind a spherical Earth and some even doubt the theory of gravity. Half a dozen children attended as well.
Gabriel Scarlett
2017 Rich Mahan Best Student Portfolio
Burn zone near White River. The 2002 Big Fish Fire was one of Colorado's largest, burning 17,056 acres.
Gabriel Scarlett
2017 Rich Mahan Best Student Portfolio
Michael McCabe at a memorial for his girlfriend Rebecca Wingo who was killed in a theater in Aurora, Colorado in 2012. Dozens of victims and family members sued Cinemark for what they say were security flaws that allowed the attacker to kill 12 and wound 70. None of the plaintiffs were allowed to testify and a jury decided that the shooting was an unforeseeable tragedy. Additional security measures were not ordered. Michael frequently returns by himself to the Century 16 (now renamed) with a backpack just to see if he will be searched. He never is.
Gabriel Scarlett
2017 Rich Mahan Best Student Portfolio
A flag is lit by a solar-powered lawn lamp for drivers on Interstate 25 near Dacono. Casualties for Coloradoans in Iraqi Freedom are 66 and 36 in Enduring Freedom.
Gabriel Scarlett
2017 Rich Mahan Best Student Portfolio
Emory Townsend stops for a lunch break with his dog Molly while delivering the mail on his route from the Somerset, CO post office. At 93, Emory in the oldest mail carrier in the state and possibly in the country. After 60 years of delivering mail, Townsend says that, to him, "this is more of a vacation than a job."
Gabriel Scarlett
2017 Rich Mahan Best Student Portfolio
Kayla is a homeless middle schooler living out of the Stay Inn motel in Aurora, CO. She recently won a scholarship for her writing and proudly displays one of her short stories about a massacre at a carnival titled "Pop Goes The Weasle." Shot on 120 film.
Gabriel Scarlett
2017 Rich Mahan Best Student Portfolio
Like many residents of the Tres Colonias neighborhoods of Fort Collins, Jose Sandoval was first drawn to the area for its cheap homes for farm laborers. He came from Chihuahua, Mexico in 1975 and eventually bought his home for $14,000. With expansive development and the New Belgium Brewing company just across the street, home prices have soared (one recently sold for over $350,000). Sandoval and others are losing their neighborhood.
Gabriel Scarlett
2017 Rich Mahan Best Student Portfolio
A plywood church in a field outside of Palisade, Colorado. Shot on 120 film.
Gabriel Scarlett
2017 Rich Mahan Best Student Portfolio
My sister Natalie and her Imogen. "When I take her down to the waters edge, when I hold her tiny foot in the cold, and clear, when I stand in it and splash for her entertainment, all the waters from all these histories collide. From the puddle of amniotic fluid that soaked my toes in the hospital to the puddles I couldnt leap while pregnant, from the laboring hallucinations and flashbacks to the contractions like waves, from the obsidian pools of her eyes just opening to her searching, piercing expressions, all water flows to the lowest point. Imogens eyes dig into me, hollowing and filling me. Her eyes, like whetstones on which I must drag my meanings and hone my understanding, ask and ask and ask. Water always flows to the deepest place." Natalie. Shot on 120 film.
Gabriel Scarlett