Saturday Nights at the VFW

In January, I went to the VFW in White River Junction, VT along with a few of the people I've been photographing from Roger's house. I had so much fun that I decided to go back and focus on a Saturday night- and the most popular band- Yvonne and the Reverbs, for one of my monthly photo stories. The Reverbs have been playing together for 43 years, and many of the dancing couples have been following the band for decades. It was a wonderful, fun, community atmosphere.

I spent the day in Newbury, VT and at Jay Peak Resort in nearby Jay, VT photographing for Jim Kenyon's story for the Valley News about the billions of dollars being poured in to the Northeast Kingdom region of Vermont by foreign investors who receive green cards in exchange for investments of $500,000.00. Jay Peak has been the first to receive funds from this project, and they've built a giant indoor water park to transform their ski mountain into a year-round resort. The town of Newbury, VT is the second recipient of this funding- the sleepy post-industrial town on the shores of Lake Memphremagog will soon see a new bio-research lab, new factories, and two hotels. The only lodging to speak of in Newbury at the moment is the 400 bed prison. I spent a few hours photographing business owners in Newbury who will be affected by the demolition of a block of stores to make way for a conference center. I then moved on to the Pump House Indoor Water Park at Jay Peak to photograph Bill Stenger, co-owner and CEO of Jay Peak, and the goings-on at the waterpark itself.

I met John Hammond of Cornish yesterday when I was working on a story about how the trains that run through the Upper Valley will be increasing their top speed from 55mph to 80mph. While this cuts down on travel time for Amtrak passengers, farmers who use un-gated agricultural crossings will be more at danger than before, including Hammond, who uses 4 different agricultural crossings to move his horses around the fields.

I photographed my second year of Town Meetings yesterday for the Valley News. I always love Town Meeting days for the freedom we get to photograph the quirky events that occur and for the collaboration that occurs between the four photographers as we edit our work together and discuss the layout. I went to Barnard, VT and Pomfret, VT yesterday, and was happy with the light and the beautiful simplicity in both of their town halls. Here are some of my picks from yesterday. I'll probably be posting outtakes (and some from NH town meetings- coming next week- at a later time)