barn hand luke

Luke is the barn hand at the boarding ranch my mother uses for her horse. I've only "known" him for about 2 years, and have been interested in photographing him for about as long. Single, he lives alone on this ranch tending to the horses 7 days a week.

He wakes up at 5, begins feeding and turning the horses out from their stalls, goes back home for breakfast and a shave, and returns to begin cleaning up after them and all the duties in between. He says the worst part of his job is when he has to help put a horse down.

Originally from a small town in North Carolina, Luke left his family farm at age 20 after his father died and hasn't returned. His sense of humor rivals the day in day out work of caring for horses as he jokes about being kidnapped by a pretty woman and never returning.

He doesn't leave the ranch very often, in fact he says he would like to drive in to San Antonio (45 minutes down the highway) to see his old friends but that that would cost him too much in gas, and he just "don't" have the time or money for that. With a heavy draw of a southern accent, he fits right in this scene and for the last 25 years says he is happy to be doing what he does with the horses - making sure they're alright.

summer celebs

There are no limits of personal boundary or curiousity with this girl. A young girl, 7 years old, although she will tell you she is in her late twenties and is the so called pop celebrity star Hannah Montana. I have had a blast talking to her, answering her questions like, "you're so skinny, are you this skinny in real life?" and asking a few of my own. I'm glad I could jump in on the tail end of summer in Texas, to dive in a body of water that is clean, to teach a kid how to swim and be privy to summer celebrities in my own backyard.

readjustment

It has only been 2 or 3 weeks since I left Armenia, and I find myself perplexed at how fast it has become a memory. While I am happy to be home, to be with my family and good friends, to sleep in air conditioning, to eat anything I want anytime - I miss the landscape of Armenia, the spoken language and just being there. After compiling about 30 of my favorite images from my 2 years there (I should have way more, but inch anem?) I am thinking about ways to exhibit them and introduce Americans to the social and cultural world of Armenia. But mostly I just wanted to post another photo, to create something, maybe to hold on to something, to find a tiny escape from the tumbling change that my life is going through. These pictures come from a small village near the Georgian border, Bagratashen.