[Leica] Abandoned union hall

[john at chiaroscuro.co.nz (John McMaster)]

That has really struck me. I watched  "Gasland" during the week and that was
far worse than (me as a pessimist)  had ever seen as the US. I have tried to
earn a living from fine art/B&W work in the Uk but moved to far more
lucrative areas outside of photography :-(  Watching Gasland made me far
less optimistic about the future....

John - NZ

-----Original Message-----

Most of them I'm talking about are people who came from middle class
families and were basically never able to find jobs after graduating. It
costs a lot of money to move to one of the few places where there are decent
jobs. If you've never had a good job, you have no money to even put gas in
the car to drive to another city on the other side of a continent-sized
country.

Think about it, to move, you need money to rent an apartment, pay deposits,
get utilities turned on, etc. and still have money to eat while looking for
a job, which can take months even in places where the economy I much better
than Fort Wayne. In the cities where there are jobs for college grads, rents
can often be $1000 or more a month for a tiny apartment and you typically
have to pay a security deposit equal to a months rent in addition to the
first month's rent when you move in.

These middle class kids have no money and their families can't afford to
give them several thousand dollars to move, rent a place to live, and
support them financially until they get jobs.

You know how I moved to Santa Fe? My family threw me out in the streets to
starve because all they care about is money and appearances, which is very
common here in Indiana. They were embarrassed that I couldn't find a job and
told me straight out that the money it cost to feed me was more than I was
worth.

I knew a woman in Santa Fe that I met on a dating website who kept trying to
get me to go out there and be with her, we talked for a year or so before I
went there. I kept telling her that she didn't want to have me thee because
I probably wouldn't be able to find a job. I had applied for more than 800
jobs in the midwest (not just FW, I looked in Indianapolis, Toledo, Chicago,
Louisville...all major cities close to Ft. Wayne). I got exactly ONE
interview from 800+ applications and was not hired.

The girl in New Mexico told me she didn't care about money, so I sold an
antique fishing lure that an old man in my neighborhood had given me when I
was a kid. It was worth $1100! I used the money to put gas in my car and pay
for hotels and food on the trip out there. Its a 3 day drive! If I had not
gone there, I would be dead today. Even now, I have no family, except my
son, and no one but him cares if I live or die in this goddamned shithole
city.

I came back here almost 3 yrs ago because my son's mother, who had custody
of him, is mentally ill and her condition was getting really bad. Soon after
I moved back, she was institutionalized by the state and I got custody of my
son, who is now 14. We are stuck here until he turns 18, the law forbids me
to move him out of state without his mother's permission (and if he lived
with her, she would be under the same restriction). She won't give it, so we
have 4 more yrs to go.

It has been very hard. I have a patron in NM who has kept us from starving,
and in the last couple years I have finally had some success selling my work
off my website, and I do occasional web design and graphic design jobs for
people who find me online. I get no business locally for the same reason I
didn't before I left years ago. My family is white trash; I am the 7th
person in our family's history to even graduate from high school, so I am
not important enough, nor is my family, for me to be considered for any
creative work here. There are so many unemployable artists here that only
those from wealthy backgrounds are even considered. You cannot imagine how
many times businessmen here told me that my work is some of the very best
they have ever seen, but they cannot have me do photography or design work
for them because of my family background. Discriminating based on class is
perfectly legal in the USA. My income is 100% out of state, people in Santa
Fe I did work for still come to me and I get sales of my prints from my
website and I license my pictures for commercial uses.

You know what's sad? As hard as things have been for me, I am doing really
well by the standards of this place. Unemployment here is nearly 30% and
everyone is losing their jobs and homes. I don't have to work a real job
because I have my income from my out of state clients, and I live very
simply. I wear old torn up clothes, because that stuff is not important to
me. I drive an old junk car. I buy used books, not new ones. I do spend
money on my son, he wears nice new clothes and has nice things. I'm willing
to go without things, but I won't make him live like a monk. I have two
Leicas and some lenses. Life is good!

Most of the people here will not have the ability to leave. I had some
strange things happen that made it all work (how many young graduates have a
$1100 antique fishing lure to sell or someone in another state willing to
feed them?). My story of being abandoned by my family as an embarrassment is
not unique here. I know several young people with degrees who have become
homeless that way. Some found friends to take them in, some found ways to
leave town, some...dissappeared. The government doesn't give a damn, and the
middle class here sees us as failures and a scary reminder that what they
have can also be taken away. The ruling class went for the poor first, now
the middle class is being crushed. Mexicans who sneak into the USA to find
jobs are often called Wetbacks (a reference to them wading across the Rio
Grande river, which separates Texas from Mexico). I wonder how long it'll be
before Americans become Canada's 'wetbacks'? Mexico is not really a poor
country, but its rulers just don't give a damn about the people. 98% of the
wealth there is held by 2% of the people. The USA's rulers see that as the
goal to be achieved!



On 6/3/11 3:43 AM, "Nathan Wajsman" <photo at frozenlight.eu> wrote:

> Japan and China are different, in Japan there is the overall 
> demographic decline, which is now beginning in China as well. The US 
> population is growing, on the other hand, and in general, historically 
> Americans have been much more willing to uproot themselves in search 
> for better opportunities than any other people.
> 
> On Jun 3, 2011, at 9:10 AM, Richard Man wrote:
> 
>> Not sure about Ft. Wayne specifically, but there are definitely towns 
>> in decline. Detroit is a prime example of a major city in decline.
>> 
>> Some of these eventually turn into ghost towns, probably not Detroit nor
Ft.
>> Wayne, but smaller ones do run into trouble.
>> 
>> In Japan, when similar things happen, usually when villagers move to 
>> the cities, some times the central government would force the smaller 
>> towns and cities to merge with neighboring cities.
>> 
>> I suspect we will see things like that to happen in China soon too. 
>> They are building a lot of industrial cities
>> 
>> On Thu, Jun 2, 2011 at 11:41 PM, Nathan Wajsman
<photo at frozenlight.eu>wrote:
>> 
>>> Hi Chris,
>>> 
>>> Your photography of the industrial decline is moving; but one 
>>> question
>>> arises: you say that even educated people cannot find good jobs in Ft.
>>> Wayne. Given the tendency in the US to move where the jobs are, why 
>>> do they stay?
>>>