Tag: Brendan Hoffman

Brendan Hoffman had just started photographing Iowa’s political rituals in 2011 when he went to Webster City, where Tim Pawlenty, the former Minnesota governor seeking the Republican nomination, had a campaign stop at a golf course. At the event, Mr. Hoffman, learned that Webster City’s largest employer, Electrolux, had recently closed its local factory. Mr. Hoffman decided to take a step back from the campaign trail to explore the effects of that economic setback on Webster City and its residents.

Brendan Hoffman ‘s project, Webster City, speaks, in a profound way, to America today. It’s the America that is often overlooked, often forgotten, and may have affected the outcome of our recent presidential election. What happens to a community reliant on one employer, when that company moves its business elsewhere?  Brendan has provided a thoughtful photographic essay on Americans trying to cope with change and loss, noting his own struggles with the dilemma of a journalist interpreting a community and a lost American dream , as an outsider.

The photo in this gallery of the funeral procession was taken with my professional camera. I did it this way for two reasons. First, I didn’t have a good photo from my phone to post but I wanted to share the story of a civilian killed in tragic circumstances. Second, in the context of a funeral, when people are allowing you to photograph a very personal and difficult situation you owe it to the family to make strong pictures, with a purpose. Something about pulling out a phone to photograph a corpse strikes me as undermining the promise of professionalism that allowed access in the first place.