Looking back: “A Day in the Life of…”

I was really lucky as I got to work on a series of books in the 1980’s into the early 2000’s, “A Day in the Life” (DITLO), that included Canada, America, California,  the Soviet Union, China, Spain, Italy, Ireland, Africa, and other variations on that theme: Passage to Vietnam, Christmas in America, 24 Hours in Cyberspace, A day in the Life of the United States Armed Forces, The Power to Heal, America 24/7, and Baseball in America. 

From “A Day in the Life of America”. My assignment was to photograph the weather observatory atop Mt Washington, in New Hampshire. This is home of the “worst weather on earth”, having endured a storm with 231 mph recorded winds. I hiked down from atop that mountain, with a guide, Joe Lentini, then working with EMS. We fought 75mph+ winds on our over 5 hour descent of the mountain.

Invitations for those books were often sent in a cryptic method: for China, we were sent a copy of “Iron and Silk”, about a young American who went to China to teach English, even though he barely knew any Cantonese or Han. The invitees for the book had to decipher the message, though not really too hard, to determine where we were going.   They were such cool books to be invited to participate, as only 50-100, international, top-notch photographers were invited. Becky and I were in the Greek Islands, on a 3-month trip with her brother, Mike.  He’d convinced us to take the time for an adventure like this, and so glad we did as it turned out to be an amazing adventure, one of which we still speak fondly. I had to take a leave of absence from my job at the Dallas Time Herald to do it. 

3 Photos above: from “Passage to Vietnam”, my assignment was to photograph in the small, mountainous village of Sapa, in far northwest Vietnam, near the Chinese border

Above photo: On a collective horse farm near Poltava, in the Ukraine, a traditional horse riding drill, “Kiss a girl.”

The DITLO book were always headquartered in the host countries major city.  As the DITLO America book got to #1 on the NY Times Bestsellers list, staying there for a year plus, the founders of the project had, pretty much, carte blanche on the following books.  Sponsors covered all costs, including airlines and accommodations., In the early days, we were generally paid in equipment, gear, or computers.  Rick Smolan, the original founder, was good friends with Steve Jobs, so on a few DITLO books our payment was the latest, greatest Mac computer.  This is the reasons, to this day, we’re a Mac family. 

These were incredible projects, partly because it would be the chance to be around your peers.  Few people understood the dynamics, stress/pressures, magic, and electricity of being a freelance photojournalist, so here was the chance to be around those who understood this world.  Plus, many dear friends were involved.    

My assignment for DITLO China was to go to far western China, flying into the industrial city of  Ürümqi(Urumchi)- in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region in Northwestern China  also  known as one of the most polluted cities on earth (a fact of which has nothing to do with this story.) 

Photo above: “A Day in the Life of China”. Kazakh horsemen play a traditional horse-riding drill, “Catch the sheep Carcass”

From there, it was a 4-wheel drive truck hours out into the Kazakh indigenous peoples territory, a culture based on sheep raising and horses.  They do a traditional event, Catch the Sheep Carcass: starting the game on horseback, several riders chasing a live sheep, then fighting over picking it up.  The sheep I photographed was alive for just a short time, being ripped from one rider’s hands to another.  

Photo above: I photographed these two kids on their horse, the one on the left was worried I would tell his mom he was smoking.

For the China book, we started in Beijing, staying in a hotel near the Forbidden Palace. This had the same feeling as working on DITLO USSR, you felt like you were in the “maw of the beast.” Moscow had us staying near and wandering through Red Square, China was the eastern variation on that same theme. 

Photo above: Youth group in Tiananmen Square

This group of photos is from the Day in the Life of China book. I had been assigned a translator and a Red Army Major for the trip out to Urumchi.  On the way back, we took a train, the Major was quite relieved as everything had gone well, he was responsible for a westerner not creating problems.  On that train, we stopped at some small town’s station, and he left our compartment to get food for us. I was sitting looking out the window when I saw all these soldiers, on a track adjacent to ours, pouring out of another trai.  I thought that would be cool to photograph, so jumped out and started shooting.  The soldiers’ reactions were all over the place, laughing or almost terrified. One officer (he’s walking up on the right) was really taken aback.  I realized I may have pushed the boundaries and started walking back to our train when I saw the Major, food in hand and stopped dead in his tracks, staring at me.  The officer walked up to him, they were in heated discussion, so when they both looked back at me, in my hand I already pulled a new roll of film out of my bag(unbeknownst to them) and a made a display of pretending to open my camera then pulled the film out of the canister, showing them that I destroyed it.  The relief on my Major’s face was palpable.  I later found out that the soldiers were being transported into Beijing to reinforce the troops at Tiananmen Square as the government knew the student protests were going to happen. 

Photo below: Soldiers disembarking the train

Photo above: when I first leapt out of train in the station on our way back to Beijing, this group of soldiers were quite uncertain about my presence there.

Photo below: Within a few minutes, several soldiers were hamming it up for the camera

Photo above: after a few minutes, the officer on the right quickly approached to find out why a westerner was there.

The story goes on from here, having to do with a dog that attacked me near a Kazakh’s yurt, thought it might be rabid, ridiculous and stressful attempt to get out of Beijing with two canceled flights, then being told, when I got to hospital in Hong Kong, that nothing they could do for me as it had been too many days, oh, “and by the way, rabies could be the worst way you could die.”  You’ll have to buy me a beer to hear the rest.