By Martha Mintz, Coral Creek Communications, 2019 First Place Winner, Photo Essay
As much as I grumble about how hot, dusty and early the day started, what I wouldn’t give to be back in that gritty branding corral today. In a time when we are striving for isolation, this photo story was ironically about people coming together.
The piece was on how Navajo cattle producers banded together to create a uniformly managed beef product. Together, they forged relationships with food distributors, school districts, chefs, grocers and more. These relationships and the resulting contracts shifted their product from being sold at a steep discount due to poor local markets to a premium product put to good use in tribe owned casinos and nourishing the children of their community.
The branding I chronicled was a day of work, training and relationship building. The Navajo language, Diné, intertwined with English as instructions were related. There was a great sense of pride throughout the day. Pride in making a long tradition of livestock production viable for another generation. Pride in language. Pride in product. Pride in the community.
As the story was about people, most of the photos featured people. All head and shoulders shots would have made a boring piece. Catching people in action, from different angles, and in varying light made for great diversity, but it was also important to look for the little interactions.
While we had the typical branders and ropers, it was fun to try and capture photos of people that reflected their positions, thoughts or relationships with each other. A favorite was that of a young child looking impatiently through the fence. He kept his eyes glued to his dad, waiting to get tagged in to show off his roping skills.
I had three pages but could have filled so many more with photos. It was a classic case of so many good photos on the cutting room floor as they weren’t needed to further illustrate the story. We all know that pain, but hopefully it never stops us from shooting way too many photos.
