Located in the southwestern corner of Fresno County, Huron lacks what most towns take for
granted – a newspaper, high school, movie theater, pharmacy . . .Chamber of Commerce . . .
Ugly, dusty, dangerous, corrupt, and impoverished, it is little more than a giant farm
labor exploitation camp. No one has ever investigated Huron because it is too remote and
dangerous. One mayor resigned after his car was shot up by assassins welding AK-47s. A
councilwoman had her home bombed. Another mayor died in prison; his son was assassinated.
Since 1988, Huron has had 26 different chiefs of police. For several years it had no
police. Shrines to murdered gang members stand outside the bars, in lots, beside fences,
and on the edge of Keenan Park. Police wage a loosing war against Bulldogs and Nortenos,
the two gangs which control the drug trade and murder one another with impunity.
I am a bilingual, academically-trained historian/photojournalist (Ph. D. Wisconsin), author of a multi-volume scholarly history of California farmworkers. I founded my own business, Streetshots agricultural photography. For 30 years I worked as an agricultural photographer/journalist, defined broadly, in order to remain submerged in the industry that is the setting for my field of expertise.
Awards Maine Media Award for Photojournalism
Howard Chapnick Award for Photojournalism
Mark Lynton History Award
Best Agricultural Reporting In California
Guggenheim Fellowship
