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1....... 12-30 AM Louisiana ...... Well its midnight after a fruitless search for a hotel or motel anywhere in the vicinity. So Im parked in Grand Isle. Its dark obviously but I've decided where I need to be on the beach as the dawn breaks so I am parked pretty well as close as is possible to that point....... Just on water logged sand and gravel that makes a rough car park in the center of the single street little beach town....... I am facing the dunes waiting for the first hint of light tomorrow morning ...... so now to sleep in the drivers seat......... this feels rather familiar even though its a while since a story demanded a night in the car........... slightly sordid but at least its not cold ...... in fact its boiling hot and humid in the 80's in the middle of the night even here on the coast ........ so here we go looking forward to a comfy night with my alarm set for 5AM.........

2...... 6-30PM Air corridor over Georgia ....... I am now on the flight to NYC ....... Im a little tired after that early start..... but it was worth it I think....... with pretty good light first thing........ first light was hinting in the sky at 5-15AM....... Anyway, I managed not to get nicked and fined $40,000 for being on the beach with the oil prevention booms etc ..... so that in itself was a result........

Yeah this whole story had a blast from the past vibe....... it was so car orientated........ I drove to Baton Rouge and back to New Orleans twice....... down to Grand Isle, and the airport at Houma and back to New Orleans 3 or 4 times........ out to new Iberia and back a couple of times....... down to Venice from Baton Rouge...... from Venice to Houston in Texas........ then on to Blessing Texas....... then back to Grand Isle LA ....... Im not sure what that all adds up to but it must be a good 2 or 3 thousand miles...... in 10 days while doing a whole ton of everything else too...... and basically trying to drive only at night to use the daylight for shooting............. oddly all the driving reminds me of working in Britain....... we used to drive everywhere in the UK...... shoot then drive...... in the US I mostly fly..... then pick up a rental car..... but this thing of living in the car really reminds me of working in Britain and also of other photojournalistic assignments all over the world from an era over 10 years back..... in South Africa we would always drive crazy distances and basically live in the car...... in Rwanda too...... and Bosnia........ blah blah......

Ed the writer was going nutz cos of the driving (he had another rental car and was also driving himself)........ it is a bit of a killer........ I managed to do the drive to Texas in one hit in the evening/night......... but on the way back the next night I was too done in to to it again........ a Texas cop stopped me cos he thought I was drunk....... I was just exhausted and weaving about a bit.

Ed managed to bash in the wheel on his car one morning when we had got up at 4AM again to catch a boat........... again I think he was just exhausted...... although I wasn't that sympathetic at the time..... as that night I only got one and a half hours sleep before rolling back out at 4AM........ then had to help him change the wheel like a pit stop so as not to miss the boat ........ :-/ :-))

This whole story....... was really very difficult to cover....... the sheer distances and the nature of the disaster with all the weird police restrictions ....... but It really was interesting and dramatic......... and of course often just terribly sad and moving....... the pictures and story will all be turning up in one of the worlds leading magazines shortly so I will give you the word....... and let you know where to look.......... :-)

So meantime as I cannot put up the oil related pictures I guess you will be treated to another in the JC series of gas station images.......... :-))

The pilot says we are flying over Atlanta now Matt...... so I am waving......

3....... 12-30 AM NYC........... I am back in my place in New York City .......... finally a shower....... I could cry :-))

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