Here's your sign
Of all the animal rescue, protest, conflict, and immigration I've covered, this camper goes viral.
I don’t think text makes a great photograph. At least not on its own visual merit.
If we’re going to ask the viewer to read our photograph, then I think it needs more layers to make it interesting. Some hint of a wider context, interesting composition and/or a psychological layer that brings about a critical thought or a visceral reaction.
Which is why I was surprised when this post of a shot-up camper and a gate with quirky warning signs all over it got 607 comments and 74 shares on Facebook. The gate and the camper are miles away from each other and not related other than me being curious about both.
Something about this photo hit the “visceral reaction” qualifier, but what?
Aside from the expected politics and vitriol, the comments section holds some wonderful local wisdom:
“There are a lot of us like this, out here we live be the 3 S’s.” (Shoot, Shovel and Shutup for those of you not in the know.)
Whimsy:
“The story about the people is a mystery, but what happened to that litter of puppies can never be told without incurring the curse.”
Jokes:
“Walt and Jesse are gonna be pissed when they come back to they’re trailer”
A lesson on how my careless grammar may have misled viewers to believe both photos are from the same property (this is really helpful to me as a budding writer and I’m not being sarcastic):
“So yes, it does mention two locations. Roy, and the property on the road to Roy. But….the photos of “the property” aren’t actually one property. They’re photos of two separate properties approximately 10 miles apart. Which brings us up to 3 distinct locations….Roy, the property outside Roy in unincorporated Thurston County, and the property 10 miles away in another city entirely. Which is why I calmly pointed out that the OP was calling two separate properties approximately 10 miles apart “the property” on the “road to Roy” despite only one of the two properties qualifying as such.”
A couple people were kind enough to ask if I wanted to know the backstory about the trailer. So if you’re like me and dying to know what happened and why, let me spill the tea.
Please note that I do not have my journalist hat on. This is purely scuttlebutt.
Apparently, there was a house on the property that caught on fire. The remains of the house are just outside the frame of the photo. The gentleman who owned it had either gone to the hospital just before the fire, or he was there for a while already. Either way, his house burned down.
Assuming the man wasn’t coming back, or perhaps taking advantage of his absence, people ransacked the house, vehicles, and outbuildings. The police, though they may have known who did it, were either unwilling or unable to make arrests. A neighbor spray-painted the RV and put it in the driveway to deter more looting.
Perhaps that’s partly why this image resonates. Whatever the exact details of the backstory, the message is very strong and very clear. This could be you, this could be me, this could be any of us.
In doing stories on homelessness, I can tell you that we are all only a few emergencies away from living in a shelter or on the street. Though I’m glad we have a healthcare system, we all know what it’s like. Many people live paycheck to paycheck and two in five people in the U.S. do not have an emergency fund.
What we do have is one another.
I’ve asked someone to see if the gentleman property owner has a PayPal. It’s a long shot, but if he’s open to it, maybe we can turn this viral virtual post into real-world help.