Dave Anderson East Lansing, Michigan, b. 1970

Dave Anderson’s photographs from his Rough Beauty series were taken in Vidor, Texas, a town known for extreme poverty and racism as it was formerly the site of Ku Klux Klan activities. The reputation of the town and its isolation is in part what brought Anderson to Vidor, along with his insatiable desire to travel across the country on the road. While these photographs were taken almost 20 years ago, they resonate with contemporary issues of race, isolation, and poverty. The people of Vidor are adamant that the labels placed on them are not true to their actual character and that they are a kind, close-knit community. In June 2020, a Black Lives Matter group successfully staged a peaceful protest in the town. In Jug Riding, it is hard not to be impressed by the ingenuity of suspending a jug between trees to mimic the experience of riding a horse or a bull. The boy riding the jug has one hand on the “reigns” and the other in the air as would a cowboy at the rodeo trying to stay on top of a bucking bull. The kids on the side push and pull the ropes to create movement, and it becomes clear that this activity is a collective effort. Unaffected by the wet, swampy ground, the kids are completely engaged in their homemade contraption.