(Extra)Ordinary by Keith Maginn

Author:Keith Maginn
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: KiCam Projects, LLC
Published: 2017-07-24T20:51:28+00:00

You can find more information about Mick Ebeling at mickebeling.com and notimpossible.com. If you would like to make a donation to the Not Impossible Foundation in honor of Mick Ebeling, please email [email protected].

Sarah

The 2008 recession in the United States both crippled Sarah Greene and served as her call to action. The economic crisis doomed her photography business, so Sarah turned the focus from her own situation to spotlight the plight of others around the country in a photographic journal. At forty-six years old, she set off on a ten-state journey from Sussex County, Delaware, armed with a laptop, notebooks, and a camera.

Sarah talked to and photographed people in shelters and in food lines, as well as homeless living on the streets over four months. She explains: “I went in search of hardships due to the recession. What I discovered was many different circumstances creating crisis in people’s lives. Some were the economy, some were self-inflicted, and there were many other real-life situations that changed people’s lives for the worse. What I found surprised me.”

A professional photographer, Sarah had built her business primarily on wedding photography and portraits. Her work also has appeared in Artemis, a book of art and poetry; The Chronicle of the Horse; and The Cape Gazette in Delaware. She shot a cover photo for Aussie Times, a magazine about Australian Shepherds, and she was the still photographer for the 2013 movie House of Good and Evil, shot in the next town over from hers.

Sarah dropped out of school at the age of sixteen, saying high school just wasn’t right for her. In 1979, at seventeen, she left Washington, D.C., and moved to Southern California. She had sent money ahead of her to a friend of a friend to secure an apartment. When she arrived, Sarah learned that “friend” had blown Sarah’s money on drugs.

She ended up broke and homeless in San Diego, forced to eat at missions. Though beds were available for men, there were not enough for women and children. Sarah says, “I slept on the streets for several weeks, in doorways outside, in movie theaters, and on strangers’ couches.” She is grateful that others reached out to her, and she realizes that many in her situation weren’t lucky enough to find helping hands.

Sarah told her father she desperately needed money, but she didn’t tell him she was homeless for fear of alarming him. She found work in light construction, saved money, and was able to get an apartment. Sarah earned her GED when she was twenty-two and went to college at twenty-six. At twenty-nine, she graduated with honors and two associate’s degrees from San Diego City College; she later graduated from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago with a Bachelor of Fine Arts.

Years later, on April 4, 2004, a faulty extension cord caused a fire that destroyed Sarah’s home. Sarah still feels indebted to the Red Cross, which gave her a jacket, a toothbrush, and toothpaste. She also received a gift card to buy clothes, plus three nights’ lodging in a motel.

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