A Forensic Forage

By William Crawford

William C. Crawford is a writer & photographer living in Winston-Salem, NC. He was a a combat photojournalist in Vietnam. He later enjoyed a long career in social work. Crawdaddy also taught at UNC Chapel Hill. He photographs the trite, trivial, and the mundane. Crawford developed the forensic foraging technique of photography with his colleague, Sydney lensman, Jim Provencher.

His photo here embodies this approach. They feature extensive shooting of everything encountered. The images are then selectively presented with heavy contrast & saturation.Their technique borrows heavily from Stephen Shore and his color post cards from Amarillo. Main Street Americana (and elsewhere!) comes alive in its most base, everyday state. The photographic DNA of Walker Evans on the move (foraging?) also leaves its indelible mark. The genre uses minimal computer manipulation. Forensic foraging also accentuates funk which is easily identified  because it just looks funky.
Crawdaddy’s writing for decades focused on hard hitting editorials on behalf of the powerless. His written advocacy tracked his long career in social work. More recently, he branched out into fiction and memoirs. His first book is due out in May, 2016. The working title is: ” Just Like Sunday On The Farm: Crawdaddy Remembers The Nam After 50 Years”.