The kindness of strangers

Posted by on Mar 1, 2011 | Comments Off

Our job often depends on the kindness of strangers and their willingness to let us into their lives, albeit temporarily and with a camera.

Yesterday was a great example of this.

Interstate 90, the main east-west freeway through Washington state, was closed because an avalanche had covered part of the road near Snoqualmie Pass. The closure forced motorists, including long-haul truckers, to hole up in one of the towns along the freeway as they waited for the road to re-open.

Our front-page story for today was on the fierce blast of winter hitting Washington’s mountains and its effects, including the closure of the interstate.

Knowing the closure would mean truckers would be idled in Ellensburg, I headed there (32 miles north) to make photos.

The parking lot of the truck stop closest to Yakima was already full of waiting truckers, forcing other trucks to park on the shoulder of the road.

This was my first photo. I shot this as a backup photo in case everything else fell through.

Semi-trucks park on the shoulder of Canyon Road south of I-90 at Ellensburg Monday, Feb. 28, 2011 after the parking lot of the adjacent Broadway/Flying J Travel Plaza filled up with other trucks. I-90 was closed about noon Monday after an avalanche west of the summit buried the roadway forcing I-90 drivers to wait in Ellensburg. (GORDON KING/Yakima Herald-Republic)

Hardly compelling.

I headed for the restaurant/convenience store at the truck stop. Outside, I met and began chatting with three truckers waiting out the bad weather.

Truck drivers Omar Sanchez, left, and Margaret Perez watch the snow fall as fellow driver Jim Block dials his cell phone to get an updated report on the condition of Interstate 90 Feb. 28, 2011. The interstate was closed over Snoqualmie Pass by an avalanche forcing drivers to wait until the road was re-opened. Sanchez, Perez and Block were waiting at a truck in Ellensburg, Wash. (GORDON KING, Yakima Herald-Republic)

These folks were super-friendly and I made a number of photos of them waiting outside, smoking, and chatting about the road closure. The photos here were good enough but I was hoping for something better, something more personal.

Then Margaret mentioned she was going to head back to her truck to watch a movie. Figuring it wouldn’t hurt to ask, I asked her if I could tag along and make photos inside the cab of her truck. She agreed and I went to her truck a couple of minutes later after taking a couple of other photos.

Truck driver Margaret Perez prepares her small DVD player to watch a movie in the cab of her tractor-trailer rig Feb. 28, 2011. She and co-driver Omar Sanchez were forced to wait in Ellensburg, Wash. for Interstate 90 to open. The interstate was temporarily closed when an avalanche covered the roadway. (GORDON KING/Yakima Herald-Republic)

So the photos were getting better, more personal, more story-telling.

Then Omar, her co-driver, returns to truck as well and Margaret sets the DVD player on the dashboard and they begin watching “The Red Fury.”

Truck drivers Margaret Perez and Omar Sanchez watch "The Red Fury" in the cab of their tractor-trailer rig Monday afternoon, Feb. 28, 2011 as they wait for I-90 to re-open. The co-drivers for Covenant Transport were headed to Auburn, Wash. with a load from Chattanooga, Tenn. They were parked at the Broadway/Flying J Travel Plaza in Ellensburg. (GORDON KING, Yakima Herald-Republic)

I knew this was the best, story-telling photo. Two drivers killing time watching a movie. Snow is piled up on the windshield. You can see, in the background, other trucks parked at the truck stop. As we say in the photojournalism business, “all the elements were there.”

But that photo would not have been possible were it not for the kindness of truck drivers Jim Block, Omar Sanchez and Margaret Perez. They, like countless other strangers, let me into their lives for just a little while so I could tell a story with my camera.

–Gordon King