journalism, in general, is just not
something people think about.”
Even when she talked with students
at an affluent high school in San Fran-
cisco, she found that they didn’t con-
sider the media to be a useful resource.
“There's this idea of mistrust every-
where, not just in rural areas,” she says.
Demonstrating the role that journalists
can play by listening to people’s ideas
and concerns, and generating commu-
nity discussions, has become one of the
unintended purposes of the project.
Bruce usually begins her conversa-
tion with each community at a high
school, since schools often lie at the cen-
ter of community life. “When you start
with them, you hear a lot about what
people are thinking about, even from
the students and the teacher,” she says.
Although the framework for her proj-
ect grew out of scholarly research and
is informed by thinkers like the 19th-
century political scientist Alexis de
Tocqueville, she stays away from politi-
cal theory abstractions and national
politics in these conversations.
Instead, she comes to each group
with just three questions. “They're very
simple, and they don't use the word
democracy,” she explains. She asks
what people like about their commu-
nity, what they'd like to change about
it, and how they'd go about makingthat change. The conversations her
questions generate help her shape her
coverage and identify other groups to
approach. “I start to get into the com-
munity that way and then start cover-
ing the issues that they're all talking
about,” she explains.
She has ended up talking with and
photographing a wide variety of sub-
jects, from business people and non-
profit groups to veterans to ex-offenders
and gang members. And the early dis-
cussions don’t just point her in relevant
directions; she says they also make her
photojournalism better. “Those dis-
cussions mostly help dispel clichés and
stereotypes that I have in my head,” she
says. “You can't help but have thingsAfghanistan holds its first elections since
the fall of the Taliban. In the village of
Dehnow, an hour south of Kabul, women
line up in the courtyard of a family home
to vote on October 9, 2004.“We really get
involved with the
community...to
try to battle the
idea of clichés and
stereotypes that
are so easy to fall
back on...”