Photos: Tracing poverty in the West

Alpaugh, CA. Farmworker camp. Alpaugh is a town in Tulare County, California. The population is 1,026 and 55.4% live below the poverty level.
Corcoran, CA. Burning tires. Corcoran is a city in Kings County, California. The population is 24,813 and 28% live below the poverty level.
Allensworth, CA. Fence post. Allensworth is a town in Tulare County, California. The population is 471 and 54% live below the poverty level.
Fresno, CA. Homeless camp. Fresno is a city in Fresno County, California. The population is 494,665 and 24.8% live below the poverty level.
Firebaugh, CA. Dead bull’s head hung to dry. Firebaugh is a city in Fresno County, California. The population is 7,549 and 34.9% live below the poverty level.
Tulare, CA. Birds. Tulare is a city in Tulare County, California. The population is 59,278 and 21.4% live below the poverty level.
Sunrise Manor, NV. Boots. Sunrise Manor is a town in Clark County, Nevada. The population is 189,372 and 24.1% live below the poverty level.
Gallup, NM. Flea market. Gallup is a city in McKinley County, New Mexico. The population is 21,678 and 21.9% live below the poverty level.
Doña Ana County, NM. Backyard. Doña Ana is a county in New Mexico. The population is 209,233 and 27.0% live below the poverty level.
Walkerville, MT. Walkerville is a town in Silver Bow County, Montana. The population is 675 and 39.4% live below the poverty level.
Pasco, WA. Pasco is a city in Franklin County, Washington. The population is 59,781 and 21.5% live below the poverty level.
Fort Bragg, CA. Fort Bragg is a city in Mendocino County, California. The population is 7,273 and 23.5% live below the poverty level.

Fifty years after President Lyndon Johnson first introduced the legislation known informally as “the War on Poverty,” photographer Matt Black made a circuit of the United States, photographing the communities where poverty still holds sway. Many of Johnson’s programs still exist — Medicaid and Medicare, the preschool program HeadStart, the youth service program VISTA. But so does the issue they were established to address. According to the U.S. Census, more than 11.5 million people in the West live below the poverty line. Across the U.S., more than 45 million people do. Black’s photographs, which focus on towns and counties with poverty rates above 20 percent, trace the effects of the country’s deep income divides by documenting the inhabitants of those areas and the trappings of their daily lives. In his travels from Tulare County, California, to Sunrise Manor, Nevada, he uncovers the delicate details of everyday life in some of the West’s poorest communities. The end result, Black says, is “a modern portrait of poverty in the U.S.” Kate Schimel

To find more of Matt Black’s work, see his website here.

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