Christopher with His Kitten, Sandgap, Kentucky, USA, 1990
(catalog number 214U-276-008)

IN 1990 I did a series of pictures for Michele McNally at Fortune magazine on urban and rural poverty in America. I traveled all over the country. I went to Kentucky to photograph rural life. I found Kentucky to be the most strange and interesting place.

Catholic Social Services were a big help in giving me contacts in the community. They directed me to a country church where a gurutype figure preached every Sunday. He also fed several very poor families. The families at his church were extraordinary: they looked as if time had stopped for them in the 1930s. I was ready to start photographing the families, but for some reason the guru preacher took an immediate disliking to me. He threatened me. He told me to get out of his church and that he wasn't going to help me. I'm still wondering what I did wrong.

Before I was forced out, I managed to meet a few people and get their addresses. I took this picture when I went to visit one of the families that I did get to meet. I rang the doorbell, and Christopher came out with his kitten to greet me. I was taken by how much Christopher and the kitten appeared to be the same person.