Special Books : U.S. Marshals by Brian Finke

written by La Rédaction / The Staff

The Article.

What It’s Like to Be a U.S. Marshal

The U.S. marshals currently employ just 5,431 people nationwide, but they get a lot done: In 2013 the organization arrested more 110,000 fugitives, moved federal prisoners nearly 300,000 times, and cleared more than 134,000 warrants. Brian Finke witnessed some of that activity firsthand over the course of three years shadowing the country’s oldest law enforcement agency.

For Finke, who has previously spent months photographing bodybuilders and hip-hop music video stars, hanging out with the marshals was yet another exciting immersion into a distinct culture. He likens his new book, U.S. Marshals, which was published in November by PowerHouse books, to his “own version of the TV show Cops.”

Finke got the idea to photograph the marshals when he heard an old friend from high school, Cameron Welch, had become a deputy U.S. marshal. On a trip to Houston, his hometown, he shadowed Welch for a day as he and colleagues arrested an escaped convict. The experience got Finke hooked, and with the organization’s permission, he spent the next three years in between assignments photographing marshals in cities across the country. He photographed prisoner transports, sex offender roundups, and at the air marshal training facility at Los Angeles International Airport, exercises for regaining control over a hijacked plane.

“One of the things I love about my job is being in all these random, ridiculous situations. It’s pretty great,” he said.

At the beginning, Finke said, his photos looked like “propaganda posters” because he was so overwhelmed by the bravery of his subjects. But he didn’t want his project to strike just one note, and ultimately his photos not only showcase the heroism of the marshals, but also the peril, humor, and strangeness in their everyday lives.

Finke worked with an assistant and used handheld flashes to make the work of the marshals appear “larger than life.” “I like the tension that the flash adds,” he said. “It gives viewers a feeling of not knowing whether something is real or not. I like when that curiosity is built in the photograph.”

While wearing a bulletproof vest and running into hostile environments alongside the marshals was often an adrenaline rush, Finke said there’s lots of downtime involved in the job.

“We’d be waiting around for hours and hours on end with our binoculars in the backseat of an SUV waiting for an informant to give someone up and then it’s ‘go, go, go’ for two minutes.”

Finke’s photos of the marshals will be on display at New York City’s ClampArt through Dec. 20.

Courtesy of Brian Finke, PowerHouse Books and ClampArt gallery

The Article

Brian Finke
U.S. Marshals

The Article.
​Photos by Brian Finke, courtesy of the artist and powerHouse books

Back in September, we ran a couple of images from ​Bri​an Finke's hard-edged new book US Marshals in our ​True Cri​me Issue. Last night, a show featuring the pictures opened at ClampArt, a gallery for new photography in Manhattan, and tonight you can finally go buy your own copy of the book and get it signed by Finke himself at the powerHouse Arena in Brooklyn.

A lot of photo books come out these days, but this one is worth your time: Finke embedded with his subjects while they went on raids, and the resulting narrative reads like an action flick. Plus, what's a more exciting or suspenseful image than a hostile looking lady with a gun in the smoke-filled cabin of an airplane? I recently had a chat with Finke about how he put all this together.

​VICE: I understand the project involves a childhood friend of yours who became an Air Marshal?
​Brian Finke: He was a friend from high school who later became a Marshal in Houston. I used to play music with his brother-in-law. He is the man on the front cover of the book, and the featured interview in the book is with him as well. I went to his office in Houston and got permission to do a book on him—I think they were open to the press because of the acknowledgment that my work could provide. Also, the new book is coming out on [the US Marshals'] 125th anniversary.

It seems like technical quality is important to you. Is it film or digital?
​This was my transitional project. I started on film but over time switched to digital.

​No, I consistently cropped all the images to squares. I feel that it lends them more formality. I also frequently use a flash that creates an uncertainty as to whether an image is real or staged. I am interested playing with the spontaneity of reportage—making images that appear more formal and structured than ordinary documentary images. I like my images to question reality.

Would you call this a documentary series?
​I call myself a documentary photographer. I like working in that tradition but sometimes I direct a moment, sometimes I capture it. I do color correction and other minimal changes but I don't move pixels.

Do you think you are telling the truth about these people, or are they characters that represent an idea you're trying to communicate?
​When I chose to recreate something, it's because it's something I've seen happen before. I don't ask anyone to do something they wouldn't do anyhow, but sometimes it takes more time to capture the image I want. I always try to stay true to the subject.

​A lot of what I'm interested in shooting is traditionally journalistic in terms of subject matter, but seen in a way that does not adhere to a traditional documentary style.

Since making this series, I've gotten a number of requests to do stories related to guns. WIRED sent me on an assignment to go photograph John McAfee. Three days after I came back to NY, he went on the run when he was accused of killing his neighbor in Belize.

I love photographers like Eugene Richards, Eugene Smith, and Gilles Peress. Magnum photography is where I fell in love with taking pictures. I love that kind of subject matter but am interested in a less traditional style.

Sometimes you went along with the Marshals on real calls. Did the people they were investigating agree to be photographed?
​I would never show anyone's face. The project is about the Marshals themselves. So I left any subjects standing by or people under arrest anonymous. I definitely saw the underbelly of everywhere we went.

Tell me something crazy that happened.
​They were going to arrest this woman who was accused of human trafficking. It was just north of LA. They went to an apartment complex, where they were going to bust a prostitute. She was wearing a lime-green tube top and high heels, and there was a massage table and everything. The Marshals tend to have an funny and sarcastic sense of humor—I think their job would get really dark if they didn't have a sense of humor about it. An undercover Marshal had to pretend to be a part of this complex, and had to lie down on the massage table. All the Marshals were joking about how disgusting it was. They asked her to check on the hooker while she was changing because she was the only woman around. She came out and announced that she'd gotten to see her first naked hooker.

Do they ask you to participate in things?
​My assistant and I are never influencing the situation, we are always in the back seat. When they go would and hit houses we were right behind them. I love what I do; it's always unique situations and new things all the time. Sometimes it's too much, it can be a little jarring. But it is amazing to have these vignettes of such different worlds.

How does making personal work fit in with your commercial work and editorial commissions?
​When I was fresh out of school, I would pitch ideas to magazines to do projects for them. Now I don't need to wait for people to fund it or support me, I just go out and do it.

One project tends to lead to another. I did a project about ​flight at​tendants, and that led to shooting a Delta campaign. After doing some work on sports, I started getting advertising commissions by Nike and other sportswear brands. To me it's ideal when projects overlap that closely.

Are your projects getting "harder" over time? Are you dealing with more tough or violent subject matter?
​When I go out on a project, I have to really love it and be really honestly interested in it. I have a genuine interest in all my subjects. One project tends to play off another. My next project focuses on hip-hop honeys and the production of their videos. I'm always going down the rabbit hole.

Inside The Wild World Of US Marshals, Who Do One Of America’s Most Dangerous Jobs

HARRISON JACOBS

Brian Finke/PowerHouse Books

Established in 1789 by George Washington, the US Marshals Service is the oldest law enforcement agency in the country.

As the enforcement arm of the US Federal Courts, the Marshals are tasked with capturing fugitives, serving federal arrest warrants, transporting prisoners, and overseeing the witness protection program.

The job puts agents directly in the way of the most dangerous criminals in the nation.

Photographer Brian Finke recently shadowed a US Marshal to get the inside view of what may be the most dangerous job in America.

Finke shared a number of the photos with us here, but the rest are collected in a new book out by PowerHouse books, “U.S. Marshals,” available here.

Finke first became connected with the Marshals service because a friend from his high school, Cameron Welch, was a Deputy US Marshal. Welch works in the fugitive investigation division, which works with local and federal law enforcement to track down the most dangerous fugitives and assist in high-profile investigations.

Brian Finke/PowerHouse Books

After reconnecting, Welch offered Finke to come on a series of ride-alongs. On the first ride-along, Welch was tasked with assisting the Texas Rangers with capturing an escapee from a Texas prison. “We were driving 120 miles per hour on the freeway going to get this escaped convict. It was incredible to see,” Finke told the Alexia Foundation.

Brian Finke/PowerHouse Books

Marshals don’t care whether a fugitive is guilty or not and they don’t solve crimes. Their only job is to find and apprehend the target. “This is really a big game, a mental and physical game,” a US Marshal told the Washington Post.”The bandit’s job is to run; our job is to catch him.”

Brian Finke/PowerHouse Books

Just because they aren’t solving a crime, doesn’t mean there isn’t a lot of investigating. To track down fugitives, Marshals have to parse information given by relatives, search through databases for clues as to their whereabouts, and sit through days-long stakeouts. Then they have to apprehend the fugitive.

Brian Finke/PowerHouse Books

Raids can be extremely dangerous. Marshals often have to storm through doors without knowing what or who is on the other side. Fugitives are not always cooperative.

Brian Finke/PowerHouse Books

Marshals generally carry a Glock 40 as their primary handgun, but they also will carry AR-15 rifles in certain cases.

Brian Finke/PowerHouse Books

One time, Welch was tasked with investigating a man that had been threatening a federal judge. When Welch and his partner arrived, the man stormed out of his apartment with a pistol pointed at Welch. He says it was one of the closest calls of his career.

Brian Finke/PowerHouse Books

It can be an emotionally draining profession. Welch says he’s been in situations where fugitives commit suicide when they arrive to avoid going back to prison.

The Marshals are not without a sense of humor. Welch frequently plays music when preparing for raids. Once, after apprehending a fugitive, his car began playing Jay-Z’s “On To The Next One,” as he placed the handcuffed man in the car. People in the neighborhood were startled.

Despite the dangers, Welch says that the profession is “addictive.” As soon as he closes one case, he’s excited to get started on the next one. “It’s dangerous, but its rewarding to know that I’m making a difference in other people’s lives…” Welch told Edith Zimmerman in the foreword to the book.

“For me it was amazing, putting on bullet proof vests and riding in right behind them. I had total respect for what they do,” Finke said of the project in an interview with the Alexia Foundation. “It was just such an amazing experience – being there with them and being in awe of what they do.”

Read more: These Men and Women Track America’s Most Dangerous Fugitives - LightBox http://lightbox.time.com/2014/11/10/brian-finke-book-us-marshals/#ixzz3Ig6WMNzC

Article.

The FBI may get all the love (and movies), but the US Marshals Service is America’s oldest federal law enforcement agency. Brian Finke spent nearly four years embedded with the marshals, chronicling their daily lives with intimate, revealing images that peer into an often dangerous world.

“I felt like it was my own version of the TV show COPS,” Finke says.

Personal Connection

Finke (who photographed John McAfee for WIRED) likes to choose a subculture—bodybuilders, flight attendants, cheerleaders—and immerse himself in it. He decided to photograph US Marshals after re-connecting with Cameron Welch, a high school buddy who’s now a marshal in Houston. Welch put Finke in touch with the brass in DC, who gave him unprecedented access.

The Marshals Service, created in 1798, is charged with things like apprehending fugitives, transporting and housing prisoners and protecting witnesses and federal judges. It didn’t take long for Finke to find himself in the middle of things. His first ride-along included a 120-mph pursuit of an escaped convict in Huntsville, Texas. Not too much later, he was in Las Vegas, where he joined marshals as they rounded up sex offenders and saw a young man overdose on heroin after swallowing his stash.

Bright Flashes of Light

To make his saturated, brightly lit photos which are now featured in a new book, Finke used two Quantum Qflashes and a Nikon D800 camera. He held one of the flashes and an assistant held the other. You might think it intrusive, or at least awkward, to have flashes firing as marshals chase criminals, but Finke said everyone was OK with it and was happy to have him along instead of an entire TV crew.

Finding photos to make was easy, especially when the marshals were in full garb with guns pulled. Over time, though, Finke says such photos grew olde, even cliché. “When I started doing this project everyone felt like a hero and my images felt too much like propaganda photos,” he says.

Looking Beyond the Obvious

To tell a more diverse story, Finke sought unexpected or humorous moments, or things that conveyed the personality of the people he was following. A photo of a marshal in a purple shirt and bow tie, for example, that seems out of place. But Finke says the officer is based in Los Angles, where the office celebrates bowtie Mondays. Then there’s the slightly weird photo of a marshal holding a remote control car. Finke says the car was part of disguise he used while surveilling the door of someone suspected of human trafficking.

“In the end it was important for them to also look like normal people,” he says.

Although he was close behind the marshal as they did their work and often found himself wearing body armor, Finke says he never felt he was in danger. He saw things that shocked him, but never had to duck and cover as bullets flew. That’s because when the marshals go after someone, he says, they try to catch them by surprise or use such overwhelming force the person has little ability or incentive to resist.

“It was all about them being really good at what they do,” he says.