Vi Lane kisses her great-grandson Tommy Brown as her dog Madi looks on in the family’s kitchen in Platte City on Tuesday, September 23, 2014. Eight months ago, Tommy’s mother Cyndi Perkins moved into Lane’s home shortly after finding out she was pregnant with her second child.

Inside the Missouri Photo Workshop

66 years of telling stories in small town America

For 66 years, photographers have documented small town life as part of the Missouri Photo Workshop. I had a humbling, exhausting and thrilling experience last week in Platte City where, along with 43 other photographers from all over the country and world, I worked on a picture story that gives an intimate glimpse of health care in America.

My leaders Lois Raimondo and Brian Kratzer pushed me to work on a story that would challenge me as a photographer. In “Family Care When Health Care Fails,” I spent time with a family whose lives have been adversely shaped by health insurance.

Cindy Perkins visits the Social Services Department to enroll in the Uninsured Women’s Health Services program in preparation for the upcoming birth of her daughter in Platte City on Thursday, Sept. 25, 2014. Perkins is uninsured and will have to travel 35 miles south to the Research Medical Center, which is the only hospital that will accept the health care that the program provides.

Twenty-two years ago, Vi Lane sold her family’s four businesses to pay a 2.5 million dollar hospital bill after the death of her husband Rod who was uninsured. With few resources, Vi, now 69, moved into a rented home near downtown Platte City and has recently taken in her pregnant and uninsured granddaughter Cyndi Perkins with her 18-month-old son Tommy Brown.

Though health insurance woes continue to plague them, this unexpected family has brought a sense of cohesion and has filled Vi’s solitary home with love.

From left, Cyndi Perkins, her sister Jackie Perkins and her 18-month-old son Tommy Brown wait as Perkins’s grandmother Vi Lane loads diapers into the car shortly after a trip to Sam’s Club in Kansas City on Tuesday, September 23, 2014. In addition to food, the crew purchased items in preparation of the birth of Cyndi Perkins’s daughter whose due date is just weeks away on October 9.

Vi Lane reaches out to her great-grandson Thomas Brown as they drive through Platte City on Tuesday, September 23, 2014. Lane lost her family’s four businesses after the death of her husband 22 years ago, and though the future continues to be unclear, she is grateful for the time with family.

Vi Lane spends time with her great-grandson Tommy Brown in their back yard in Platte City on Wednesday, September 24, 2014.

The workshop is structured to offer constant feedback to photographers as we produce our stories. Lois and Brian asked questions I’d not thought of and pointed out details that I’d not noticed. For example, they loved the image of Vi’s hands, seen above, because they felt her long nails revealed the elegance of her life before her husband’s death.

Their edits helped me to see both strengths and weaknesses in my photographs and to make immediate improvements.

Finding a story at the workshop is quite the undertaking. Not only did I land in a city I knew very little about, but I was working alongside 43 other photographers in search of their own features. We spread out all over town, asking the residents about their lives in an effort to find stories that would get at the essence of life in Platte City.

Cindy Perkins takes a moment away from the demands of work and caring for Tommy to nap after work in Platte City on Thursday, Sept. 25, 2014.

It’s a lot to ask someone to allow you into her life and home for an intense three and a half days, but I am amazed at how open people can be if you just ask and if you show interest in hearing about how life has shaped them. Everyone wants to feel heard.

During an eight-hour stretch of babysitting her great-grandson while his mother works, Vi Lane rests as she watches television at home in Platte City on Wednesday, September 24, 2014.

From Tuesday to Thursday, I showed up at Vi’s home around eight every morning and would stay until the workshop sessions at eight each night. Vi, Cyndi, Tommy and I got to know each other very well, and saying goodbye at the end of the week felt like I was saying goodbye to my own family.

After a long day of babysitting her great-grandson, Vi Lane collapses into the arms of Cyndi Perkins, who is tired and withdrawn after working at Y Club, an after school activities program, on Wednesday, September 24, 2014.

We all wrapped up pictures by noon on Friday, and on Saturday, the Platte City community came out to the junior high school to see the images that all of the photographers made that week. People seemed touched to see the wide variety of stories, to catch glimpses of the lives of their neighbors. The show was a wonderful testament to the breadth and depth of the experience of life, no matter the size of your hometown.

What a wonderful reminder. As I return to work as a freelance photojournalist in Chicago, the experiences of this week will stay with me not only as I make pictures but as I research stories and interact with my own community.

Vi Lane carries her great-grandson Tommy to check the mail during an eight-hour stretch of babysitting while his mother works outside of their Platte City home on Wednesday, September 24, 2014.

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Alyssa Schukar is a freelance photojournalist in Chicago, Illinois