Chiapas Racers, State of Chiapas, Mexico, 2000 Don Bartletti Media: Archival Pigment Print on Hahnemühle Photo Rag Ultra Smooth Print Size: 10"x15" Unframed Valued: $400 Starting Bid: $250
Artist Bio: Don Bartletti was awarded the 2003 Pulitzer Prize for Feature Photography for "Enrique's Journey," a 6-part Los Angeles Times photo essay about Central American migrant stowaway children riding freight trains through Mexico. Chiapas Racers is part of that body of work. Among more than 50 career recognitions are the Robert F. Kennedy Grand Prize for International Photojournalism, Polk Award, Overseas Press Club, Pictures of the Year International, World Press Photo, UNICEF, Gerald Lobe Award, and the Scripps Howard Award. In 1966 Bartletti rode a motorcycle from London to Athens with a Kodak Instamatic camera. In August 1967 he made his first photo essay during the “Summer of Love” in San Francisco’s Haight Ashbury with a Yashica-Mat twin lens reflex. In 1968 he graduated from Palomar College with an AA degree in Photography. He joined the U.S. Army in 1968. During his tour of duty as an Infantry Lieutenant in Vietnam, Bartletti carried an M-16 rifle and 2 Nikon cameras. In 1972 he began his photojournalism career at his hometown paper, the Vista Press. He soon moved on to the Oceanside Blade-Tribune, the San Diego Union/Tribune and the Los Angeles Times. After 32 years with the Times, Don retired in 2015. He’s still making photographs and is often invited to speak about his career at universities, high schools, conferences, and civic organizations. His photographs have been shown in scores of one-person and group exhibits at museums throughout the U.S. and Mexico. Bartletti has 2 adult children and 4 grandsons. He and his wife Diana reside in Vista, California.
About The Image: AUGUST 3, 2000. CHIAPAS, MEXICO. Youngsters race alongside a freight train that Central American stowaways call "The Beast". Everyone around me on top of the hopper car clapped and whistled as the kids galloped through the verdant Chiapas countryside. I struggled to focus and compose with a 200mm lens as my ride lurched from side to side. From a burst of 5, this frame captures a noble horseman, his radiant passenger, frayed reins and unreachable stirrups of their borrowed horse. The editorial backstory is the joy the 30-second sprint gave the migrants. And the beast beat "The Beast". (Photograph by Don Bartletti)
