This work explores ideas of class, race, ownership, value, cultural identification and faith. I collaborate with members of The Church Under the Bridge in Waco, Texas, a non-denominational, multi-cultural Christian church that has been meeting under Interstate 35 for sixteen years. Many of the people have had significant disruptions in their lives, experienced periods of homelessness or incarceration, addiction to drugs and alcohol, mental illness or profound poverty and hopelessness. Many are working toward a new measure of stability and accomplishment through the programs and opportunities offered through the church. Other members have more stable lives and are drawn to service at the Church Under the Bridge. I ask each person what he or she keeps and why it is valued.

The portraits are spare, taken under the bridge on Sunday mornings against a backdrop of gray concrete. Each subject holds or displays the one thing he or she will not discard, and each photograph is accompanied by an explanation in the subject’s own words. Mullally’s lens is both kind and thoughtful; the words and images combine to provide a compelling look at these individuals and their community.

Striking a very different note, the British blog Angry People in Local Newspapers is a collection of photographs of people with grievances published in, well, local newspapers. Most of the newspapers are in the UK, with a few from Australia and New Zealand sprinkled in. All of the posts include links to the original articles, providing those of us in the US with an often amusing glimpse into the daily life of other cultures: how trash collection or public transportation or local government works, or doesn’t, in English villages. Much of the anger that the photos attempt to communicate is justified; some of it is most certainly not.

Finally, Matt Logue’s award-winning book empty L.A. features photographs of Los Angeles with no people or cars. Bedrooms, beaches, parking lots, and many, many streets and highways — all uninhabited. It’s eerie, like stepping into an episode of The Twilight Zone. It’s also a jarring reminder that what makes a city a city is the humans in it.