Los Gatos Weekly-Times

Around Town

Photographer Ben Strand was the official shooter of the Edwards campaign in Iowa

By Marianne Lucchesi Hamilton

Brad and Kristina Strand and their children gathered around their television set. Like many families, the Los Gatos residents were saddened to watch the news coverage on Jan. 30 of North Carolina Sen. John Edwards' withdrawal from the Democratic presidential race.

It was an especially poignant moment, though, for their son, Ben. Just days before, the Los Gatos High School junior had been a valued member of the Edwards campaign team.

Instead of making phone calls and knocking on doors, Ben had been the proud owner of an all-access pass to a number of highly visible political rallies and events. For several weeks in December and January, at the ripe age of 17, Ben was the official photographer for the Edwards campaign.

Now that Super Tuesday has come and gone, Ben has pledged his support to Illinois Sen. Barack Obama. But his memories of the exciting, hectic days on the road with Edwards will stay with him forever.

While several of his classmates at Los Gatos High School were hopping planes for ski trips to exotic locales over the Christmas break, Ben and his mom were taking a very different sort of trip--to Iowa. Though there was plenty of snow when the Strands landed, Ben wasn't thinking of gliding down any slopes. Instead, he spent more than a week chasing down the perfect shot, in his first stint shooting Edwards' campaign activities.

Ben started dabbling in photography only a couple of years ago, when his parents purchased their first point-and-shoot digital camera. On his 16th birthday, Ben asked his parents for an upgrade, aiming to invest as much time as possible in improving his skills. "My strategy was to take as many photos as I could in a year," Ben says. "I think I took about 24,000 shots. As it turned out, by the end of the year I was getting pretty good; people were liking my work."

When birthday No. 17 rolled around last November, Ben again asked for a new camera (a member of the Los Gatos crew team, Ben had watched in horror as his first camera had been run over at a rowing event). By this time Ben had been working at Delotti's Yogurt for a year, saving nearly every penny. Kristina says her son's dedication motivated the elder Stands to make up the difference between Ben's earnings and the camera he coveted.

For Christmas 2007, Ben received a variety of accessories and other photographic equipment. He says he was looking forward to experimenting with all of his new gear during the holiday break. But the fates, as it turned out, had different ideas.

Kristina had long been a fan of Edwards. When local resident Tabetha Hinman hosted a fundraiser at her Glen Ridge Avenue home for the senator, Kristina and Brad were among the large crowd gathering to listen. Ben went along, too. Kristina was introduced to Elizabeth Edwards, and told the senator's wife that she and her family would do everything possible to join the campaign as volunteers at the upcoming Iowa caucuses. She also introduced Ben, noting that he was approximately the same age as the Edwards' son Wade when he was killed in a tragic automobile accident.

"John and Elizabeth immediately embraced Ben," Kristina recalls. "They encouraged us both to come to Iowa, so we began making plans." Here Ben pipes up: "I was kind of disappointed that I didn't have much time to spend with my friends over Christmas vacation, or to try out my presents. But it turned out that I got to spend a lot more time with my camera stuff than I ever could have imagined."

The day after Christmas, Kristina and Ben flew to Iowa and joined the volunteers readying for the caucuses and the arrival of the Edwards motorcade. The pair helped set up a phone bank, prepared the Steelworkers Hall for a rally and began canvassing local neighborhoods. Ben also invested some good old-fashioned muscle in the cause. "We met one couple; he was 86 and she was 83," Kristina says. "They were having trouble getting out to the caucuses, because there was so much snow in front of their house. I said, 'My son's 17. Would you like him to shovel that snow for you?' They were so grateful, and watching Ben they had this huge look of relief on their faces. It was such a nice moment."

When not shoveling snow, Ben accompanied his mom to the various volunteer meetings, his neck typically draped with his camera and various lenses. Within hours, the student had become a welcome addition to the team. "The campaign staff and the higher-ups quickly saw that Ben wasn't some cocky 17-year-old who'd been dragged out there by his mom. Well, truthfully I had dragged him with me. But he was willing to do anything that anyone asked him to do, whether it was making coffee or dialing phones. He never whined or complained," Kristina says proudly.

Seeing the positive impression Ben had made on the campaign, Kristina asked Edwards' chief of staff whether it might be possible for Ben to snap a few photos at an upcoming event. She was told that no photographer had been scheduled for a rally on Dec. 29. Soon after, Ben received word that a press pass would be made available for him. "I was so psyched," Ben says. "I wasn't with my mom; I went to the rally with the campaign staff and ended up shooting alongside the photographer from the New York Times. It was a pretty heady experience, I must admit."

That evening, as Ben and Kristina were finishing an early dinner with the volunteers, Kristina's cell phone rang. "Angie, the chief of staff, said she wanted to talk about Ben's photos. She actually told me that his were much better than any of those that had been taken by the nine professional photographers they'd hired at that point." Delighted with the praise for Ben's work, Kristina asked if his services might be required again later that evening. "She said they actually wanted Ben to ride on the bus with the press corps, spend the night out there with them and come back the next day," says Kristina. "I told her I'd have to talk to Ben and my husband and let her know."

Ben, naturally, was elated with the offer, but his parents needed more than a little coaxing. Kristina was advised that Ben would be bunking with the Edwards "bodyguys" (the campaign's term for bodyguards) and that the adults would keep a close eye on her son. Then Kristina was asked if Ben might be able to stay on as the photographer for the rest of the tour through Iowa. "Ben really wanted to go, of course, so my husband and I talked," says Kristina. "Although we weren't exactly sure how we were going to get Ben home afterwards, we agreed to let him go."

The younger Strand spent the remainder of Edwards' Iowa visit on his feet, shooting from a vantage point that would be the envy of any photo pro. From the first, he was given carte blanche to roam anywhere necessary to get the best possible shots of the candidate. "When I got my press pass and went to the first rally, I thought I'd be up in a balcony somewhere, trying to shoot Edwards from miles away," he says. "Then Angie grabbed me and said, 'No, you're not over there, you're up here,' and she pointed to the stage. I was always close enough to Edwards that I could reach over and touch him. It was unbelievable."

Ben admits that his first couple of events found him feeling distinctly out of his league. "I was supposed to be agile and jump in anywhere necessary to get the shot. But I wearing these huge freakin' snow boots," he laughs. "I ended up having to stand in the aisle, because I couldn't get in anywhere else. The rest of the photographers were giving me tons of dirty looks, because I kept blocking their shots." Once Ben located more suitable footwear, he quickly picked up on the nuances of shooting Edwards' every move. Soon afterwards he reports that he was accepted as a regular member of the press corps.

"I was with writers from ABC News, Time, the Boston Globe, and photographers from Newsweek, CNN, AP and Reuters," Ben notes. "I wasn't supposed to tell them who I was, or how old I was; only that I was taking photos for the Edwards website. But by the end of the tour I was allowed to tell people that I was 17, and taking pictures for the campaign. I even started a friendship with a photographer from the New York Times; she was pretty young as well."

Among Ben's favorite assignments was the call to photograph Edwards at a benefit concert featuring John Mellencamp. "That was so cool; I had the ultimate backstage pass," he says. "Mellencamp put on an amazing show, and I got to shoot anyplace I wanted. When I sent my friends e-mail updates from my iPhone, they were totally blown away."

Alas, even the most exciting episodes must come to an end, and Ben's work with the campaign finally ground to a halt just after the New Year. He arrived back home (the day after the Great Storm of '08 had blown through) and tried to adjust to life as a normal Los Gatos teen. "I was definitely going through withdrawal," he says. But as luck would have it, the campaign wasn't quite through with Ben: He received a call requesting his services yet again, at a fundraiser in Los Angeles. This time, his parents readily agreed to let him cover the event, which saw Ben firing off nearly 1,000 shots of the candidate at a rooftop rally while helicopters buzzed overhead. After capturing the frames, Ben spent several hours editing and uploading the best shots to the Edwards website. He also selected photos of campaign workers with the candidate; these were burned onto CDs for all volunteers.

Says Kristina, "Ben was literally working from the moment he stepped on the ground in L.A., until the moment they dropped him off. He's now so comfortable in an airport that he just checks himself in, and transfers without blinking. Pretty cool for a kid who just turned 17!"

Though Ben was also scheduled to shoot Edwards at a rally in San Jose late in January, the senator's decision to withdraw from the race brought an end (at least temporarily) to Ben's budding photographic career. But Nate Donovan, who is Ben's photography teacher at Los Gatos High, as well as an accomplished freelance photographer in his own right, believes his student is destined for big things behind the lens.

"Ben consistently turns in photography assignments that demonstrate an aptitude well beyond the average high school student," Donovan says. "His work with Edwards showed skills that rivaled any newspaper or magazine work. I hope Ben never puts down his camera, but continues to expand his natural skills through college and the rest of his life."

Gazing fondly at her son, Kristina says she's just proud that he agreed to accompany her to the snows of Iowa last Christmas. "Most of his friends were just hanging around, having fun, while Ben was off volunteering on a political campaign," she says. "I think that says a lot about the kind of kid Ben really is."