THE TENT

2012
Created for the Oxford American

In the final days before the Fourth of July, I drove through Central Mississippi photographing firework salesmen and their temporary tent homes.

For three continuous weeks, the salesmen live in their tents 24 hours a day, selling explosives 16 hours a day. They sleep on cots and mats. Each tent has a port-a-potty. Tents on grass lots are plagued with fire ant hills. It’s humid and searing. There are no showers. Some salesmen keep a gun on hand.

By the final days the salesmen experience what is colloquially known as “tent madness.”