Tommy Hadden Photography

09/10/2018

Fall is Coming

03/25/2018

Between four and five thousand students, teachers, parents, and concerned citizens marched in downtown Dallas yesterday in support of student safety and stricter gun laws, Sarah and I among them. Chants like “Hey-Hey! Ho-Ho! The NRA has got to go!” and the call-and-response “Show me what democracy looks like - THIS IS WHAT DEMOCRACY LOOKS LIKE!” echoed throughout the sign-carrying crowd. The atmosphere was electric. The march route, which began at City Hall, wound its way around the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center, and returned us to City Hall, was lined with “Guardians,” primarily teachers and parents, who provided support and encouragement to marchers. Armed with clipboards and stacks of voter registration forms, Deputy Registrars signed up new and elapsed voters. In the student speeches following the march, speakers mourned their fallen peers across the country, expressed their visions of a more peaceful future, and demanded change. This peaceful yet passionate protest promoting gun law reform and school safety, along with others like it around the nation, is a wake-up call for Washington. As I heard chanted over and over yesterday, “Today’s students are tomorrow’s voters!”

On whatever side of this debate you fall, we can all be proud of our Nation’s children for exercising their Constitutional rights to free speech and free assembly. I was brought to tears more than once yesterday watching young people stand up and bravely challenge their government to do better. This is what democracy looks like.

04/16/2017

I was in New Orleans on business recently - I had about an hour to take photos.

03/31/2017

Self Portrait in Natural Light

Fuji X-T1, 16-55 2.8
200, 2.8, 1/30

03/12/2017

The Skipper

with Hal Normand

03/12/2017

From a photowalk in Denton yesterday. When I approached these girls to take their portrait, the two on the right immediately agreed and began mugging for the camera, while their more demure friend (in glasses) stepped aside. Wanting "demure" in the shot too, I urged her, with waving hand gestures, "You too, sweetheart!." I'm glad she agreed - her presence makes the photo.

Hasselblad 500 C/M on Kodak Tri-X 400

11/28/2016

Train Yard in Vancouver Nov 2016

11/13/2016

Every so often, I come across a person with seemingly limitless passion for their work - Emmanuel Sarger is one such person. My wife and I met Emmanuel on our way home to Dallas after a weekend on the Talimena Byway where I had been shooting landscapes. I spotted Turtle Motors on our drive north two days earlier, and told my wife we’d be stopping on our way back too get some shots. A twice former bug owner, my wife eagerly agreed.

We pulled off of Highway 69 and parked out front. Rusted, decaying VW bugs and buses stood like tombstones around the steel building that houses operations at Turtle Motors. Some were wheel-less, some window-less, some entirely consumed by rust. We’d stumbled onto a Volkswagen graveyard. The gate open, we felt safe entering the yard to take a few photos. As I knelt in the grass to get a close up of a blue, patina-nosed bus, a man approached from the back of the property - this man was the owner of Turtle Motors, Emmanuel Sarger. A gracious host, he gave us a tour and explained the business of buying, selling, and refurbishing old VWs. In the twenty or so minutes we talked with him, his passion and love for what he does came through in every word he spoke. But it was more than the man’s words, it was how he said them - there was a light behind his eyes when he talked about rescuing these old cars and performing sufficient triage to get them rolling again. He changed my perception of the place. What had seemed a graveyard only moments before was transformed into something else. This isn’t where Volkswagens come to die, it’s where they come to be reborn.

These photos are my interpretation of a passionate man's vision.

Turtle motors LLC

09/28/2016

These photographs were taken by Tommy Hadden Photography.

Feel free to tag yourself!

04/04/2016

Photo by Tommy Hadden

03/26/2016

03/20/2016

On March 19th, I had the honor and pleasure of photographing the Texas Tornado 5K in Garland TX, an event to raise money for the survivors of the tornado that swept across North Texas in late December 2015. The event brought together a wonderful group of runners, families, sponsors, volunteers, and community leaders. I am happy to share this album:

http://www.hadden.photo/texas-tornado-5k/