A visual journey through the 90-year history of Golden Gate Fields

When photojournalists are involved in the reporting process, they have the opportunity to familiarize themselves with the subject matter, generate ideas to visually represent the story ethically and thoughtfully, and gain intimate access to the lives of their sources. This level of collaboration enhances not only the quality of the images but also the overall reporting effort.

This shared approach was demonstrated in a recent series by Berkeleyside sports writer Nick Lozito and Berkeleyside photojournalist/CatchLight Local Fellow Ximena Natera, whose visual reporting for the story combined digital, film, and cell phone photography. The journalists produced a three-part series on the closure of the Golden Gate Fields horse racing track after almost nine decades in business.

The first two stories covered the history and legacy of the racetrack and the community of remote bettors who watch out-of-state races from the simulcast room. As Lozito and Natera worked on those stories, they wondered what would become of the mostly Mexican men and women who live and work on the backstretch to care for the horses. For the workers, the closure of the track meant not only the end of their livelihood but also the loss of housing and the dismantling of their community.

Natera said she was surprised to discover an entire city behind Golden Gate Fields that isn’t visible from the races or Berkeley. She mentioned that despite biking around the area many times, she never realized that this large space was where people lived.

Lozito encouraged Natera to follow her reporting instincts. Natera’s extensive experience with workers and laborers shaped her proposal for the third installment of the series, which centers on the staff at work and their living conditions.

“Flexibility was key. This was supposed to be a single story, but our reporting showed that we needed to expand the scope, space, time, and resources we had initially thought for this,” said Natera. “Our editor, Pamela Turntine, was our most significant support, helping us rethink and reshape the story, including giving us enough time to find visual access to a very hard place to get into.”

The team successfully gained access to the backstretch. Natera conducted interviews in Spanish and ensured the workers felt comfortable throughout the process. She emphasized the importance of having their voices represented in the overall story about the racetrack’s closure.

“The notes [Natera] took were incredibly important to me. I needed to see what she saw and hear what she heard,” Lozito said. “This allowed us to write with a little more authority in our understanding of the whole situation.”