Once trapped in a predatory loan, activist Barbara Anderson teams up with Cleveland-based community action group, Empowering and Strengthening Ohio’s People (ESOP), to save thousands of homes and reinvent Cleveland’s fractured communities. A decade before the “Occupy” movement, they used controversial tactics to bring bank CEOs to the table and stop the predatory lending that decimated communities throughout the inner city.

It’s long hours and stress, but I enjoy the theater and the quirky aspects in addition to the importance of covering the presidential election. I do want to demystify the political process with my photographs, to show what the process is like. It’s not all polish, and I like to travel around the edges.

This week we present our final update for 2011, a suite of diverse images taken along our journeys this year on the American road. We feel that these photographs speak to the heart of this moment in our country.