in visual essays, steve brodner has covered eight national political conventions for "esquire", "the progressive", "the village voice" and others. his article "plowed under," a series of portraits and interviews with beleaguered farm families in the midwest, ran in "the progressive", which, at that time was a modern mecca for political art, thanks to patrick j. b. flynn, crusading art director. "shots from guns", an art documentary about the colt firearms strike in hartford, connecticut, appeared in "northeast" magazine in 1989. for "the new yorker" he covered oliver north and the 1994 virginia senate race, the patrick buchanan presidential campaign, the million man march (1995) and an advance story on the 1996 democratic convention in chicago. that same year, "the washington post" asked him to profile the bob dole presidential campaign. in spring of 1997 he wrote and drew a ten-page article on the south by southwest music festival for "texas monthly". that summer, brodner climbed mount fuji with author susan orlean as an art-journalist for "outside magazine" and later that year he did a piece on the new york city mayoral campaign for "new york magazine". his eight-page profile of george w. bush appeared in "esquire" in october 1998, in which bush said to him, “maybe i’ll see you in national politics next year, maybe not. either way, i have a cool life.” in 2000, he dealt with the difficult issue of guns in pennsylvania for "philadelphia magazine". "texas monthly" published his 10-page story on colonias (mexican americans along the texas border), called "in america," in may 2005 and in 2007 he traversed the texas state house at austin in a freewheeling story for "texas monthly".