about last night. . .the morning after

Guess I should start with a little background info for this post to make sense.  I have been working with a friend on some photography projects recently, and my husband (a pro photog) has been mentoring me a bit with my photography work.  I've had some success with the publication of a few photos in a magazine, so of course the success has gone to my head.

So recently when my friend mentioned my husband doing some work for a local political candidate, I took the project to my husband and he turned it down.  His work is more "sports action" and "portraiture", so he wasn't really interested in a photojournalism assignment.  However, photojournalism is my bag so I have asked him to mentor me through this assignment.  I just need some help with the technical stuff, lighting, exposure. . .post production. . .I'm a bit needy.

Ok, so that's the background.  Last night was my first event for this political candidate gig, so we attended the local NAACP awards banquet for their 2010 Freedom Fund.  It turned out to be a fun and informative event and hopefully was a big fundraiser for the local chapter.  I met several very talented and interesting people, walked away with good contact info, and learned about some of the community work that chapter members are involved in around the city.

Cut to the next day:  Thought that I would check the local newspaper website to read the event coverage.  There was another photographer at the event, but she must have been working for the NAACP since the paper did not have any photo coverage for the event.  That seemed odd to me.  So I found the article, it was about 5 sentences with the list of award winners.  There was nothing about their contributions to the community, or any of their bio information.  Again, seemed odd to me.  So I scrolled down to look for any reader comments, and then it hit me.

I live in the south.

The event was attended by prominent citizens and public servants from one of the largest cities in the southeast, yet there was no coverage in the paper.  However the readers did have quite a bit of hate for not only the organization, but for the people which it represents.   One comment was so offensive that the newspaper had to remove it.  Keep in mind that this article was 4 sentences, just stuck to the who, what and where of the story, and then listed award recipients by name and title only.

I am ashamed to live in the south.