BU is my coverage area. All two miles of it plus the medical campus. It is my Palm Beach County now. It is my city of Auburn now. It is small, but it's mine.
I've been frustrated with my place of employment. Boston is now under the worlds's watch. Well, OK, maybe not the world, but a lot of people are watching what's happening here, keeping up on the status of the victims and the progress of the investigation.
My job now is to report on the goings-on at BU. When the bombing occurred, I recieved an alert from the BUPD, letting everyone know they should stay in their dorm rooms and away from Kenmore Square. Part of me winced at my total lack of interest in going into the city and joining in on the coverage (I had Patriot's Day off from work), but the other part of me knew - very competent shooters are already there. My arrival will not contribute. One thing that didn't occur to me was to go to the campus, my coverage area, to shoot how it's effecting the students.
It should have occured to my journaistically-soggied brain to drive in to get a shot of students in their dorm rooms gathered around their TV watching for updates. I would have been extremely happy with that documentation of events. If only it occured to me. Which it didn't. Because it has been a long time since I've used my journalistic brain truly.
By Tuesday I was more on it, and was shocked when I came into the office and found people discussing it as if we were in a non-news-collecting business. Like we were chatting around the water-cooler. Now granted, basically what we do is marketing and I get that. But still, there was ZERO discussion on this event with regard to how we can cover it's effects on BU.
That's when I realized; I ain't in Florida anymore, Toto. And I missed it like I have never missed it before. There was no cameraderie. There was no gathering together to brain-storm story ideas. There was zero plan of coverage attack. There was no conversation about it at all really.
It was completely heartbreaking to me.
On an online news source, I came across a quick quote from a BU med student who signed-up to host marathoners (although in truth I'm not sure if she actually DID host any) when they had no place to go because their hotel was evacuated. The nation is watching out beautiful city of Boston and the things going on here and a BU student was helping! I quickly emailed nessesary people to let them know of the student so that we might connect with her and do a story.
I got no response.
When it came across facebook that RueLaLa was selling t-shirts honoring Boston and raising money for the recovery efforts, I quickly emailed again. Why? Because RueLaLa was founded by a BU graduate. Again, no real response.
On Tuesday I wandered the campus. I came across these students. I waited for the photo to happen, waited for a student to come in for a hug, positioned myself so I could get the flag at half-mast in the background. I wanted to show how students here were dealing with the bombing and how they were showing support for each other (hanging out all day long and offering hugs to anyone who wants one - it's the little things. It's not huge but it's soemthing they wanted to do). The photo didn't run anywhere, but I'm proud of it, and pissed it wasn't shared. So, I'm sharing it now.
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| With flags flying at half-mast, Emma Walters (CAS'13), center, of the group I Embrace You shares the love to a passerby April 16, 2013 as fellow-hugger Tehya Saylor (CAS'16), at right, looks on in Marsh Plaza April 16, 2013. "(Yesterday's events) rocked our boat and burst our safety bubble" said Walters, "We're here to spark some positivity and spread some kindness" she spoke of the group, who is typically on Marsh Plaza on Fridays for "Free Hug Friday" but decided last night to come out for the day to share some love. |
Later in the day, I was an hour or more early for the evening candlelight vigil which was to happen in the heart of the campus, Marsh Plaza. Yellow tape was set-up in front of one of the campus buildings nearby and before long I recieved another alert (you can sign-up to recieve campus alerts on your phone) a suspicious package was reported and was being investigated by Boston police. It asked that people stay clear of CAS (College of Arts and Sciences). I knew it was nothing, but of course the police need to take any report seriously.
Are the photos that resulted the best pictures in the world? No. But they do show how this event is effecting the BU community.
Some of my images ran here with THIS PIECE.
Then here is the shot that ran from the vigil. I will take this opportunity to say that the caption is misleading which drives me batshit. To look at the image (also below) you would think that Rev. Hill is raising his hands in prayer, yes? Being all holier-than-thou or something. Not so. He's encouraging people to move closer. Which they did. Which I said in the caption. Which was changed.
I also shot this one below. The girl on the right was giving a smile of encouragement to her friend who was very upset during the vigil. I didn't manage to get their names which was a big shame on me, but the TV media was in her face (get off my turf!) and she was really uncomfortable about it, so when I was wandering the crowd trying to get shots of people attempting to light their candles in the gale-force winds, the vigil quickly wrapped up and the two disappeared. I suspected BU Today wouldn't run it because I didn't have their names. I was told they didn't look "upset enough".
I have a major problem with this. Is it a problem because it seems insensetive to want pictures of kids really upset? No. I have a major problem with this because it has been my experience, over and over, that when I shoot an emotional picture, they won's run it. Heaven forbid a parent see a photo of a BU student unhappy.
Here's where I forget - I'm actually working for a marketing organization. Not a news organization.
On Wednesday it was made public that the third victim in the bombings was in fact a BU student. Her name was released and the media descended again on our campus.
I went to Marsh Plaza again as there was to be an "interdenominational healing service" in the early evening for all who felt like attending. I was proud to learn that while I would only be allowed in to take a few shots from the balcony of the chapel at the end of the service, I was the only shooter allowed in at all.
Flowers is honor of Lu Lingzi began to build up at the base of the MKL statue in the center of the plaza and the Chinese Student Association set up a table where other students could write condolences to her parents, and sign a poster for the other BU student who was still recovering in a Boston hospital.
It was a sensetive situation, but I still got a simple shot (again, not terribly interesting) of four Chinese students writing their thoughts down. I also got their names. To my complete confusion, the photo ran without their names on it, making me look like a lame-o who just took a picture and wormed away, failing to identify the students.
None of my images from the interior of the chapel ran, (which is completely understandable because it was poorly attended). Both myself and my boss shot many images from the plaza, students laying flowers down, etc. Melody, my boss, got a beautiful shot of some students leaning into each other. Just lovely.
I woke Thursday to see what they ran. It was an AP photo. A fucking AP photo! And not only that, it was set-up. The image showed a pair of sneakers in the plaza with a bouquet of flowers leaning on them. Tied to the bouquet was a BU wallet. Now when I was there shooting, those shoes and the wallet were no where near each other. My, how interesting that they managed to gravitate towards each other to make such a lovely image for you, Mr. Crappy AP Shooter!
I was so angry that I paced around my house bitching out loud while I got ready for work. It was such an incredible dissapointement to work so hard to document the effects of this event on our community only to have a photo of innatomate objects be used. I photo of innatomate objects that no one fromt he staff even shot.
I went to my boss and she was dissapointed too. I suggested we at least try and get a gallery set-up on the BU Today facebook page, so we can at least share in some capacity, theimages we;ve managed to capture. Hopefully that will happen.
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