Tuesday, December 30, 2008

Making up for lost time

Here are a bunch of pictures from the month. I haven't been too good about posting so I hope this makes up for it. Check back in a couple of days for the links to Photos of the Year and the finale of Rites of Life.
Enjoy!





Apparently guns sales have gotten out of control since Obama has been elected. I found this story to be particularly interesting. According to the gun store operator at L. Oppleman's pawn shop they can't even keep standard revolvers on the shelf. Gun enthusiast seem to think gun laws will change in the coming years.






No this college student is not smoking pot but it sure looks like it doesn't it. This is at our local Hookah bar (yes, Lynchburg has a hookah bar)and it's 100% legal. But all I keep hearing in my head when I see this picture is "Whoa Man! This is some good stuff." It takes me back.....



I just think this picture is strange...

Monday, December 8, 2008

Season of Sacrifice



Click here to watch Season of Sacrifice

This is a link to the project Season of Sacrifice that I worked on for the last 8 months. This is a story about seasonal workers who come to Lynchburg, Va. for eight months out of the year to work legally and send money back to their families in Mexico. They then go home for four months out of the year. The owner of the company that brings these men to the United States wanted to build the men townhouses to live in while they were here. He wanted to build on his property that happen to be across the street from a school in Forest. When word of this hit the public people reacted with a surprising amount of hatred toward the mexican workers. They called the townhomes dorms and the school principle wrote a letter to the board of supervisors saying that is would be dangerouse for students. In the end the board voted to reject the request. While there is no solid proof that this is why the board voted against the request it is pretty much acknowledged that it was a completely racist vote.

Working with these men was a great expierence for me. Their lives are hard and is something that I don't know if I could endore. I have profound respect for their determination to take care of their families and with the modesty in which they do it. To them this is how life is and so they accept it. I will never forget these men and can't wait to see them again in March. Click on the link above to see the slideshow that sums up the story.

Friday, December 5, 2008

Rites of Life Part 9: Generation Gap



Click here to go to Rites of Life Blog

Here is part nine from the Rites of Life series. It's a kind of abstract rite not centered around an event but more about a transition. It's about finding yourself behind the times. In this case we choose to focus on older adults trying to learn computer. I thought this senario would be exactly what we were looking for and it was. It made me realize just how much I take my technology knowledge for granted.

On another note the Rites of Life is coming to an end. We only have one last installment that is set to come out on December 21st. I can't even believe that it is almost done, boy has this year gone fast.