Cover Story - The Year in Photos 2013

Creative Loafing photography at its best is a combination of fine art and photojournalism. Our goal is not only to record facts, but also to capture personality and spirit and express emotion. Our annual Year in Photos cover story is always both the most fun and the most difficult issue for me to edit. The photography staff must choose 18 pictures from the thousands it has shot over the last 12 months. Each photographer then writes about the story behind his or her selected photos.

? ?
The cover photo was taken by then-intern Alyssa Pointer during protests after George Zimmerman was acquitted of the killing of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin. Pointer remembers the moments leading up to the photograph: “Hundreds joined together at West End Park to voice how they felt about issues of race and the justice system in the United States. Within the crowd were two women passing around megaphones. Patiently waiting with her hand raised was Kimberly Brooks. Brooks seemed quiet so I didn’t think her voice would project. But she grabbed both megaphones and spoke about her fears as the mother of a teenage son. ... Growing up with an older brother, I experienced firsthand the fears my mother had for my brother. ... This photo reevaluates the ongoing fears that African-American mothers have for their sons and gives outsiders a glance into their world.”

? ?
For the Year in Photos, we make our decisions not because certain images represent the biggest stories, but because these are the photographs that feel the closest to our hearts.

— Joeff Davis, Photo Editor

??[http://clatl.com/atlanta/the-year-in-photos-2013/Content?oid=9917709&showFullText=true|]?
?page??
?7:29 p.m., Sept. 2, 1111 Euclid Ave.: I met Joshua Cleveland in Little Five Points while he was practicing a krump routine before a dance battle in front of 7 Stages Theatre. Krump is an exaggerated, expressive, and highly energetic dance form created in the early 2000s in Los Angeles. While this photo fails to show krumping’s energy, it does achieve a grace and harmony between Cleveland’s movement and the classic L5P mural behind him that is almost soothing to me.?

— Dustin Chambers??page??
?12:40 p.m., Oct. 19, 1996 Centennial Olympic Parkway, Conyers: The American version of Spain’s annual Running of the Bulls festival dubbed the Great Bull Run visited Georgia in mid-October. Eighteen bulls ranging in weight from 900 to 1,700 pounds were released in six different heats to run around a quarter-mile track into crowds of as many as 600 people who had paid up to $75 for the experience.?

What seemed on paper to be madness was actually much more efficient and orderly than expected. Once the bulls took off into the crowd, people had a quick choice, either risk suicide and jump in front of the bull or get the fuck out of the way. Virtually everybody chose the latter.?

The run pictured took place toward the end of the day. A man was struck by another man while taking a picture and was nearly trampled. This photo was captured in 1/8,000 of a second and reveals the joy and terror of the moment.?

— Joeff Davis??page??
?2:54 p.m., Jan. 12, 265 Park Ave. West: On a wintry stroll with my girlfriend through Downtown, we stopped at Centennial Olympic Park’s Fountain of Rings (an undeniably solid date spot) for some people watching. Typically, it’s filled with children timing their jumps among the unpredictable spouts of chlorinated water. Eventually this couple caught our eye, slowly and surely walking into the middle of one of the rings for a photo. They didn’t smile and they didn’t talk, but they probably wouldn’t have navigated that gauntlet of dancing water and sprinting, screeching children, and risked getting her beautiful sari wet and losing the fine crease in his slacks, if they hadn’t really wanted to. I’d call it love.?

— Dustin Chambers??page??
?1:29 p.m., Oct. 2, 830 Westview Drive: Rev. Joseph Lowery grips a picture of him and his wife, Evelyn Gibson Lowery, while greeting well-wishers after her funeral. They had been married 67 years.?

At the end of the moving ceremony, which concluded with Mrs. Lowery’s casket being put in a horse-drawn carriage, Rev. Lowery’s wheelchair was carried down the stairs and he was helped into a waiting limousine. People crowded around his window, so when I saw the other door was open, I ducked in for a moment and took this picture.?

— Joeff Davis??page??
?10:15 p.m., May 28, 529 Flat Shoals Ave.: It was a Tuesday night in East Atlanta — the opening scene for a locals showcase at the inaugural ATL Death Fest, which brought bands such as Melbourne, Australia’s Krömosom and Tokyo’s Abigail to town for a night of metal savagery. Sadistic Ritual guitarist Charlie Southern (pictured) was a whiplash force of nature on stage that night, shredding through songs with such titles as “Neurotoxin” and “Hellish Mercenary” at ear-bleeding volume. It was a definitive night for a then-burgeoning metal invasion, which has since left a blackened boot print on Atlanta’s 2013 music scene.?

— Chad Radford??page??
?3:50 p.m., Sept. 21, 400 Park Drive: Music Midtown was rainy and muddy and gross, but also fun. I retreated to Black Lips’ stage for a while and shot from behind their set. I like the idea of focusing on the colorful sea of the audience and contrasting it with the musician’s dark silhouette.?

— Dustin Chambers??page??
?3:38 p.m., Feb. 16, 285 Andrew Young International Blvd.: This image was shot at the annual Bronner Bros. International Hair Show. I liked the quirkiness of the woman surrounded by the hair she was selling and her face sort of magically being obscured by a weave in flight. The visual variety and sheer size of this convention makes it a blast to shoot. If I could shoot the hair show every week, I would.?

— Dustin Chambers??page??
?11:24 a.m., Feb. 1, 2013, 231 18th St., Suite 8150: Creative Loafing’s annual Lust List is a big photo project. Photos are usually about how subjects look staring into the camera, but sometimes you can get a better vibe from a person looking at his or her back, as in this shot of Miyamoto.?

— Joeff Davis??page??
?10:21 p.m. June 13, 22775 U.S. 27, Bluffton: An average slaughterhouse in Georgia can kill and process as many as 250,000 chickens a day. Last year more than six billion pounds of chicken meat were processed in Georgia.?

This photo was shot at the chicken slaughterhouse at White Oak Pastures. White Oak is different from the average farm. It processes about 500-750 chickens a day and is certified by four humane animal welfare organizations. All the chickens here roam free. When it comes time to slaughter them, the chickens are killed in the dark one by one with an electrified knife to the neck. Even though White Oak’s approach is considered more “humane,” watching one animal after another be killed was, for me, a harrowing experience. This picture was taken shortly before the chickens were put in the defeathering machine. It reminds me of a Norman Rockwell painting with a dark twist.?

— Joeff Davis??page??
?5:43 p.m., July 5, 91 Broad St.: This photo was taken in the bathroom of a run-down gay club in Downtown Atlanta. I’m always drawn to objects on walls and how they interact within their negative space. I especially liked these elements because from such a simple photo you get more of a sense of place than you’d expect. The hand dryer is proof that you’re in a bathroom, the holes and the red F, which most would correctly assume is the beginning of a four-letter word scrawled on the wall, imply that this place is derelict. The big fluorescent light says the space is industrial or commercial. And then there’s the photo on the wall, which certainly asks more questions than it answers.?

— Dustin Chambers??page??
?1:06 p.m., Jan. 13, 1 Georgia Dome Drive: As a photographer covering events, I always try to spend as much time watching the action on the field as the action in the stands. Often the more interesting pictures are found in the crowd.?

This picture was shot just before kickoff of the Falcons playoff game versus the Seattle Seahawks. The crowd went nuts and the epic game was decided in the end by a field goal in the final seconds. It was the first playoff victory of the Matt Ryan/Mike Smith era. Almost a year later the Falcons have a losing record, while the Seahawks look primed for a Super Bowl run.?

I tried to capture the crowd’s energy, jarring my camera while I took the image in hopes of mimicking a favorite painting of mine, “The Rue Montorgueil in Paris. Celebration of 30 June 1878,” by impressionist Claude Monet of French flags floating in the wind.?

— Joeff Davis??page??
?1:46 p.m., Feb. 14, 231 Sycamore St., Decatur: This was one of those rare presidential visits when I could actually roam around the venue during the President’s speech. I was able to frame President Obama in the teleprompter by standing in just the right place. For just an instant as I was taking the picture, he seemed to look right into my camera and pause.?

— Joeff Davis??page??
?3:44 p.m., Feb. 10, Peachtree Street: I documented Sidney and Thurman Sewell, aka the ATL Twins, for a month earlier this year. I was constantly struck by how sensitive and kind these guys were, despite their outrageously chauvinistic and dopey personas. This was a great moment, right before we did a photo shoot with two twin girls in bikinis, real guns, and a bunch of fake cash, playing up their personas.?

The whole scene was surreal: Thurman, on the left, is showing off the cornrows that they’d gotten for the shoot; they’re eating Jimmy John’s sandwiches in bed; and a giant silenced MAC-10 is nonchalantly resting at the foot of their bed, which they share. Before the shoot started, Sydney (right) turned to me and said, “I hate guns. Guns really scare me. I’ve actually never shot a gun.” It made me appreciate their dedication to the act.?

— Dustin Chambers??page??
?12:30 p.m., Oct. 9, Cameron Madison Alexander Boulevard and English Avenue: An Atlanta Harm Reduction Coalition (the state’s only syringe exchange program) client grips needles for injecting drugs as he waits to swap out the used needles for clean ones. The 59-year-old said he shoots speedballs — a mixture of heroin and cocaine. For me, this picture is powerful because of the look in his eyes. It’s as if he has totally surrendered to the drug and to his addiction.?

— Joeff Davis??page??
?1:07 p.m., April 30, Rogers Street: The first time I photographed Pullman Yard, Kirkwood’s 26-acre former industrial hub, I had to sneak in through a hole in the fence and run to one of the buildings so as not to be seen. Once inside, I remember pressing my body against a wall to avoid a pickup truck cruising through searching for trespassers like myself.?

But for our cover story on Pullman Yard, we were able to go through the proper channels and get approval to shoot in the yard for a full day. We were even required to hire a capitol police officer to act as our security. The day of photographing included the shooting of a 3-D tour that we posted on our website and which allows others to enter this insane space without having to leave their couches.?

This image was shot in one of the large buildings behind the main building. I love how nature seems to be reclaiming the abandoned space.?

— Joeff Davis??page??
?2:44 p.m., Nov. 13, 755 Hank Aaron Drive: When news leaked that the Atlanta Braves intended to relocate to Cobb County in 2017, I called the team’s media staff to see if I could get some pictures inside the stadium to go along with our coverage. They said no. I noticed on the Braves website that a tour of the stadium is offered several times daily. I signed up for it and the next day I found myself touring the empty stadium with about a dozen tourists. I was constantly having to catch up with the tour as I stopped to take photos of the empty spaces that would become CL’s visuals for our cover story on the move. The symmetry of the empty seats and their deep blue color allow this image to take on a life of its own.?

— Joeff Davis??page??
?3:09 p.m., Nov. 5, 2020 Peachtree Road: Photographing paraplegic billiards champion Mark “The Snake” Jones was an amazing experience. Before this moment in the pool, I’d spent time with him playing pool in a dingy, smoky bar, and in his home, making lunch for his girlfriend. Of those three places, I thought it was the swimming pool that really showed him in his element. Before we went to the pool I asked him why swimming was so important to him and he responded with, “After sitting in a chair, I feel kind of confined. It’s so nice to be out of the chair and be in the water and feel whole again.” When I took this photo, I saw the exact moment where he had achieved just that.?

— Dustin Chambers?