Parting Shot
News
Ansel Adams said “You don’t make a photograph just with a camera. You bring to the act of photography all the pictures you have seen, the books you have read, the music you have heard, the people you have loved.” From this starting point, I folded in the vision of both author and publisher to create this uncropped image for use on the cover of Rev. Dr. F. Willis Johnson’s book Holding Up Your Corner (Abingdon Press). My instructions to Willis Johnson were basically to tap into the concerns, the pain, the emotions and thoughts from his experience in Ferguson which led to his book. My storytelling attempted to use his face to pull those elements together, with the street corner falling off behind him. My approach was to use split lighting on his face to symbolize the darkness of what he witnessed, felt and experienced contrasted against the hope and healing he envisioned and sought. #HoldingUpYourCorner