Enjoy!

The vigil didn’t last too long, because people started protesting instead of adhearing to the organizers requests of a calm and non-political protest. The event became more controversial as the night went along with people getting in each others faces with loud rhertoric.

There were times when people were singing as there were times when people were loudly arguing with each other.   At one point the organizers were singing “Give Peace A Chance” while the protestors shouted with loud microphones.

The night ended with me taking MARTA back to my stop and while I was on the train there were a lot of soccer fans piling up to get a seat for a soccer game.  It was pretty interesting to be packed so close to people and I know they didn’t appreciate me and all my gear. :D

A young lady attending the vigil wears a green bandana to signify support for the opposition.

A young girl holds a candle in the vigil.

A man holds a candle for the vigil for Neda.

A woman going to the vigil holds a candle for Neda.

A man holds a picture of Neda. Neda became a symbol for the opposition when she was murdered on the streets of Tehran by the Basiji.

A protestor holds a printed out peace of paper with Neda's picture.

Children pose for a picture. One of the children raises his candle for the camera.

The crowd give the hand gesture symbolizing peace.

Two children sit behind a park bench giving a peace sign with their hands.

The woman on the right asks the crowd to say "Allah Akbar" and is quickly rebuked by the diverse crowd.

The young lady yells out "peace" in a sign of frustration of the protestors that were politicizing the event.

A woman lights a candle as the young lady in the back raises a peace sign with her hand.

A young man wears the old 1979 Flag of State flag in the Vigil for Neda. This flag is no longer the Iranian flag, the new one adorns Allah Akbar in between the lines.

Two people holding opposite positions on the protest/vigil exchange words

The argument heats up quickly when the man becomes confrontational and refuses to leave the Vigil

A protestor argues with the vigil goers in piedmont park.

A young girl holds candles in front of the candles arranged to spell Neda's name.

A soccer fan wears the Mexican flag on his way to the soccer match.

Each image in this post is very meaningful to me. I hope you take the time to look at them and understand how great it is that most of us have great families and friends that help us through our problems.

Thank you and please visit the multimedia I did on Drew Benton and Safehouse Outreach if you want some back story.
Links:

Drew Benton

Abandoned Atlanta

Homeless child stares at me was I wait for Drew Benton out side of Safehouse Outreach. Drew Informed me that the child is having a lot of discipline problems and he is constantly in and out of the homeless shelter.

A homeless woman sits on the side of the street in front of the abandoned apartment building that many homeless people visit.

Shelia glances at me as she is telling her story to the Safehouse Outreach volunteers.

A homeless man sleeps in a tent on the 3rd floor of an abandoned building in Atlanta.

Shelia holds her nose to avoid the stench as she leads us on a tour of the abandoned building she calls home.

A lone chair sits in Shelia's room in front of a table full of both prescription and non-prescription medication.

A homeless man, Marlon, sits on his makeshift bed as he explains to the Safehouse Volunteers about his living situation and boasts about not having any responsibilities. He has lived there for 8 months.

Marlon, the homeless man living in the abandoned building, explains how he uses a laundry hamper to keep his food away from the rats.

A homeless woman sleeps on a four chairs outside in the early morning outside Safehouse Outreach.

Another woman sleeps outside of Safehouse Outreach as she waits to get in and talk about employment and benefits.

A homeless woman holds her child as she waits to enter the food line outside of Safehouse Outreach.

Two Safehouse volunteers hold hands with two homeless men in a prayer for the two homeless men to get back on their feet. The two young ladies were from a church group.

Joseph, a homeless man and a regular to Safehouse Outreach, teaches the Safehouse volunteers a few rifts

A homeless man sleeps on in a cot in the Peachtree and Pine St. Homeless Shelter. The shelter has become a controversy for not being adequte in providing people a means to help themselves and has run into financial straits. The city threatened to cut off their water if they didn't receive the over hundred thousand dollars owed by the shelter.

Drew Benton walks past two crack users that quickly concealed their drugs and paraphernalia as we walked past.

Sasquatch, as he preferred to be called and a regular at Safehouse, looks looks away after he explains how he used to live in those apartments when he had no where to go.

A homeless man clasps his hands in prayer during the prayer service at Safehouse Outreach.

A homeless man brings his hands together in prayer during the prayer service at Safehouse Outreach

Donald "One-eyed" blues man plays the harmonica as Atlanta residents walk past.

Donald plays his harmonica, his hands show the wear of homeless life.

Shelia talks to Drew Benton explains her life story and her drug addiction and the time she had a congenital heart attack in the abandoned building.

Daniel poses for a portrait after he tells his life story and how he ended up living behind the CNN center in Atlanta.

Drew Benton embraces Shelia finding her in the abandoned building in Five Points.

I didn’t catch the story in the newspaper but I’m sure I will pick it up from the office.

To meet the club we had to drive to the Rotary Recreational Area and take a snow covered road to the location in which we were going to meet Shane Ganong the president of The Northern Offroad Society. We had to park our car outside the meeting location and walk. It was freezing -4C and we got there a little earlier than the rest of the club so Shane let us sit in his truck which was truly appreciated.

Shane told us what his club is about and how its not just about having fun but also helping keep the environment clean in the process. The Northern Offroad Society doesn’t just drive and participate in offroad activities, they also help out by towing abandoned cars and taking the time to get out of their massive trucks and pick up trash. They were a very nice bunch of people and it was easy to see that they were very serious about their hobby and equally as serious about the environment.

Then it was time to see the trucks in action. Seeing Shane and his buddies drive in the area was a little overwhelming. I have never seen vehicles climb hills of this size. Well, maybe I have in those Jeep Wrangler commercials but I will say those Jeep Wranglers have nothing on these machies. While it was fun to watch it really took me by surprise when Shane offered to take me for a small ride. I can honestly say I didn’t expect what was on the way. I literally jumped half a foot off my seat after the first few bumps.

Well needless to say these were some great people and I’ll let the pictures tell the rest of the story.

I wanted to thank Shane and the rest of the Northern Offroad Society for this wonderful opportunity.

Hassan

Registration for the tournament started at 7 p.m. and the warm-up promptly began at 7:15 p.m.

The tournament was open to all ages and experience levels.  The registration cap was set at 32 players and the competition would be based on a best of 3 scenario on an 11-point scale.

The tournament included matches of all skill levels.  Some experts played at a very fast pace while other beginners played at a slower pace.

This was a fun event and showed the amount of athletic skills residents of Fort McMurray have.

Hassan

I contacted numerous places to see if they wouldn’t mind me coming to their workplace and learning about the issue.  After lots of tries and a few actual interviews no one still wanted me to photograph the problem.  They thought I would exploit the issue which I wasn’t planning on doing because I wasn’t going to see any monetary gains from this project.

Well I finally got in touch with Drew Benton of Safehouse.  After my interview with him he said I could photograph a feed the homeless operation that Tuesday at Safehouse.  This was a great opportunity for me to learn about this non-profit and Drew himself.

When I got there there were over a hundred people standing in line outside waiting to get in.  It was when I got inside that I saw there were another hundred sitting inside listening to a sermon from a local Methodist Church. The pastor was “Pastor Jim” that’s what he wanted me and everyone else to call him.  He talked about helping the homeless and how much it meant for him to be able to do so.  He really enjoyed what he was doing and you could see that from the way he was interacting with people.

the homeless were fed once the sermon was finished.  The staff, which consisted mostly of volunteers, moved and worked seamlessly and with giant smiles on their faces.

Drew worked constantly and did everything from moving chairs to guiding the line.  The food operation ended later that night and many people stuck around to talk to some of the volunteers and others left to find a place to sleep.

The people at Safehouse were very nice when it came helping me with this project and I want to express my gratitude.

Hassan

He also talked a lot about the sins that all people take part in and how they need to repent for them or they will be held responsible on judgement day.

He only gave me what he said was his first name and was not in the mood to talk to me.  I think it might have to do with my camera.

well enjoy the images.

-Hassan

A few days after we arrived to Fort McMurray, I was asked by my dad to photograph a friend of his for his ailing brother.  Well this friend happen to be Rodney Rehbein, who my dad calls Mr. Rod. (hence the title)

It was such a relief to meet such a nice person.  Although our original act was I was doing a favor to my father as soon as I met Rodney we both felt like Rodney was our friend.  We only had about 10 minutes to do all the photos because Rodney only had his lunch break for pictures and he was leaving that night to go see his brother.

Rodney works for Diversified Buses and is pursuing to work in the Fort McMurray Heavy Haulers

It was truly a pleasure working with such a wonderful person.

Well its 3 AM, I’m off to bed.

The second day of my photojournalism project consisted of a lot more walking.  I figured that if I wanted to really understand homelessness in Atlanta I needed to do a lot of groundwork.

So that day while I was walking I passed a guy playing his harmonica on the side of Broad Street.  He didn’t say anything to me as I was walking, he didn’t even look at me.  I thought this was odd considering most homeless people I have met before him always wanted my attention, much like Daniel.

The music he played was very upbeat and it rather uplifting.  When I started to talk to him he told me about his situation. He said he was in a blues band and came to Atlanta from Montgomery in the 70s with his fellow band members and wasn’t able to make money playing music at the time.  He said his friends started getting into drugs and that made it even harder to try to get back together.

His story then jumped 15 years ahead to his situation today.  He said he loves playing music and that he would continue to do until he could no longer use his fingers.

Donald was a very nice man and was willing to talk to me for sometime even though he knew I didn’t have any money or anything to offer him

I hope Donald is doing well.
Hassan