I photographed a vigil last Monday. Elijah "Buck" Ball was a 15 year old living in Caroline County, Va. He was shot in a YMCA parking lot by another 15 year old from a rival high school. Buck's brother was with him when he died. This being a small community, the sudden death of a high schooler is a big deal. To have the death be caused by another student in the county is an outrage.
If I thought that the vigil was intense, it was nothing compared to the funeral. Just a week after his death, Buck's family held an open casket funeral service for their son at Caroline High School. Over 800 people showed up... As time has passed, we've found out more about Buck's death. It seems as though he had made enemies through social media. Word had gotten out that he was a snitch and some kids wrote to him on twitter saying they were going to put his face on an RIP t-shirt... which came to fruition.
Other than the images here, what I mainly photographed in the last week were sports portraits for the athletes of the year. I can't share them yet because they're not getting published until this week but I learned something very important: I am not a portrait photographer. I'll talk more about my experience next post.
More than 200 people came out to Buck's vigil. Community leaders lead the group in a short march from the High School to the Middle School and back.
One of Buck's friends spoke at the vigil about the senselessness of his friend's murder and he pleaded with the crowd not to retaliate.
Leshawn, 19, was one of the first people I talked to at the vigil that was really close with Buck. She told me he was like a brother to her. Here she is at the funeral after walking by his open casket.
Leshawn collapsed a minute or so after I took the frame above. She was fine, it was just a panic attack. She was the second person to have a massive panic attack and wouldn't be the last... it was difficult to watch these people be in such distress.
Buck's girlfriend sees his body for the first time since he died a week previously. She is escorted away from the casket, unable to support herself.
Pallbearers carry the coffin of Buck to the hearse for his final transportation. Buck's brother, Jamal can be seen on the right side of the coffin. Jamal was with Buck when he was killed.
This is from something very different. This is from Easter Sunday sunrise service.
Eva Shorts has nice coats. She is also one month away from being 90.
Ernest Woodson III was the preacher for the sunrise service... it may have been 30 degrees, there may not have been many people there, he may have locked his keys in the car and the power may not have been able to be turned on for the keyboard... but Ernest made it work. He kept a positive attitude and carried on, it was nice to be around such positivity.
Bekah balances an egg on a spoon in her mouth while Jordan tries to pass her.
Feature hunting, children playing. Apparently TMNT is a thing again, every little boy on the playground had some kind of TMNT paraphernalia... obviously an example of excellent parenting.
This is Larry. He caught three fish in about five minutes and let all of them go (so maybe one fish three times in five minutes?)... either way, Larry is a champion.
I showed up to one of my portrait shoots really early and was trying to conceptualize ideas while waiting for him to get to the pool... underwater things are cool. Lets hope when you see those photos next week I was able to be somewhat original...
