For more than 25 years I've documented life across the South with a mix of photojournalism and documentary photography. And for most of that time, I’ve had my hands in self publishing. Soda Citizen is my current consistent endeavor. I’ve been publishing here for six years and before that, I published photo stories and reports at theangrywhale.com
Work in photojournalism has led me to regular assignments with The New York Times, Getty Images, the Associated Press and others — but Soda Citizen is where I have creative control. From hurricanes and protests to regional music local scenes — here is collection of photo stories that are popular and some I think are important.
Kyle Guilbault has lived in Rosewood Estates in Socastee, South Carolina for about four months. “The water came up the first month I was here. It didn't get this high, and then a couple days ago, it just came up and out of nowhere. It's shit. It sucks,” he says, standing in floodwater on Feb. 25.
I covered Hurricane Helene for nine days - riding the storm out in Tallahassee and arriving in Steinhatchee, Florida - as the sun rose for the first time after landfall.
Jake Luhrs: Man with a message
“It was a very emotional period,” says Jake, from a tour bus parked behind the Tabernacle on a 2019 summer night in Atlanta. Black with white flames stretching the sides, the bus bunks at least a dozen on August Burns Red’s headlining tour, a ten year anniversary of Constellations, their third full length and Jake’s sophomore effort with the band.
Carolinians sick of toxic smog
Karen Reilly feels like she’s being gassed and poisoned in her own home. For seven months she’s been experiencing spells of dizziness and vertigo — and recently, head pressure and tightness in her chest. On the last Thursday of July, she woke and drove straight to a Doctors Care facility.
Avoid Highways: Escape to the Poconos
In December of 1986, Chip Burnett visited Jim Thorpe for the first time. He came with his mother and father, wife and three sons. A Philadelphia police officer, Burnett quickly fell in love with the town and told his wife that he’d like to retire here one day.
Twitty’s Mud Bog Season Opener
“They told me to send it, so I sent it. And well, I left on the trans brake about 3500 and it pulled a little bit to the right until it just rode the wall and there was just no driving out of it. I didn't want to let out because letting out don't get you to first place,” explained the nineteen year-old mud bog driver, Chandler Smyly, in his second season out of Barnwell, SC on Saturday.
