Monday, February 16, 2009

Photojournalist wrecks helicopter (not really)

Gerry's been in Mississippi all week with a National Guard unit that he is embedded with. They are training for deployment to Iraq, and Gerry will go over in July to follow up with them. This is a pretty cool story, two reporters are following a group of soldiers and their families and they will all be blogging and doing an online based story for the next year. Gerry is the photographer assigned because he covers Ft. Bragg and Camp LeJeune as well as any military goings on in NC. He was in Iraq in 2005 and it was not a bit fun for me. I'm not really excited about another trip, but this is what he does. The only clay related thing about this post is that last time he was in Iraq, we lived in Charlotte and I was on my way over to Clayworks and heard a report on NPR that two photojournalists had been killed that morning in southern Iraq, and that was where he was. I was a wreck all morning but all of the great people at Clayworks were reassuring me and offering support and I will always remember their kindness.
The only thing that kept my mind off of worrying was to get on the wheel and try to center some clay.

5 comments:

Ron said...

Tracey,
Hey this is totally off topic from this post but....
did you happen to get any handouts from Victoria Christen when you went to Utilitarian? I don't think Jen or Julie either one went to see her demonstrate. Just looking for more stuff to add to my ever increasing "recipes to test collection".Thanks! Ron

Tracey Broome said...

Hey Ron:
No handouts but I shot lots of photos of her working. Would you like me to email those to you? I love her work, and she was delightful, I spent a good bit of my time at her demos.

Ron said...

Thanks Tracey, I'd love to see some photos. She's teaching at Arrowmont this summer. That may be an option if I don't get into Penland.

Hollis Engley said...

Photojournalists can only do their jobs when they're on the ground. Speaking as a former shooter, that's the joy and the curse of the job. Any old writer can put a story together on the phone (I did that, too ... ), but the shooters have to be there. I never did anything remotely hazardous, but friends have. I have nothing but respect for those people. He'll be fine, Tracey. You just keep making pots.

Tracey Broome said...

Hey Hollis: Gerry has been very lucky with this assignment, the reporters are very talented, one has won a pulitzer and the other knows everything there is to know about writing military stories. They are writing much of their stories from Gerry's pictures which is sometimes a rare occurrence. I saw his edit last night and it is really good. I'll post a link when the story runs.
Ron, I sent you some photos on your email address.