Hundreds of people rallied in front of CNN center in Atlanta on Saturday to protest the violent reaction of the Iranian government toward demonstrators in Iran. At the same time, hip-hop fans were gathering for the Hot 107.9 (WHTA-FM) Birthday Bash, a concert at Phillips Arena, which is next to CNN center. At moments the two groups crossed paths.
(Photo by Joeff Davis)
This photo is from today’s “American Idol” auditions at the Georgia Dome. Robert Peters, 23, from Richmond, Va., planned to sing “Boss D.J.” by Sublime for his audition. He sang it for me and spoke to me before going in for his try-out.
“My weakest thing in singing is eye contact,” Peters said. “When I sing, I close my eyes when I really need to keep my eyes open and look at the people that I need to look at. My best talent as a singer is hitting the high notes. I like singing songs that have soul, but I think I have a lot to learn. I think soul is feeling. A lot of people can sing loud, but soul is how you feel it, you just gotta feel it, you just gotta feel it. I flew from Richmond, Virginia to try out. I work at a Thai restaurant there. I saved up to come here. I hope to make it to the second round.”
More photos of American Idol contestants
(Photo by Joeff Davis)
Shot at the annual Atlanta Tattoo Arts Festival over the weekend at the Crowne Plaza Hotel Perimeter.
More photos from the Tattoo Festival
(Photo by Alan Friedman)
June 6, 2009, 5:54 p.m., 1634 McLendon Ave. N.E.
Photography is a way to interpret reality and this is a tribute to afternoon beer drinking. When on those rare days you are able to have a beer in the afternoon, these are the sort of photos you take. It was taken at the Fellini’s in Candler Park on June 6.
For more photo tidbits, galleries and CL TV video, check out our new Photos and Video site.
(Photo by Joeff Davis)
May 28, 2009, 9:47 a.m., Edgewood Avenue N.E. and Krog Street N.E.
I saw this guy working on billboards last week on Edgewood Avenue as I was
driving to work. He is actually about 25 feet off the ground. I chose it
because of the way he is standing, how it looks like he is trying to kiss
the sign. The text on the far side also adds an element to the image.
(Photo by Joeff Davis)
FOR YEEZY: A couple of the two dozen people camped in front of Walter’s shoe store in downtown Atlanta this morning. Most have been there since Saturday and will stay until the $215 limited edition Kanya West-designed “Air Yeezy” shoes go on sale this Saturday.
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(Photo by Joeff Davis)
On Saturday night, Sin City Fight Club presented “Showdown at Center Stage,” an evening of cage-fighting. The main event was the most violent of the night — a match between 34-year-old Dymond Jones and 22-year-old Clint Hester.
While the amateur fights during the evening featured offense and defense, the Hester vs. Jones fight was more like offense and offense, with both fighters meeting in a flurry of punches. Jones — twelve years older and twenty pounds lighter — got the worst of it, at one point finding himself on the delivery end of several punches to the head while pinned to the floor. Hester knocked out Jones with 30 seconds left in the second round. “He hit damn hard,” said Jones, when reached by phone on Monday. “He got big ass hands.”
Dymond Jones on the ground during his bout with Clint Hester
“You always think right when you get into the ring, ‘What am I here for again?’ You do it because you want to, but you know someone’s gonna do harm to you,” Jones said, still nursing a minor concussion two days after the fight. “I am thinking about retiring,” he added, “but you don’t want to retire after a loss.”
More photos of “Showdown at Center Stage“
(Photo by Joeff Davis)
This photo was taken at 7 Forsyth St N.W. on May 22. Red Clark is working on one of his regular clients Dante. Red estimates he has given 30,000 haircuts in his 10 years working as a barber. He says he got the cross tattoo on his arm to remind himself “to keep the faith.” I chose the photo for this week’s Time and Place because to me it captures the intimacy of getting a haircut. How often do you see two men interact in public in this way?
(Photo by Joeff Davis)
May 18, 2009, 12:36 p.m., 1201 Peachtree Street
This photo was taken at 1201 Peachtree St. on May 18. Adam Perdue works as a delivery driver for a local Deli and he stops at Colony Square two to three times a week to make deliveries. On this day his car was booted while he was inside the building delivering someone’s lunch. Jason did not have any money on him to pay for the boot removal, so he had to call the store he worked at and ask them to send over the $50. “Its gonna cost me $50 to get this thing off my car and so far today I have only made $30,” he said.“Unbelievable man, I am just trying to make a living.”
(Photo by Joeff Davis)
Over 1,200 people rallied in front of the Georgia Capitol this evening for death row inmate Troy Davis. The rally was part of the “Global Day of Action for Troy Davis.” Rallies for Davis were held in 45 states and 28 countries.
One of the rally’s speakers was Juan Melendez, a former death row inmate who served 17 years in prison for a crime he didn’t commit. Melendez was freed in January 2002 after another person’s confession to the murder for which he was convicted was allowed to be heard in court. Just as in Davis’ case, no physical evidence linked Melendez to the crime. He was convicted on the false testimony of a police informant who was paid $5,000 for the tip that cost Melendez 17 years of his life behind bars. “You can never release an innocent man from the grave,” Melendez said during his speech at the rally.
(Photo by Joeff Davis)
This guy drove up to me as I was taking photos of a junkyard this morning in Northwest Atlanta. He asked me what I was taking pictures of, and I told him “pictures of interesting things.” He immediately stuck his finger in his nose and said “take a picture of this.”
(Photo by Joeff Davis)
May 11, 2009, 10:02 a.m., Fairlie and Marietta streets N.W.
This photo was taken on Marietta Street May 11. It is a picture of a homeless man named William Gazaway. William is disabled and can barely walk. He shuffles around on a walker. William has been homeless ever since he got out of prison ten years ago. The night before I took this picture he slept on the street near Grady Hospital. “I got so many health problems it’s not even funny,” he said. He stopped receiving his disability check a while ago and now gets nothing, he does not know why. He has been in Grady Hospital recently but says they didn’t do anything for him but keep him doped up. “Its horrible being homeless” he said, “you never have any peace of mind.”
(Photo by Joeff Davis)
May 1, 2009, 6:46 p.m., 1345 Piedmont Ave. N.E.
This photo was taken at the Atlanta Botanical Garden on May 1. It was the member preview night of their new exhibit of Henry Moore sculptures. I started taking pictures of these human-like sculptures at the entrance to the exhibit as soon as I saw them. I am kind of familiar with Moore’s work and I was thinking to myself as I looked through the viewfinder that I did not know Moore did such realistic sculptures. Right then a woman who was looking really closely at one of the sculptures suddenly shrieked “it’s breathing” and started laughing hysterically. It was only then I realized that the sculptures were actually alive. A short time later these children walked up to the sculpture. Their expressions captured my sense of disbelief.
(Photo by Joeff Davis)
April 19, 2009, 5:48 p.m., at 1993 Memorial Drive S.E.
This photo was taken on Memorial Drive inside a house which looks like it recently burned down. I drive by it almost every day. I chose the photo for Time and Place because I like how the frame of the window appears like a picture frame and the green outside becomes like a picture hanging on the wall. I like the green contrasted with the black of the frame and the abstract patterns all over the wall. It is sad and beautiful.
(Photo by Joeff Davis)
Bring happiness to Atlanta, spread world peace — share your HAPPY PHOTOS.
In conjunction with our upcoming HAPPY ISSUE, we’re putting together a gallery of HAPPY PICTURES to make everyone in Atlanta SMILE.
So send us a photo or two and, if you want, a sentence on why the photo makes you happy, and we’ll publish them in our HAPPY GALLERY.
Send the pics to photos@cln.com and we can all smile with you.
(Photo by Joeff Davis)
Houston sells — you guessed it — socks. Lots and lots of them. But why socks? And how did he get started in this business?
Tell me a about how you began selling socks.
One day, I saw a guy selling socks out of the trunk of his car and I thought to myself, “That might work on a massive scale.” So I started selling socks out of the trunk of my car. I started going from neighborhood to neighborhood, from barbershops to beauty salons to grocery stores to plazas. And I had this little beat-up car, and I put a sign on the side of it that said “Socks” and my phone number. People called me, and one thing led to another. I graduated and I got myself a van. A buddy of mine painted a sign on the side of the van. It said “Sock Man.”
Before I go on and tell you the rest of the story, let me tell you a little bit about where I came from and how difficult it was. I was strung out on drugs. I was homeless for years, and I lived in a cardboard box. My store that I have on Glenwood Road in Decatur that’s open today, I used to sleep behind that building in a cardboard box. I grew up right in this neighborhood. I came out of high school with a football scholarship to Florida State University. To get out of college and stumble into an addiction that took me to the gates of hell was really a traumatic experience.
April 6, 2009, 10:58 a.m., at 177 North Ave.
Like a little kid I am strangely attracted to shiny objects. In my photographs I like to portray a multidimensional existence. This photo to me feels like the woman is leaving one reality and entering another. The photograph was taken on the edge of the Georgia Tech campus. It’s a picture of a mirror for cars pulling out of the parking lot so that they can see around the corner. I was taking pictures there when this woman paused at the edge of the mirror as if she was trying not to ruin my photograph by entering it. By stopping she made the image possible. She stood and waited for me to finish taking my picture before continuing down North Avenue.
(Photo by Joeff Davis)
At the end of the legislative session Georgia lawmakers leave a mess for others to clean up. “I think its childish, really,” said one of the workers who will be cleaning all night tonight at the Capitol, “but they been doing it for years.”
(Photo by Joeff Davis)
Good times were had at the Old School, New School Sock Hop Cabaret March 27 at the atrium on Sweet Auburn. I can’t remember the last time I saw such amazing dances in action such as the Bop, the Stroll, the Hand Jive, and even some stuff I have never seen before. The wardrobe came off just as cool as the dance moves. You just can’t get any cooler than poodle skirts and hush puppies.
(Text and photo by Matt Miller)
March 21, 2009, 11:12 p.m., on Arizona Avenue N.E.
This week’s Time and Place photo was shot at the Lake Claire Community Land Trust drum circle which takes place the first and third Saturday of each month. The drum circle is one of Atlanta’s most unique events with people gathering around a bonfire dancing, chanting, drumming, freaking, humming, clapping and singing from sunset until midnight. The sight of silhouettes shaking it around a cascading fire to the endless throbbing beats that shift and stutter and peter out and start again is quite wonderful. This combined with the spirit of a musical potluck, as people bring their own instruments and novices beat drums with total strangers, makes it a truly communal experience. This photo was taken of a person dancing crazily with a light with which they were spinning around and around and around.
(Photo by Joeff Davis)
“Repent! Repent!” Shouting these words Prophet Love seemingly rose from the
dead this afternoon at Last Chance Church on Love Street in southwest Atlanta. Staging what he called a “casket demonstration,” Prophet Love presented his own funeral in hopes of saving people from the depths of hell.
“If we continue with our wrongdoing, heaven will not be our home,” he preached while sitting up in a coffin in which he had laid still for over an hour. The idea came to him to do the half funeral, half performance art after his wife and son refused his request to be cremated upon his death. “So I said I will just do my funeral myself,” Love explained.
“Its strange,” said Missionary Forte, one of five other people sitting in the church during the mock open-casket viewing.
“Its unique,” added Barbara Phillips, who says Prophet Love saved her years ago. “It demonstrates that we are all going to go through this and we better get our lives right.”
Prophet Love described lying in the coffin as “not feeling much different then laying in bed.”
“Death is inevitable,” Love said. “Be ready to meet God, repent for your wrongdoing, you know when you are doing right and wrong. There is no water in hell — hell is real. The majority of people will end up in hell.”
View more photos of Prophet Love’s casket demonstration.
(Photo by Joeff Davis)
Shuttle dodges space trash…again
Shocking News: Depressed people have trouble enjoying positive experiences
Now that’s really funny Israeli army t-shirts
Iraq suicide bomber strikes funeral
Unmanned bombing missions considered successful despite civilian deaths
Dow Jones up close to 500 points
Internet considered better than sex
(Photo by Joeff Davis)
