By Megan Burks
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Last week, we brought you the five most popular Speak City Heights videos of the year. This time, we’re looking at still shots.
Our partner, The AjA Project, and former voiceofsandiego.org staff photographer Sam Hodgson stocked our site with beautiful images. Often those images stood alone, conveying a story that wouldn’t have been told had it not been discovered through a camera lens.
Below are some of my favorite photos from 2011–the ones that did most of the work for us reporters and propelled our work forward with fresh narratives.
A Dilemma in Kensington-Talmadge
This photo was taken by Sam Hodgson on El Cajon Boulevard at Fairmount Avenue. It’s the site of an old car lot that is slated to become the grounds of a new YMCA facility.
But it’s also a crossroads where three communities–City Heights, Kensington and Talmadge–meet, each with radically different needs. Residents to the north are mostly well-off. Those to the south struggle to pay rent and feed their children.
The contrast here grabbed our attention first when residents of the three communities competed to influence its redevelopment. We continued to look at the relationship–and those with other bordering neighborhoods–during city council redistricting.
Photomapping Food Sources in City Heights
This photo was taken by Rhema, a refugee student in AjA’s program at Crawford High School. It represents one of the unexpected narratives that informed our reporting: the refugee paradox.
When we first started reporting on food insecurity, we talked mostly to refugees. We thought they struggle the most to eat healthy.
But what Rhema and her peers uncovered as they photographed local markets and gardens is that their families are eating pretty well. Their finding challenged us to look elsewhere and expand the story to cover other populations in City Heights.
Changing Food Traditions and Practices
This was taken by another AjA student, Maryan. It inspired another piece of our refugee paradox series.
The longer refugees are in the United States, the more their eating habits change. Often, family time and nutrition are compromised by the need for quick meals.
This is especially true for those who came to the U.S. as small children and spent most of their formative years as Americans. Though their moms try to instill traditional food practices, refugee teens are often wooed by fast food.
Tales From the Boulevard
We featured three photo essays from voiceofsandiego.org that stood beautifully on their own. Each gave us insight into the lives of people living or working along El Cajon Boulevard.
Through images, we met Mohammad Ali Fakhreddine, a boxer from Lebanon, Latrice Steward, a City Heights teen working at O’Connor’s Church Goods, and Dave Meyer, who owns an auto repair shop on the boulevard.