The Week: September 29th. – October 4, 2008. This has been one those weeks were everything sort of all kept falling into place technically, scheduling wise and esthetically. For making images and stories, it was wonderful. Just wonderful. Started the first part of the work week chasing another homicide story in Middletown, NY, covering everything from the PD brass holding an afternoon press conference or “presser”, announcing the fifth murder of the year committed the night before. Immediately after, the reporter and I hustled to possibly see the victim’s family, where we found his brother and niece grieving in a nearby neighborhood bodega. 
(This image would make the front page of the next day’s paper.) Then that same evening we got a tip in the newsroom, that there were a ton of police cars at a house just a few steps from our main office. The reporter and I showed up on the street, and within minutes, Middletown and State Police removed one of the murder suspects from the house in shackles and handcuffs.
On Wednesday I was up before the sun and back on the road to Middletown to be the first one at a new mosque to photograph the Muslim holiday prayer celebration, Eid al-Fitr, (audio slideshow below in separate player) and another law enforcement assignment brought me to the law office of a longtime local judge in a nasty election campaign for the county Surrogate Court seat. This was a good gig and offered me the opportunity to put up two portable strobes in the judge’s law library to make a nice series of portraits of one of the true movers & shakers here in our coverage area.
On Thursday, on a more humanistic approach, I spent some time with a young couple and their 4 year-old son, who recently had a brain tumor removed and is undergoing chemotherapy & radiation treatments. On top of that, the boy’s father just lost his job as a mechanic at a local Ford dealership, as they closed suddenly due in part to the national financial crisis.
The week is still unfolding, as we’ve had another police involved shooting just this morning. (early Saturday.) I will add a separate slideshow of the week’s work ASAP. Here’s the piece from the mosque in Middletown, NY:
*(Click in the text above or click the arrow at the lower left of the player to start the slideshow. Enable full screen viewing by clicking the 4-way arrow icon above the captions button at lower right of the player. Remember to turn up your audio for the 5-minute piece. -cg.)
Here’s the rest of the week’s work.
*(This is an updated player w/o audio, but will also play automatically by clicking the arrow at lower left to start the slideshow. Enable full screen viewing by clicking the 4-way arrow icon above the captions button at lower right of the player. -cg.)
Chet Gordon resides in the lower Hudson Valley region of New York. A photojournalist for more than 25 years, he recently worked as Westchester Magazine's first photo editor, and previously was a staff photographer at four NYC metro area newspapers. He was also a photo editor at the NY Daily News for 5 years. His work has appeared in The New York Times, International Herald-Tribune, USA Today, MailOnline (UK), Army Times, Wall Street Journal, BusinessWeek, and Popular Photography magazines, among others. He is a career member of the National Press Photographer’s Association (NPPA), and a former board member of the NY Press Photographer’s Association (NYPPA). He served honorably as a U.S. Marine in the mid-1980's, including 2+ years stationed on Okinawa, Japan, and throughout Southeast Asia. A longtime volunteer and travel enthusiast, he accompanies several humanitarian aid clients on their international disaster relief and medical missions. Since 1997, he's worked in several African countries, the Middle East, Central and South America, Eastern Europe, as well as Afghanistan, Haiti, the Russian Federation, and Thailand. He routinely mentors young photographers looking to break into the industry and vacations in Bermuda and Kenya.
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