Newburgh Police officers forcibly escort an unidentified female “EDP” or emotionally disturbed person to a waiting ambulance on City Terrace, near Van Ness Street in the City of Newburgh, NY on Thursday, June 7, 2012. The woman is known to police as a frequent heroin abuser. Orange County Sheriff’s deputies are continuing their patrols of the city along with Newburgh Police. CHET GORDON/Times Herald-Record
With apologies to the late Al Davis, owner of the original Oakland Raiders of the NFL who coined the above phrase back in the ’70’s. I kind of knew in the back of my mind when I made this image that it was a special, story telling moment. The image in itself carries a lot of “weight…” Police activity. Heroin use & drug addiction. The Streets. Obviously spot-on exposure and tack sharp focus. Our reporter and I were actually on something else on the streets when I spotted a gaggle of police vehicles converge on a nearby street corner. They’d initially made a drug related vehicle stop on an individual and thoroughly searched his car and about his person. That’s when the subject above was found in a wooded lot nearby. When she was led from her hiding spot and eventually bolted from her police escorts after seeing the waiting ambulance, all I had to do was take a few steps toward the corner, raise the 2nd. (long) camera with the 70mm – 200mm zoom, and literally lay on the shutter release for a moment. (I’d written here on the blog about the image and similar ones of individuals taken into custody back in June. You can view that original post by clicking HERE. As the judges for the NPPA’s monthly contest wrote below, This (image) was ‘the cream of the crop.’ Yea, “Just Win, Baby…” ~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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