THREE years ago when I decided to turn my passion for photo-journalism into something with it's own identity, I never factored in how the world would receive me. I often reflect back to my childhood growing up in a Southern Baptist Church, focusing on the things that we were required to know. I had to learn hymns because my mom was the choir director, a ton of black history and the other was a scripture. For some reason out of the three the scripture is what I held onto. Don't ask me how because most of the time I was day dreaming about scoring touchdowns. The scripture that I was most fond of was from the book of Proverbs 18:16; It read, "A man's gift makes room for him, and brings him before great men". The translation for me as a kid was if I had a good job I'd get paid and meet famous people. Needless to say that my childhood interpretation wasn't to far off the mark. More importantly the one thing that I've grown to learn about that particular passage is that it wasn't specific in the age of the men that we'd stand before... Also, the greatness of the men that I've met hasn't always been measured by finances, it's been measured by their character and innocence.
Where am I going with this story?
This year I've found myself standing before over one thousand boys and girls speaking on my journey as an African-American Visual Media-Journalist from High Point, North Carolina by way of Trinity, North Carolina. In my statement of purpose, I said, "I want to impact the masses with the simplicity of pictures and sound". When I sat down to write that statement I never considered the age of my audience. I never considered what my image would look like once it was captured along side my audience.
My colleague Robert Dulin helped me figure it out with one single shot. Vision Beyond the Lens is much larger than creating web content. It's here to help people understand with each image there's a purpose for cause and effect. There's always a need for social change as well as a need for global impact.
This year with the assistance from many of you reading this blog entry my company Goal Line Media was able to give away over nearly 100 coats during the coldest stretch of the 2011-2012 winter. So standing on the shoulders of what some would consider a giant, I along with many of you have to keep the Vision Beyond the Lens alive.
It's about the little ones in the photo with me below and standing in the company with the great ones even before they know that they're great.
Thanks for always supporting the VISION.
-J.J. McQueen- photo: by Robert Dulin
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