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Flint's people and pride, along with its storytelling drama, have a strong pull on award-winning photographer Brittany Greeson.
"I’m a photojournalist who became outraged for the people I was documenting," she writes at The Ground Truth Project, a journalism training nonprofit in Boston. "I see a common tone of exhaustion and heartbreak. I hear voices that are at a loss as to what to do next."
Brittany Greeson: "Residents of Flint have been so inviting to the media." (Facebook photo)
Greeson is on a break from studies at Western Kentucky University to resume chronicling a saga she began covering as an intern at The Flint Journal last spring. The undergraduate, who has 16 water crisis images in an Atlantic magazine gallery Sunday, is shooting for Getty Images as one of 10 "emerging talent" winners globally.
"In watching talented [Journal] staffers like Ron Fonger and Jake May tackle the issue, I felt inspired to get involved and to dive deeper into the issue," she explains at The Ground Truth Project site with 15 earlier photos. "I felt nervous about whether or not I could do the story justice, but went with my gut feeling that this was a story that had to be told."
The rising star moved from Bowling Green, Ky., to Flint last month and will stay through late May. She's a sociology and photojournalism major who's taking a trimester off. Greeson expects to graduate next year.
Ti' Nisha Norman, 11, gets her blood tested at Freeman Elementary School last month. (Photos by Brittany Greeson/The Ground Truth Project)
Since City Hall protests nearly a year ago, the Kentucky student has periodically had a ground zero view of the impact and has gotten to know Flint families. She shares observations, opinions and passion in a series of recent posts.
They reflect the sensitivity and sensibilities of a journalist who was born in Houston and who "spent the majority of my childhood between the great heights of the Appalachian Mountains in North Carolina and the rolling hills of Western Kentucky," as her website bio says.
Growing up in the South taught me to find the quirks and little instances of beauty in the world around me. Today, I find nothing greater than watching a perfect stranger open up and I hold the view that visual storytelling, even in a changing industry, can still move people.
"Britt" Greeson describes how living and working in Flint affects her:
► A visitor's lesson: "In Flint, I learned the value of servitude in one’s community. I saw a city face crisis, both financial and environmental, but refuse to be broken." -- Her website, Dec. 31
► Community's openness: "The residents of Flint have been so inviting to the media. They want their voices heard, as their voices should have been over the past two years. And without them, this story would not have been told, it would not have ever been uncovered. I'm thankful to be back up here working alongside them." -- Facebook, Feb. 5
Journey Jones, 3, sits on the kitchen floor in her family's home as her brother Iveon Jones, 2, reaches for a water bottle. They and four siblings have elevated levels of lead in their blood.
► Spring 2015: "I started photographing the water crisis . . . in late March of 2015. . . . Many people avoided drinking the water, but the poorest residents still had little options. City council meetings dedicated to discussing the water issue would regularly take place, protests would erupt outside of Flint City Hall.
"I look back on this time as a weird blissful ignorance. We, the media, the residents, had no idea just how bad this water crisis would become. It was a time where many of the protestors were not being taken seriously. City officials were still declaring the water safe and those at The Flint Journal were working themselves day and night just to put all the pieces together."
- Her website, Feb. 5 (with 11 images)
► 'Humbling . . . frustrating:' "Flint was a second home to me. It is a city with a richness to it. It’s a city that has been through so much yet carries a strong sense of pride. To think that an environmental disaster like this could happen in the United States, practically unnoticed outside of local media [last spring], blew my mind.
"It was one of the most humbling and simultaneously frustrating moments as a journalist to recognize that the only thing I could do to help would be to pick up my camera." -- The Ground Truth Project, Dec. 23
► 'I want to connect you:' "Their governing systems failed them and I am now back in Flint to continue documenting their struggle. . . . My goal remains to dive deeper into this community I consider my second home. I want to connect you, the audience, to those who are facing this water crisis head on." -- Her website, Feb. 5
► 'Not finished:' "I’m a photojournalist who became outraged for the people I was documenting. I showered in that water. I watched people like Bishop Bernadel Jefferson yell on a stage in demand of right to clean water. . . .
"This story isn’t finished yet, it continuously unfolds as a solution has not been found. So naturally, I’m not finished yet either." -- The Ground Truth Project
► Sense of mission: "Please keep following this crisis. Bottled water is not going to be the solution. We need real, immediate and lasting change to the infrastructure and governing systems." -- Facebook, Feb. 5
See Greeson's images at The Atlantic, The Ground Truth Project, Instagram and Facebook.
Earlene Love, 64, and other protesters pray outside the governor's office building in Lansing last month.
