John Edwin Mason: Documentary, Motorsports, Photo History

Democracy Abroad, Jim Crow at Home: Charlottesville's Black Veterans of World War I

Race is complicated. And few aspects of race in America have been more conflicted than the relationship between white people and black veterans. At one extreme, black veterans have been lynched simply for daring to wear their uniforms in public. At the other, they've been held up as the finest representatives of their community. In Charlottesville, no African American veterans were lynched. But black men in uniform weren't always honored either. It's a story worth telling. Today, I'm going to tell it about World War I. Read more →

#Charlottesville

What's it like when your hometown becomes a hashtag? When the Virginia Quarterly Review asked me to write some reflections on the white supremacists' terrorism of August 11th and 12th, 2017, and their aftermath, I was glad to say "yes." And to try to answer that question. Read more →

Why Charlottesville?

Short answer. White supremacists capitalized on the city's decision to remove a statue of Confederate hero Robert E. Lee from a park in the center of the city. Read more →

This Is Not a Lynch Mob: Charlottesville and the KKK

This is not a lynch mob. That might seem like a strange thing to say about this photo. But perhaps not, depending on your knowledge of history or the color of your skin. There's no question that a black man or woman who came across a scene like this, in 1917 -- it's somewhere just outside Charlottesville, Virginia -- would proceed with a great deal of caution. Read more →

#FunkyFriday: Kait Dunton & TrioKAIT

When I made this portrait of Kait Dunton 10 years ago, she was a promising young pianist and composer who had just graduated from the University of Virginia. Four years earlier, she had arrived in Charlottesville as a gifted classical pianist, but she thought that her future would be in... Read more →

I Stand With Survivors at UVA: An Interview with Lyra Bartell

Rolling Stone got it right. Nothing emerges more clearly from Lyra Bartell's "I Stand with Survivors" project than the simple fact that rape and sexual assault are serious problems at the University of Virginia [UVA] and that the university yet to adequately confront them. In these portraits -- there are... Read more →

Cyrus Chestnut, Terri Allard, Free Bridge Quintet: Habitat for Humanity Benefit Concert

This was a just about the perfect afternoon and evening. Brilliant, original music, performed by musicians that love and admire, all for a truly great cause -- Habitat for Humanity of Greater Charlottesville. It happened a couple of weeks ago, and I should have gotten these photos up on the... Read more →