Just the other night, I learned of the passing of my friend and comrade, photographer Laura Sullivan – a.k.a. “Isis” – earlier this month.
I first became friends with Isis and her husband-to-be Michael Sullivan (a.k.a. “the Cubster”) in the late summer of 2007, when Isis and I were on the editorial board of the DC Independent Media Center and working together in the DC IMC’s foto/video workgroup.
Along with our comrade Daryle Lamont Jenkins of One People’s Project, Isis was covering the neo-fascists before it was cool. Under the collective pseudonym “Town Hell Posse” she, Daryle, Michael and I covered Ron Paul rallies in Philadelphia and Tea Party batshittery at rallies on Capitol Hill, and at healthcare town halls in Reston, among other zaniness.
Isis showed me the impact – and fun – of not holding the camera straight up and down all the time; she was a staunch proponent of what they call the “Dutch Tilt” in the business – or what Isis used to call the “Batman Angle”.
She got me to loosen up on my newsreels, to let go of the “straight” approach – to editorialize, to use music, irony, cynicism and sarcasm more in my storytelling style.
In 2010, Isis and I had the honor of being asked to leave the DC IMC editorial board for being “too radical”. No, seriously. Too radical for the IMC.
Thanks so much, kiddo; it was too fucking grand.
“Great Caesar’s Ghost!”
–Perry White.
“Information Age of hysteria
is calling out to Idiot America!”
–Green Day.
