{"id":91,"date":"2012-11-30T12:22:38","date_gmt":"2012-11-30T16:22:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/joesindorf.com\/blog\/?p=91"},"modified":"2012-11-30T12:22:38","modified_gmt":"2012-11-30T16:22:38","slug":"is-it-news-without-a-picture","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/joesindorf.com\/blog\/2012\/11\/30\/is-it-news-without-a-picture\/","title":{"rendered":"Is it news without a picture?"},"content":{"rendered":"

This story is running everywhere right now: \u00a0Jennifer Foster, a tourist from Arizona was walking around\u00a0New York’s Times Square with her boyfriend when she saw a\u00a0homeless man sitting on the sidewalk asking for change. He was obviously cold – without shoes or socks on a frigid night. Just then, a NYC police officer\u00a0bent down, and gave the man a brand-new pair of winter boots and some thermal socks (that he bought for the guy using his own money). \u00a0Jenni (may I call you Jenni?) used her her cellphone to grab a photo of the act.<\/p>\n

The photo <\/a>shows the officer crouched on his left knee (a modified Tebow). The homeless guy is pulling his new socks out of the bag while his new insulated boots are between him and the cop.<\/p>\n

This is news today, but the story happened back two weeks ago – an eternity in social media years. \u00a0Why did it break now? \u00a0Because the picture surfaced. <\/p>\n

After her NY trip, Jenni returned to Arizona where she works with the communications and dispatch department of the Pinal County Sheriff’s Office. There, surrounded by other police officers, she sent the department an email, telling them about what she had witnessed in NYC… kind of an “atta-boy” pat on the back to the men in blue. \u00a0Someone at the NYPD found out about it and asked if they\u00a0could use the picture on their Facebook site. And the rest, as they say, is social media history.<\/p>\n

On Facebook<\/a>, the photo took off. \u00a0As I write this, it has over half a million likes and has been shared 187,000 times. \u00a0The officer in the photo was soon identified as\u00a0Larry DePrimo, 25, a cop who still lives with his parents on Long Island.<\/p>\n

Why did Jenni take this picture? \u00a0She told the New York Times it was for herself, she didn’t intend to share it with anyone. \u00a0Instead, she said she snapped the photo because it brought back a childhood memory of her own father, a now deceased Phoenix police officer,\u00a0crouching down to give food to a homeless man.<\/p>\n

It’s a great story and although I hate the abuse of power that is often associated with police officers, it’s great to see a photo of a cop doing something nice. \u00a0 But the moral of this story is much deeper than a selfless compassionate act – it’s about the power of a picture. \u00a0This story would have made three people feel good (the guy with the new boots and socks, the cop and Jenni) had it not been for the photograph, now it’s news and reaching millions. \u00a0It because someone took a picture.<\/p>\n

That’s why I travel to Sudan, Ethiopia, Haiti, Philippines and 65 other countries – to capture heart grabbing pictures (and video) of compelling stories that push people to respond the way this cop did: with selfless compassion.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This story is running everywhere right now: \u00a0Jennifer Foster, a tourist from Arizona was walking around\u00a0New York’s Times Square with her boyfriend when she saw a\u00a0homeless man sitting on the sidewalk asking for change. He was obviously cold – without shoes or socks on a frigid night. Just then, a NYC police officer\u00a0bent down, and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-91","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/joesindorf.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/joesindorf.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/joesindorf.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/joesindorf.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/joesindorf.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=91"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/joesindorf.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/joesindorf.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=91"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/joesindorf.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=91"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/joesindorf.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=91"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}