Elissa Eubanks-- Best Photos of 2010

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Elissa Eubanks-- Best Photos of 2010

AJC Photo Advocate Elissa Eubanks' picks of Best Photos of 2010

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution sent me and a reporter to Haiti two days after the earthquake. This photo was taken at l'Hospital Adramiste Diquine. The hospital was concerned about the structural integrity of the building, so everyone was lying outside under tents. Some people were on stretchers with IVs. These women had put toothpaste on their upper lips to counteract the unbearable stench of the place. People would also be walking the street with the same white paste under their noses.

Rene Dimanche moans with pain whispering "why" on the ground at the Adventist Auditorium in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, while her family surrounds her holding her hands. Her family kept asking me if I could help, who I worked with and if I knew of a hospital that could help. I did not have the answers.

This was at the Adventist Auditorium also and the same woman who had showed me Cynthia showed me this woman's sister who was badly injured from her home falling on her. I was taking photos of her sister when I heard a gut-wrenching screaming from behind me and when I turned, it was this woman crying for her sister. It was hard to take this image but I knew that if I didn't it would be like it never happened.

Two guards stand vigilant at the gate of Hotel Montana. Inside, the hotel is completely destroyed and rescue crews are working around the clock to try and find people alive. It is a race against time and the faces of the men who greeted me seemed to say it all. If you can't be of service, you are not welcome here.

This little boy also lay in front of l'Hospital Adramiste Diquine in Carrefour. When I bent down to take his photo, this was the only frame where he looked up at me. After that, he couldn't hold his head up any longer and slumped back down into the blanket. It was like he was hoping I was there to help him and then he saw my camera. I don't like this image because I know that.

Mary-Heather Tatum, 43, of Buckhead enjoys the "Let Your Motto Be Resistance: African American Portraits" exhibit at the Atlanta History Center on Sunday, Jan. 31, one day before Black History Month begain. Tatum is reflected here in a photo of Jessye Norman, an admired contemporary opera singer, taken by Irving Penn in 1983. The words of abolitionist Henry Highland Garnet, the 19th century political activist and Underground Railroad conductor, are the essence of the exhibition.

I spent two days with the Whitey family in Gainesville and captured this moment between a father and son who communicate mostly with their eyes and touch now. Kenneth Whitey was badly injured on the job four years ago and now lived with his parents, Shirley Whitey, 68, and Herbert Whitey, 73. They live in the same neighborhood as his wife, Pat Whitey, their son, Chance, 10, who comes to visit his father daily after school. The family faces medical bills of $45,000 per month.

This woman did not want to give me her name and this never ran in the newspaper but I loved that the light made her look like a painting--just a nice treat when you are freezing and looking for a cold weather photo.

This is not one of my favorite photos and I probably would never include it in my portfolio but I love this photo because it was the first time I saw a flash mob and it was at the busiest airport in the world--pretty cool. From left, Megaball and the new Powerball dance with an estimated 100 people at Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport Tuesday, Feb 2, 2010. The flash mob is designed to promote the new Powerball drawing coming to Atlanta.

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The Atlanta Journal-Constitution sent me and a reporter to Haiti two days after the earthquake. This photo was taken at l'Hospital Adramiste Diquine. The hospital was concerned about the structural integrity of the building, so everyone was lying outside under tents. Some people were on stretchers with IVs. These women had put toothpaste on their upper lips to counteract the unbearable stench of the place. People would also be walking the street with the same white paste under their noses.