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| “Joan Southgate is sipping hot mint tea, passionately discussing slavery’s legacy, when she stops mid-sentence and shoots me an excited look,” says Paloma Lisa McGregor, who wrote “Footsteps of Courage.” “Mrs. Southgate says, ‘Let me record this. I’m into what I’m saying,’ then disappears upstairs to look for a tape recorder. This search for the recorder makes clear how much she values each memory. When she finds the tape recorder, the batteries are dead. But her memories live on–vivid, innumerable. I hope those moments I was able to capture give proper value to her amazing spirit.” |
“Sometimes you go into photo shoots with trepidation,” says Betsy Molnar, who photographed Joan Southgate for “Footsteps of Courage.” “I didn’t with her. She welcomed us into her house.” That home made an impression on Betsy, as did Mrs. Southgate’s stories. In the cover portrait she made, the photographer liked the way Mrs. Southgate, with the reflection in her glasses, appeared to be looking outward through lighted vision. The composition fits her subject, Betsy believes. Mrs. Southgate may be small of stature, Betsy says, but her big spirit shines through. “You don’t think of her as a small woman. She’s a real dynamo.” |
“Talking to Dr. Resnick was enlightening in so many ways,” says Kristin Ohlson, whose story “Darkness Visible” profiles Phillip Resnick, a forensic psychiatrist who has consulted in the most charged criminal cases of our day. “He manages to maintain compassion for people who murder–even ones like Andrea Yates and Jeffrey Dahmer, who’ve carried out the most heinous of crimes–yet knows that compassion can’t mitigate the burden of judgment. And he puts the whole issue of ‘insanity’ pleas into its proper perspective–one which surprised me and I’m sure will surprise many readers.” |
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