one that got away

Quite a while ago, 20-25 years ago to be more precise, I was given an assignment for Pittsburgh Magazine*. My picture making task was to make a picture which represented a gang member. The picture was to be used as the cover of the magazine in which the feature story / article was about gangs in Pittsburgh.

Instead of making a picture which represented a gang member I decided to make a picture of an actual gang member. In a fine example of ask and ye shall receive, my teenage son (pre-Cinemascapist), made a couple inquiries and, voilà, a picture making date was set.

The resultant picture was delivered to the magazine's Art Director who was quite ecstatic about it. He proceeded to layout the cover and, after getting approval from the editor (et al), it was sent off to the printer and I was eagerly anticipating yet another Golden Quill Award. However ....

.... as the cover was going on press, a call from on high - the organization which owned / published the magazine - to the editor which, in a nutshell, decreed "kill it". The picture was deemed too controversial to be published and they (the on-high people) were worried about public relations and even political repercussions. The editor and art director tried to save it but to no avail.

As you can imagine, I was bummed in a major way. Not only was I denied the satisfaction of seeing the picture published, but I was also disappointed in seeing visions of another Golden Quill Award vanishing over the horizon - FYI, I was by far the leading Golden Quill Awardee, Photography Division, at that time with Golden Quills in advertising, corporate communications and editorial categories.

*at that time, a really good magazine with excellent editorial content. Now, a "hip" life-style magazine.