Stumbled [literally] Upon Awesomeness

I was on my way home from a long run Wednesday evening when I nearly broke my neck from tripping over my floppy laces. I stopped in front of the Buskirk-Chumley Theater to tie my shoes when I noticed they were hosting a Pulitzer Prize-winnning alumni.

So naturally I had to stick around.

And I'm glad I did because I met one of the coolest ladies ever!

Melissa Farlow is a freelance photographer who has appeared in National Geographic. 

 She has covered everything from desegregation in public schools while working for a newspaper in Louisville to women's roles in different African cultures to the ways of the land along the Pan-American Highway.

All in addition to these projects:

Symbolism of mustangs in the wild west as mystic icons of freedom, heroism, romance, and limitless possibilities.

You might be asking- how the heck she could possibly take this without getting hoofed in the face by these enormously powerful wild horses?  She explained how she and her husband hid cameras inside barrels and used remote controls to snap photos from a distant mountain side.  

Cultural experiences along Latin America.

Although these women pray nine times a day and live in silence, they enjoy afternoon breaks to play.

Mining practices impact on the watersheds, vegetation, and natural landscape along the Appalachia as entire mountaintops are blasted and stripped away to obtain small amounts of coal. 

Toxic orange/ black water runs out of this family's bathroom sink in West Virginia.  

Evolution on steroids; species out of control.

This litter of kittens was left on the doorstep of a Florida animal clinic.  With over 10,000 feral cats in the Florida Keys, it has become controversial because animal shelters trap stray animals, spaying or neutering them, and then releasing them back to the wild. 

Rites of Passage

Young girls of Mescalero Apache Indian tribe in southern New Mexico are initiated into adulthood at a coming of age ceremony called a Sunrise Ceremony.  During this four day event, the girls embody the legend of the White Painted Woman Goddess and are blessed with pollen to symbolize fertility.

Burning Man Art Festival

This week long art extravaganza is a counter-culture festival in the Black Rock Desert of Nevada.  Radical self-expressionist art, mutant and mobile sculptures, fanatical performances, outlandish costumes (or lack of) are quite the norm.