"Closing Arguments"

I had taken this shot of the Confederate Gen. Breckenridge statue in downtown Lexington on the day of the Great Eclipse of 2017. In the four-plus months since that day, I have been very conflicted about posting this on social media, because at the time, the emotions were running white hot in the middle of the debate over keeping or removing the statue, and there didn't appear to be a lot of in-between; it was either you were for keeping the statue due to concerns over whitewashing history, or you were for moving or destroying it because it stood on the site of one of the biggest slave auctions in the US at the time, and was erected during the Jim Crow era. When I saw this, I found it fitting the image of him appearing to plead his case in front of the iconic 5/3 building, one of the most prominent and identifiable features of the Lexington skyline, with the partially eclipsed sun setting behind it, juxtaposing old and new Lexington, all of this on the heels of the riots in Charlottesville. The statue was taken down in October, thanks to the efforts of the Take Back Cheapside movement and in part, due to the ripple effect of what happened in Charlottesville. It was certainly one of the big stories of 2017. #igerslexington #igerslouisville #igerskentucky

Done