{"id":2553,"date":"2012-09-06T12:00:30","date_gmt":"2012-09-06T12:00:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/?p=2553"},"modified":"2015-01-06T18:41:12","modified_gmt":"2015-01-06T18:41:12","slug":"the-case-of-rodney-woodson-in-photographs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/2012\/09\/06\/the-case-of-rodney-woodson-in-photographs\/","title":{"rendered":"The case of Rodney Woodson in photographs"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\" <\/a> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>\n

Nov., 1987<\/em><\/strong>: John Kaplan, a former photographer at Block Newspapers, would go on to win an Robert F. Kennedy Award for photojournalism. He would be awarded a $15,000 grant from Nikon to photograph 21-year-olds across the country. The resulting series, \u201c21: Age 21 in America,\u201d would appear in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Toledo Blade and Monterey Herald over seven stories in 1991. And that project would garner him a 1992 Pulitzer Prize for Feature Photography. But those accolades began with what was supposed to be a typical news story.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a routine assignment,\u201d he said recently of \u201cRodney\u2019s Crime,\u201d which first appeared in the Pittsburgh Press Sunday Magazine in 1988.<\/p>\n

He was covering the case of Rodney Woodson, a 21-year-old murder suspect and father who turned himself in for a Hill District shooting. Mr. Woodson had no criminal background, and while photographing him, Mr. Kaplan was struck by \u201cthe fear in his eyes, of the legal system he\u2019d never encountered before\u201d and \u201cthe pain and anguish on his mother\u2019s face.\u201d<\/p>\n

His goal was not to defend Rodney Woodson, but rather to humanize him. Mr. Kaplan reflected on his own dumb luck, having grown up in a middle-class suburban home, wondering whether he would have turned out differently had he been born in Mr. Woodson\u2019s circumstances. \u201cIn truth, I felt a bit guilty,\u201d said Mr. Kaplan.<\/p>\n

The caption on the photograph above read: \u201cThe day before he would be sentenced to a mandatory five years in prison for voluntary manslaughter, Woodson concludes a visit with his son, DeAndre, 2, as the boy\u2019s mother, Dana, waits.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A goal of the photographer was not to defend Rodney Woodson, but rather to humanize him. <\/p>\n

Look at the picturesThe case of Rodney Woodson in photographs<\/span><\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":2554,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"gallery","meta":{"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[946],"tags":[975,964,1007,1250,1244],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/tumblr_m9w4e4Ruph1rr5swxo1_1280-e1418793807844.jpg?fit=1280%2C700&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2559,"url":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/2012\/09\/06\/pittsburgh-faces-pulitzer-winning-photography\/","url_meta":{"origin":2553,"position":0},"title":"Pittsburgh faces: Pulitzer-winning photography","date":"September 6, 2012","format":"gallery","excerpt":"\u201cI try to build bridges between people who seem culturally disparate,\u201d John Kaplan said.","rel":"","context":"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/Screen-Shot-2014-12-17-at-12.23.16-AM.png?fit=1200%2C578&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2556,"url":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/2012\/09\/06\/pulitzer-winning-pittsburgh-photographer-captures-america\/","url_meta":{"origin":2553,"position":1},"title":"Pulitzer-winning Pittsburgh photographer captures America","date":"September 6, 2012","format":"gallery","excerpt":"Kaplan's photograph of \u201cPhil: Teen Idol\u201d holding a snake is perhaps the most famous photograph in the series.","rel":"","context":"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/Screen-Shot-2014-12-17-at-12.23.24-AM.png?fit=1200%2C656&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":440,"url":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/2014\/07\/21\/vietnam-protests-in-pittsburgh\/","url_meta":{"origin":2553,"position":2},"title":"Vietnam protests in Pittsburgh","date":"July 21, 2014","format":"gallery","excerpt":"A quiet September day in 1969 at South Hills High School turned chaotic.","rel":"","context":"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/tumblr_n8xl29I3ak1rr5swxo7_1280.jpg?fit=1200%2C923&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1356,"url":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/2013\/09\/27\/the-strip-districts-character-remains\/","url_meta":{"origin":2553,"position":3},"title":"The Strip District\u2019s character remains","date":"September 27, 2013","format":"gallery","excerpt":"One place that remains virtually unchanged in Pittsburgh is the Strip District.","rel":"","context":"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/09\/tumblr_mtrcf9qTFj1rr5swxo1_1280.jpg?fit=1200%2C714&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":8814,"url":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/2018\/06\/12\/picturing-the-drug-raids-of-the-just-say-no-era\/","url_meta":{"origin":2553,"position":4},"title":"Picturing the drug raids of the ‘Just Say No’ era","date":"June 12, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"If there\u2019s one thing all middle-schoolers learn in health class, it\u2019s that you don\u2019t have to do drugs to be cool. Richard Nixon declared that drugs were \u201cpublic enemy number one\u201d in 1971, but anti-drug education really hit its stride during the \u201980s and early \u201990s, thanks to programs like\u2026","rel":"","context":"","img":{"alt_text":"Two pistols, 2.2 pounds of cocaine, and a whole lot of cash seized by county police in 1986. (Harry Coughanour\/Pittsburgh Post-Gazette)","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/img008.jpg?fit=1080%2C1045&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2472,"url":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/2012\/09\/28\/oct-29-1964-barry-goldwater-campaigns-in\/","url_meta":{"origin":2553,"position":5},"title":"Barry Goldwater campaigns in Pittsburgh","date":"September 28, 2012","format":"gallery","excerpt":"This proof sheet shows photographs taken of Sen. Goldwater leaving the Penn-Sheraton Hotel and speaking at a Civic Arena rally.","rel":"","context":"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/tumblr_mayuzouTw71rr5swxo1_1280.jpg?fit=1200%2C804&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2553"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2553"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2553\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3875,"href":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2553\/revisions\/3875"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2554"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2553"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2553"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2553"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}