From 8:01 a.m. Friday until 7:59 a.m. Saturday, members of the Suffolk News-Herald News Department were roaming the streets of Suffolk armed with cameras.

The results of those efforts will be what we hope is a wonderful special edition of the paper called &uot;A Moment in Time: 24 hours in Suffolk,&uot; which will be published in July.

Merely organizing such a venture is a Herculean task. In order to present a real picture of life in Suffolk, you cannot just blindly walk around with a camera snapping photos. You simply miss too much. There are too many places where real life occurs that one has to secure permission for entry.

We spent about two weeks brainstorming what should be in the section and then making appointments, schedules, etc. to make it happen.

We had two reporters out on four-hours shifts: 8 a.m.-noon; noon- 4 p.m.; 4 p.m.-8 p.m.; 8 p.m. until midnight; and then night owl managing editor Stephen Cowles took on the midnight to 8 a.m. shift.

Each person was giving a dozen assigned shots, but was also responsible for coming back with 10 unassigned ones.

I did not have a shift, but desperately wanted to participate. So I grabbed a camera and left the office around 12:30 p.m. I hadn’t gone 20 yards when I got a good shot of HRT bus driver Marguerite Warren, sitting in the driver’s seat reading the News-Herald waiting on her bus to fill up.

From there I ventured down Washington Street through downtown. I saw Andy Damiani walking the street and wanted to get a shot of that, because no picture of downtown Suffolk would be complete without him in it. Unfortunately, there was no place to park so I went down East Washington. Just across the tracks I came upon the gentleman dressed in the suit hawking the Muslim newspaper. &uot;What a great shot,&uot; I thought, &uot;he’s a fixture on our roads and we need to have him in our section.&uot;

I parked my car, got out and waited while he completed a transaction.

When he was finished and returning to his work, I approached him, told him what I was doing and politely asked for permission to shoot his picture, smiling all the while.

&uot;NO! YOU MAY NOT TAKE MY PICTURE,&uot; he growled, as he got so close to me I could feel his breadth.

&uot;IF YOU WANT TO TAKE PICTURE, COME DOWN HERE TONIGHT ABOUT 9:30 AND SEE ALL OF OUR YOUNG WOMEN WALKING UP AND DOWN HERE SELLING THEMSELVES FOR CRACK.&uot;

It was about then I began to think that maybe this wasn’t such a good idea and began to back pedal slightly and look for an opportunity to escape.

He moved forward.

&uot;IT’S YOU PEOPLE WHO DO THAT TO US. YOU HAVE THE HELICOPTERS AND AIRPLANES TO FLY THE CRACK IN HERE. WE DON’T HAVE THE HELICOPTERS. THIS IS ALL YOUR FAULT.&uot;

I was certain that at any moment he was going to start wailing on me. &uot;Not me,&uot; I said panic-stricken as I tried to make my way back to my car. &uot;I’m afraid to fly.&uot;

He followed me across East Washington Street, yelling, &uot;IF YOU WANT TO TAKE A PICTURE OF SOMEONE, GO TO CHICAGO AND TAKE A PICTURE OF MINISTER LOUIS FARRAKHAN – HE’S THE ONLY ONE WITH THE ANSWERS.&uot;

Despite my relief at being able to extract myself from the situation, the man’s comments gnawed at me the rest of the afternoon and evening. I don’t frequent East Washington Street at night, but if what he says is true, then we’ve got a long way to go revitalize downtown Suffolk, and while some shrubbery and new street lights are nice, they will not mask the ugliness or darkness.

I kind of lost my enthusiasm for the project after that. I drove around Suffolk another couple hours and shot just a few pictures, focusing my efforts on meek looking women and small children.

Andy Prutsok is editor and publisher of the News-Herald.