Getty Images Announces Stephen Ferry and Karen Kasmauski as Winners of Inaugural Grants for Good

Karen Kasmauski’s project for Save Our Cumberland Mountains (SOCM) will document the role of an extraordinary American grass roots organization. SOCM’s story is one of ordinary people who were moved to do extraordinary things, as they fought and continue to fight to save their environment. Telling SOCM’s story illuminates the larger issue of the changes in Central Appalachia over the last 30 years. Kasmauski will create photos and a video essay to show a sense of the land and the people living upon it, as many of the organization’s members are aging and battling illness associated with life long exposure to coal dust and other toxic elements in their environment. In addition to the new imagery developed by the photographer, the group’s archives will enrich a video and oral history of the organization to improve SOCM’s website as they preserve their history as they continue to evolve and change their name this year to Statewide Organization for Community eMpowerment, still SOCM, but with a refined mission and a new face.