Soda Citizen is a visual storytelling platform under the direction of Columbia, SC photojournalist Sean Rayford. Previously published as TheAngryWhale - content typically takes the form of narratives structured around the still image.

“With local news at a crisis stage, we are now at grave risk of there being no rough first draft for many communities across the United States,” writes Dan Shortridge in a 2023 editorial published in the Baltimore Sun, “The historians of 2073 will find giant gaps in their local histories from this time.”

As a photojournalist without local newspapers to work with, this is Rayford’s attempt to fill those gaps.

Rayford is a 2001 graduate of the University of South Carolina, working as a photojournalist in the South Carolina capital city for more than twenty years, now freelancing with Getty Images, The New York Times, The Associated Press, NPR, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal and many more.

You can visit www.seanrayford.com for more info and you can contact him at seanrayford@gmail.com.