The passing of Prince last week gave the world pause to consider the nearly peerless artistic success and untimely death of an iconic musician. He was renowned for his ability to create a distinctive sound and deliver to his worldwide fan base a library of songs that put him among the Lennons, Jacksons, Bowies and Marleys of…
“When you have a conflict, that means that there are truths that have to be addressed on each side of the conflict. And when you have a conflict, then it’s an educational process to try to resolve the conflict. And to resolve that, you have to get people on both sides of the conflict involved…
It always starts the same way, usually on a Monday. In fact, I’ve come to expect them so much that I can take bets on when they arrive and feel comfortable that I’d win nearly every time. It’s the “Thank You” email following a weekend of teaching my workshop. At first they were a pleasure to…
Without comparison, the greatest part of life as a photojournalist is the people you get to spend time with. The profession seldom yields financially rich photographers, but we are compensated beyond belief by the people who enrich our lives by allowing us to spend time with them. And I’m certainly not talking about celebrities. People in…
What was bred from frustration has grown into a passion. Who would have known? Certainly not me. Several years ago I began to build a curriculum to offer as a seminar style course with the idealogical approach that I could somehow do something to stem the devaluation of photography and photojournalism. I knew in my…
There are certain assignments in a photojournalist’s life that leave lasting memories. Hurricane Katrina was one of those assignments. It was two days into the devastation of one of America’s great cities when I was asked by People to jump on a flight and head to New Orleans. The magazine was putting ten writer/photographer teams…
He wasn’t brash by any means, but he had a healthy dose of southern, polite confidence. He was as firm with his handshake as he was with his putter. He was quick to bet a fellow player a single dollar for “closest to the pin” and even quicker to collect. It was all good, albeit serious, fun on the…
The Department of Homeland Security dog, head held high and tail straight, sniffed along the edges of the van as it entered the secure gate at the top of the hill. As the hordes of people marched seemingly in solidarity from one point to another below, I caught my first glimpse of the battlefield, an…
After years of reading posts on various social media sites from young photographers with years (yes, years) of experience, I was almost ready to admit it: I’m a dinosaur, a relic from the past, a slow moving Snorkasaurus (picture Dino from the Flintstones) with one foot stuck in the La Brea Tar Pits and one trying desperately…
It was with profound disbelief that I skimmed the rough draft of a story emailed to me by the photo editor of a environmental non-profit. The Food and Environment Reporting Network (FERN) in collaboration with The Nation magazine had asked me to shoot images to accompany a story on the use of toxic pesticides in…