My wife, kneeled at the base of the American Immigrant Wall of Honor on Ellis Island and scraped her pencil back and forth furiously before the name began to appear: Ermenegildo Simonetti. This was her grandfather who emigrated from Italy in 1938 to America. My great grandfather, Joseph Dotolo, who I knew as a…
I look forward to teaching my Street Photography class at UCLA Extension and getting out into the city with the students. It’s a chance to get to know them on a more personal level, to gauge what makes them tick as photographers and see them at work on the streets. It also provides me a…
Once outside our own little worlds that are increasingly defined by status updates, tweets and posts, all of which are anything but urgent 99% of the time, it’s refreshing to discover people delving into their communities and really connecting with people one-on-one. That was the case recently when I accompanied the Street Poets on a…
Here’s a video to showcase the excellent work by the students in my Street Photography class at UCLA Extension. Each week for two months I introduced the work of some of the greats (Winogrand, Frank, Erwitt, Maier and others) to inspire them. In addition to their weekly shooting, we met four times as a class…
Street preachers and performers get everyone’s attention. But the bustling crowds and energy of the crazy mix of people who crowd the streets of Hollywood draws me like a magnet. There is such sadness and loneliness despite the crowds. Leaning on a light post watching a surge of people cross Hollywood Blvd is exciting, as…
Took my UCLA Extension students to Beverly Hills this past weekend as part of the 12 week Street Photography course. Spent most of my time watching, guiding and having a good time with them while also making a few images. One truth that students grapple with, in my opinion, is that there is no one…