Red Right Ankle

My mama is better than your mama. 🎓

Sat, 18 May 2013 22:49:22 -0400

My mama is better than your mama. 🎓

It’s happening. 🎓

Sat, 18 May 2013 17:07:08 -0400

It’s happening. 🎓

"I will love myself, despite the ease of which I lean towards the opposite."

Thu, 16 May 2013 00:42:51 -0400

““I will love myself, despite the ease of which I lean towards the opposite.””

- Shane Koyczan

The PJ men in my life are fantastic. @lancerosenfield...

Wed, 15 May 2013 23:20:23 -0400

The PJ men in my life are fantastic. @lancerosenfield @mattrosephotography #rideordie #babesofphotojournalism

#regram via @mattrosephotography

Sat, 04 May 2013 01:17:49 -0400

#regram via @mattrosephotography

"Can't Stop, Won't Stop"

Tue, 30 Apr 2013 16:21:00 -0400

I had to write a paper about my growth at the Corcoran over the last four years. If you’re interested, here it is.

Four years ago I walked into this school thinking, “Good golly, I’m going to change the world with my photography! I will be famous! Like Steve McCurry! Everyone will know my name, and I will live in a mansion with the money I receive for saving the world! They will send me for months at a time on assignment to beautiful and lush locations, and when I get back they will applaud my hard work and excellent photos!”

Hah…

This is not to say that I don’t believe in the power of photography. I do. But my impression of what it was like to be a successful photographer has become more realistic. It’s all about the hustle. You hustle to find a job; you hustle to get grants and awards. It’s hard work. And some days, I wish I could be happy in life getting by as a dental assistant, or a waitress, or some mundane job where you know what to expect every day. But those jobs are just not fulfilling when your calling is to document. I live and breathe to tell stories. Those moments that occur when you’ve worked as hard as you can, and you’re both exhausted and so very gratified. When your subject’s mother hugs you, crying, and thanks you. When you know you’ve nailed that shot that will be one for the portfolio. When you are at the peak of that rush of adrenaline from working a scene. Those times when your focus is so hyper-accurate that you are completely aware of even the slightest movement around you, and your corneas have tuned in to your surroundings to the point that all you see are images waiting to be captured.

That’s why I do this.

My freshman year at the Corcoran was like taking a step backwards in my education, to be honest. Re-learning how to use a darkroom, sitting through classes bored because I learned these basics years before. I understood the necessity of getting everyone on the same page, but damn, those Photo Techniques and Practices were an exercise in patience. “What’s an aperture?” said some students, and my eyes would roll. How are you enrolled in this somewhat hard to get into school and majoring in something that you can’t even understand the most basic functions of the equipment you supposedly use? But even this offered opportunities to grow – as cynical as I am – because I was able to strengthen my understanding by helping my fellow colleagues.

But this was the time in my education where I built my foundation (oh, is that why they call it foundation year?) in my support system. I made friends that became family, and a strong family we are, today. We cooked meals together in the rat-infested confines of housing, and we helped each other make it through those homesick nights. We walked to school together, and built a network of support that would get us through the next 3 years. One thing I am forever grateful to freshman year for, is teaching me the power of your support net. Photojournalism can seem like a lonely career path. But the successful PJ’s I know have – what Matt Rose and I call – a “Ride or Die” resource of friends. Those people you can call and explain and share the thrill and utter joy of a shoot that went well. And they get it. And they celebrate with you when you win, and get a drink with you when you lose.

Sophomore year was when I started to realize the realities of being a photojournalist. Our freshman year, there were 40-something photojournalism majors. Sophomore year, I think we were down to 20-something. The people who realized that you weren’t going to become a world famous photojournalist at the age of 20, and that you can’t save all the rainforests/animals/children/etc of the world, and that it’s hard work, switched over to fine art. I imagine it’s the appeal of setting your own hours, being able to manipulate your images, and making “identity work” for the rest of your life that was attractive to a lot of the photojournalism-to-fine art switchers.

In our core class, we had visitors like Louie Palu and Tyrone Turner who came in and both broke our hearts as well as our dreams of fat-wallets. I cringed as Palu told us in great detail about the smell of blood boiling in the belly of a helicopter in Afghanistan. I was astonished by Turner’s passion. I started to learn about contemporary photojournalists, and how there is no set career path. There is a make-your-own-way and trial and error until you find what works, for you. You apply to grants that you may never get. You find ways to fund work that you believe in, and hope that someone else believes in it enough to pay you for it!

Third year was where things started to get real. The first semester, we had Caroline Couig, picture editor at Natgeo.com and Discovery, and Mary F. Calvert, award winning photojournalist. Let me tell you, they were a team to be reckoned with. They ran our classroom like a newspaper, and we were expected to meet realistic-to-field deadlines, and cover beats with weekly stories. It was hard – and they were tough – but it was realistic. Finally we were introduced to what it’s like to be a working photojournalist. You won’t always like the stories you are assigned to shoot. You will, more often than not, cover things that you don’t care about, or that aren’t interesting to you. Caroline critiqued our work harshly, and although I disagreed with her more times than I can count, the amount of times she shut my images down taught me that photo editors have a final say – whether you like it or not.

Second semester junior year was purely preparation for the start of our thesis projects. I was grateful to have the kind and sensitive Gabriela Bulisova back as a professor, as her teaching methods and free-form stylistic storytelling was more my arena. She pushed us to experiment in our styles, and I appreciated this loose form after such a rigid semester with Couig. I wasn’t especially proud of my work that semester, but only because I was amp-ing myself up for what I wanted to shoot for thesis, and I couldn’t wait to get started on it. Gabriela, having done work related to prison, was especially helpful to have around as I was prepping myself to photograph at San Quentin. I appreciated and learned so much from her unique style and realized that not all documentary photography has to have that wide-angle action packed frame. Sometimes the story lies in the reflective moments, or the silence of an image. The grace of a person can come through a photograph taken in a moment of stillness, or a hushed instance.

I met Jamie Rose and Chris Anderson of Momenta at a talk about Tips for Photojournalists during Foto Week DC that Fall, and Matt Rose and I sat next to each other in the auditorium, buzzing from their energy, and scribbling notes as fast as we could. Did you know if you’re in a hotel that you’re scared might get you robbed, you should set a wine glass on the doorknob while you sleep? If someone tries to jimmy in your door, the wine glass will fall and shatter, and wake you up. You should sew a pocket into the inside of your pants on assignment, for emergency cash and your passport. Their cool demeanor and air of experience attracted me to them, immediately. We left that day and decided that we were going to do a Momenta Workshop in New Orleans that spring.

We drove 19 hours through the night in April, and sang along to everything from Johnny Cash to the Backstreet Boys. We halted the car to a stop along the sides of freeways to photograph things we saw. We called it our “Real Badass PJ Moment” when we backed the car up 100 yards in the emergency lane only to rush out of the car with our gear, hop a fence, and photograph a tree settled in the middle of a vast field covered in low fog. Within minutes, the fog was gone, but we caught it with our cameras as it dissipated. Those couple of days in NOLA was exactly what I needed to renew my energy and spirit as I began to prepare for thesis.

The next chapter of my career at the Corcoran should be titled, “Can’t Stop, Won’t Stop” as that quickly became my mantra. This is where that “fight for what you believe in” mentality really took hold of me. As I started the semester with a 3-month head start on thesis, I was feeling extremely grateful to have found a topic that I was totally invested in, and that was different than anyone else’s. The men of Kid CAT at San Quentin had, at this point, become my friends. I was, and am, 100% devoted to telling their stories. Lori Waselchuk, fellow prison photographer, and senior thesis advisor, met me with a bit of opposition and that was a point of struggle for me, at first.

Every week we would meet for one-on-ones, I came with plans to return to California to continue shooting. Every week, she would tell me, “Get your head out of California. Find something to shoot in DC.” I won’t dwell on this for too long, but essentially I was steadfast in the defense of my topic, and refused to sway. I told you, “can’t stop, won’t stop.” Once on the same page, Lori was a great asset to have. She understands prison politics, the sensitivity of access, and the powerful stories of humanity behind bars waiting to be told. I feel lucky to have had her as a teacher, and a mentor.

Now that thesis is done, and hung, and graduation looms near like a cluster-f*** of excitement, anxiety and despair all in the same moment, I have to look forward. What’s next? I’ve applied to 45 jobs in the last 3 weeks, and will continue to apply at this rate until I get something. I’ll take the lessons I’ve learned about never giving up and finding my own way into account as I rear my pretty face in the direction of the skeptics who laughed when I told them I’d be a professional photojournalist. It will not be easy – and I am glad the Corcoran taught me it would not be. I’ll leave the Corcoran with a network of support, and the understanding that community is important and that none of this can do this alone. But here’s the main take away from me – I live for this. And no matter what it takes to get there, I’ll do it. Can’t stop, won’t stop.

The perfect date.

Thu, 25 Apr 2013 00:36:54 -0400

The perfect date.

Today, after feeling defeated about not having a good topic for...

Sun, 14 Apr 2013 12:49:25 -0400

Today, after feeling defeated about not having a good topic for my last project of school, I ran into an old man from Georgia selling prison art work. We talked for 2 hours after he told me he was released from prison just last week. I photographed him and we plan to hang out again tomorrow. We laughed and cried together, and it’s days like this that remind me how awesome it is to be a photojournalist. And how crazily coincidental our meeting was! #prisonart #prisonphotography #photojournalism #ilovemyjob

Photo

Sat, 13 Apr 2013 16:52:53 -0400

NEXT at the Corcoran: Class of 2013 Please come check out my...

Thu, 11 Apr 2013 11:14:34 -0400

NEXT at the Corcoran: Class of 2013

Please come check out my senior thesis exhibition, “NEXT” at the Corcoran Gallery of Art! Free admission!

estamoscontigosiempre: NEXT is now open at the Corcoran Gallery...

Sat, 06 Apr 2013 14:31:13 -0400

estamoscontigosiempre:

NEXT is now open at the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington DC, until May 19th! Free admission. Please come support my work, and my classmates as well!

pc: Jane Pierce

estamoscontigosiempre: Estamos Contigo Siempre (We are with you...

Sat, 06 Apr 2013 14:30:42 -0400

pc: Darren Jones

pc: Darren Jones

estamoscontigosiempre:

Estamos Contigo Siempre (We are with you Always) and the NEXT 2013 exhibition is now officially open to the public at The Corcoran Gallery of Art until May 19th!

Free admission!

same

Sat, 06 Apr 2013 14:24:29 -0400

same

Does the PR department of the Corcoran know that there is more than one person that goes to this...

Thu, 04 Apr 2013 19:09:54 -0400

Does the PR department of the Corcoran know that there is more than one person that goes to this school? Seems as though they use the same person/aesthetic for anything and everything they produce.

Hashtag OVERIT

Hashtag WheresMyRecognition?

The D.C. Docent: Corcoran v. American: Bring It

Thu, 04 Apr 2013 13:58:16 -0400

The D.C. Docent: Corcoran v. American: Bring It:

dcdocent:

It’s that’s time of year again—-time for two of the areas premiere arts education programs to showcase their students. This Saturday, both the Corcoran and American open their annual Spring exhibitions.

I’ve attended these respective events for the last several years and can tell you that the…

Looking forward to all the reviews coming out in the next week or so!

NEXT 2013

Tue, 02 Apr 2013 17:41:48 -0400

NEXT 2013

Adequate yearly progress on making less stupid faces, since...

Sat, 30 Mar 2013 21:59:00 -0400

Adequate yearly progress on making less stupid faces, since ‘08.

I miss my dog.

Sat, 30 Mar 2013 21:38:26 -0400

I miss my dog.

Photo

Thu, 28 Mar 2013 17:12:58 -0400

Discrimination/hate is an ugly thing to stand for.

Tue, 26 Mar 2013 22:38:22 -0400

Discrimination/hate is an ugly thing to stand for.