On Assignment: Link Ermis for AARP

AARP, one of my newest clients, sent me to Huntsville a couple of months ago to photograph Link Ermis, a military veteran whose social security benefits have been turned upside down. Ermis is "one of 1.5 million public employees nationwide, including teachers, firefighters and police, who face a big reduction in benefits because they worked jobs in which they and their employers did not pay into Social Security."

The editor asked for live photos as well as some portraits. Things were going to be tight. Ermis drove a school bus to school and had less than 10 minutes to sit for a portrait before he had to begin his first period history class. I used a small Quantum strobe for some outdoor portraits, then we hustled inside so he could start his class. He used my presence as a quick lesson to his class about what he was contending with personally with his social security benefits. I also got a refresher on the start of the First World War as he explained it to his students while I made pictures.

Digital tearsheet

European Space Agency astronaut Luca Parmitano for the Financial Times Weekend Magazine

I travelled to NASA again recently for the Financial Times Weekend Magazine to photograph European Space Agency astronaut Luca Parmitano. Sometimes when I shoot or assist at NASA, it can be a hassle. There are layers of bureaucracy at the federal agency that can be a challenge to navigate: ID's are checked, public relations people assigned and hovering, places that are off-limits, etc.

This time, things were pleasingly different. Parmitano arranged for us to meet at Rocket Park, which houses a collection of decommissioned rocket ships. Even better, it sits just outside the fence line at NASA, so it's easy in, easy out. Also, it was a weekday, in the morning, so there were no crowds.

The only problem? Strong winds off the gulf and no assistant.

No assistant? No problem!

Nonetheless, once Luca showed up, I knew we'd make pictures. He's statuesque with chiseled features and looks good in a flight suit. He was also very friendly and easy to work with. Best of all, he didn't bring anyone with him (i.e. a handler). It was just me and a guy who's been to space(!). Pretty cool if you ask me.

Stay safe up there, Luca!

Tear sheet from the July 9/10, 2016 issue of FT Weekend

Arcade Fire for the 2014 Reflektor Tour show program

One of my most relished assignments was to photograph Arcade Fire 's 2013 two-week warm-up tour for the band's Reflektor album. We traveled to New York City where they played two nights at 299 Meresole, a night at the Mekka in Miami, and another at the Haiti Cultural Center. And finally two shows in Los Angeles: one at the Palladium and the other at the Capitol Records building. 

Many of the images I made during that time, as well as the work of other photographers, were included in a program for the Reflektor tour. Some of my favorites from the program are below, followed by a video tear sheet of the program.

The program for the Reflektor tour.

Babe Didrikson Zaharias (deceased) for ESPN.com

ESPN.com recently published a feature on deceased sports heroes and how they still get visitors. I think my assignment was the control group, since I didn't see much evidence that the gravesite of Babe Didrikson Zaharias saw many visitors. And this is a shame. One of the first pro women golfers and 1932 Olympic gold-medal track star, the woman was a legend in her own time. She broke the gender barrier as well as world-records that still stand today. Read more about it here and check out a few images from the shoot below.

On Assignment: Laura Jo Degan for Newsweek

Read More

Tuija Kalpala for Ekonomi magazine

Back in March, I got a message on my Blink app notifying me that a photo editor in Finland needed someone to shoot a cover photo for Ekonomi, a Finnish publication for economists. I had the pleasure of photographing Tuija Kalpala at Neste US, a company that produces bio-diesel. A pretty sweet gig, and all just for having an app on my phone.

On Assignment: Travis Arnold for MD Anderson Cancer Center's Conquest Magazine

I'm proud to have another great-looking tear sheet from an assignment I completed for MD Anderson Cancer Center's Conquest Magazine. Travis Arnold, a 17-year old from Spring, Texas, was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia - a fast-growing cancer of the white blood cells. With the help of the doctors at MD Anderson Childrens Cancer Hospital, a half-match bone marrow transplant was performed. Travis recovered and is now a top-rated golfer on Klein High School's Bearkat golf team.

Page 28 and 29, Spring 2016 issue of Conquest magazine

JLabs at the Texas Medical Center for Houstonia Magazine

In a former Nabisco cookie factory near the Texas Medical Center stands a futuristically decorated science and technology incubator called JLabs. The project, "part of Johnson & Johnson Innovation, LLC, is a network of incubators providing emerging companies with many of the advantages of being in a big company without the capital investment. Residents have access to turnkey, state-of-the-art infrastructure, including singular bench tops, modular wet lab units and office space on a short-term basis." - http://www.tmcinnovation.org/jlabs/

An assignment from Houstonia magazine that began as a request for interiors for a quarter page turned into a full-page portrait and multi-page display after ad pages were added to the magazine near the end of production. Working with the talented and versatile art director Tanyia Johnson, we turned out some tear sheets I'm quite proud of.

2016 Carol Crow Memorial Fellowship awarded

I am beyond thrilled to be awarded the 2016 Carol Crow Memorial Fellowship from the Houston Center for Photography. My submission consisted of work from my project "In The Pipeline's Path". The juror was Maggie Blanchard, the director of Twin Palms Publishers in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

There will be a solo exhibition of my work at the center from May 13, 2016 through July 10, 2016. I hope you're able to stop by.

Recent Assignments: Portraiture for TakePart.com

This week I completed an assignment for TakePart.com, an online news organization based in Los Angeles. The story deals with the difficulty of reversing drug convictions later found to be based on faulty evidence in Harris County (Houston), Texas.

Harris County has a high rate of these drug exonerations because of the actions of Inger Chandler, chief of the Conviction Review Section at the Harris County District Attorney's Office. Along with Harris County Assistant Public Defender Nicolas Hughes, both are working to get a backlog of drug tests resolved and up-to-date, along with helping to speed up the process of reversing convictions.

 

The story is a great read. Check it out here.

Inger Chandler, chief of the Conviction Review Section at the Harris County District Attorney's Office

Harris County Assistant Public Defender Nicolas Hughes

Not arguing, just chatting.

Dr. William "Billy" Cohn, Cardiothoracic surgeon and medical device innovator

The first time I met Dr. William Cohn was on an assignment for the local newspaper. Jovial and charming, I was amazed not only by his curriculum vitae (Professor of Surgery at Baylor College of Medicine plus five other prestigious directorships) but his genius for medical innovation as well. One of the last proteges of cardiology pioneer Dr. Denton Cooley, Dr. Cohn has 80 active or pending patents for his inventions and is the founder or co-founder of five venture-backed life science startups. Did I mention he also plays trombone in a blues band? That one of his inventions is an artificial heart that is pulseless and runs on turbines?

Dr. Cohn works out his ideas by building models in his garage and in a basement lab space at the Texas Heart Institute, where the below portrait was made. He uses expired medical devices, wood, and plastic to build models of his ideas.

I thought making of portrait of Dr. Cohn in the room where much of these expired medical devices are stored would be cool. In hindsight, I might have gone with a cleaner background, especially for viewers (usually outside of Houston) who may not be familiar with Dr. Cohn and his techniques.

The heart in the photo is real. The veins and arteries were filled with a plasticizer and then the organ was placed in a tub of sodium hydroxide to dissolve any surrounding flesh.

I was originally going to have Dr. Cohn hold the heart, but, genius that he is, Dr. Cohn suggested hanging it from the ceiling using surgical thread (easy enough to get rid of in post-production). With the help of my sturdy assistant Michael Klein and a very open schedule by Dr. Cohn, we were able to pull off an image that I hope conveys some of Dr. Cohn's fun-loving spirit.


Cover shoot: Conquest Magazine for MD Anderson Cancer Center

I'm jazzed to have the cover of the beautifully designed Conquest Magazine for MD Anderson Cancer Center. The magazine is sent to major donors to encourage giving to the institution.

 

The cover shoot didn't go as planned, but in a delightful way. The original idea was to have the subject by herself in the image. Sometime during the shoot, the subject asked if she could have a few pictures of her with her son. I gladly obliged. The designer ended up liking those photos so much, he put one of them on the cover instead of going with our original plan.

 

I remember recently finishing an arduous five day shoot that was heavily scheduled and that it was nice to photograph inside someone's home with virtually no time limit. It was refreshing to be able to squeeze in something spontaneous with about the best result possible.

Documented: Huge quench tower bottom vessel move for a Baytown, Texas petrochemical facility

One of my favorite activities is to shoot for oil and gas companies because the projects are usually large-scale. In this case, literally.

I was hired by a local petrochemical facility to document the move of a huge quench tower, used for cracking ethane into ethylene, a chemical building block for too many consumer and commercial products to list here. There are many moves like this in the building of a petrochemical facility, but this quench tower segment was the biggest move of the project.

The entire process took all night. Two drivers, one at the front and one at the rear, steered the giant, multi-wheeled vehicle that carried the tower, moving at about two miles per hour.

After three rain delays, a small army of people and the logistics and engineering of a space launch, the massive land barge rolled it's way through the night to it's final destination at the construction site.

Photojournalism: Jade Helm 15 for The Boston Globe

A story I worked on for The Boston Globe about the recent Jade Helm 15 controversy in Bastrop published today. Check out the story at the above link and tearsheets and outtakes below.

Photojournalism: Rockport Apartments Roof Collapse for the Houston Chronicle

Besides commercial photography, I still have a taste for photojournalism, where my roots are. Sunday, I took a day rate for the Houston Chronicle to get rain features. It turned into covering a roof collapse at a southwest Houston apartment complex that morning. Here's what I saw:

Craig and Margaret Agnew for The Boston Globe

Craig and Margaret Agnew, a defensive coordinator for the football team and a teacher, respectively, helped raise New England Patriot's first-round draft pick defensive tackle Malcom Brown. Brown grew up in Brenham and attended high school there, but originally lived 20 miles away until the Agnew family took him under their wing. 

A Globe photo editor asked if I could photograph the couple who were mentors to Brown. I was also asked to photograph the school's head coach Glen West. On the logistical side, it was definitely good to have called the Agnew's ahead of time and schedule outside the confines of the photo assignment. Unbeknownst to myself or the photo editor, the reporter was having everyone meet at a restaurant - not really the most relevant environment for a portrait. Both coaches and Margaret were able to meet me at the school and stadium where I was able to make some portraits I was happy with.


Spring 2015 Conquest Magazine for MD Anderson

Technical portraits, documentary photojournalism, illustration - the latest issue of Conquest Magazine put me to the test. 

I met Meisha Brown, who was treated at the center as a child and is now a cancer advocate pursuing a Ph.D. in health education, studying chronic disease and health disparites research at Texas A&M University. She hopes one day to be an MD Anderson scientist working with other cancer patients who come from disadvantaged backgrounds.

I did an on-location shoot with a patient who was diagnosed with colorectal cancer at 21, a much younger age than the usual age range for diagnosis.

I lit up Dr. Sam Hanash who has made it his mission to find a way to detect lung cancer in its earliest stage, when it’s still curable.

My favorite by far, though, had to be the Little Yogis, a program for young cancer patients to practice stretching and breathing techniques. 

The excellent design is by Blue C Studios. Editing by Andy Olin.

TransCanada Keystone XL Terminal facility for the National Post

It was dumb luck that I was able to pick up an assignment recently that fit in with an ongoing project I'm shooting on the Keystone XL pipeline. The National Post of Canada asked me to tag along with a reporter to visit TransCanada's Keystone XL terminal facility they are building 30 minutes east of Houston in an area brimming with petrochemical refineries.

I was really happy with the photo play. This is the biggest I've seen my photos play in print in a while and is most likely my first ever broadsheet double-truck. Sweet stuff, indeed.