I got the front page, above-the-fold photo in the Houston Chronicle this week with a portrait I made of the resigning president of MD Anderson Cancer Center Dr. John Mendelsohn.
Square photos
Lately, I've been bringing my Hasselblad along with me on assignment to try and make more personal and interesting images between the work I do for the newspaper. Using the Hasselblad is a completely different experience from using my digital cameras. It forces me to really concentrate on what I'm doing. Everything on the camera is heavy and manually adjusted. For work I make indoors, I almost always need a tripod. My goal is to eventually make a project out of portraits I create at the courthouse. It's one of those places in town that brings together a wide, diverse array of people under one roof.
Gregory E. Hall, contractor and coordinator for the rescue of 33 miners trapped in a mine in Copiapo, Chile.
I recently photographed Mr. Hall for Columbia Magazine, a publication published for members of the Knights of Columbus, a Catholic organization. We met inside Mr. Hall's sparsely furnished office in a shopping center in Cypress, Texas, about 45 minutes outside of Houston. Not having many options as far as a storytelling environment, I decided to put the 6'8" Mr. Hall into a corner and blow out the background. He regaled us with off-the-record stories of backstage intrigue at the rescue site. It was his "Plan B" that proved successful in recovering the trapped miners. He says divine providence is what saved the men. I personally think it was because of Mr. Hall's ingenuity and vast experience that saved the 33 miners.
Shoes Shoes Shoes (and Boots)!
A small sample of work I completed for Gloss, a magazine-like broadsheet produced by the Houston Chronicle. Myself and the reporter spent three hours inside the huge closet of Joyce Echols. I don't know a whole lot about fashion but she had a lot of everything.
Jennifer Schuett at her home with drawing of man who abducted her in 1990 from her bedroom in Dickinson. He raped her and then slit her throat--so that doctors thought she would never talk again --then left her to bleed to death and die atop a fire aunt mount. She was not discoverd for 12 hours. She survived and learned to see her attacker, Dennis Bradford, arrested when his DNA from attacking a woman in Arkansas in 1996 was finally linked to DNA taken from her clothing years ago.
Recent work
Houston firefighters battle a blaze at a complex in the 1300 block of Gears, near the North Freeway and Beltway 8, where a fire was reported at about 2:30 p.m.
Maria Hernandez received her green card after being subject to physical abuse by her husband, who is in jail. She has 4 daughters, one of them has special needs due the domestic violence her mother endured.
Cressandra Thibodeaux of Aurora Picture Show
The 20th Annual Komen Houston Race for the Cure
The 2nd annual Pink & Blue Event: Al Amaanah Eid Celebration, is an Eid celebration for Iraqi, Palestinian and Afghani refugee children.
Medal of Honor vet laid to rest
At this point of my life and career, I've probably been to more funerals than most people attend in two lifetimes (probably the same with weddings). Last Saturday, I attended one more to add to my list. However, it was the first time I've attended the funeral of a Medal of Honor recipient. The following is my favorite photo from the day.
More photos can be viewed here.
Vote for me!
Gentle reader - At the risk of sounding obnoxious and self-serving, I'm asking for your help by voting for me in a photography contest. I've entered a few of the photos I made of Arcade Fire in the long shot that I might actually win. It wasn't cheap to enter - $35 an entry - so as you can see, I'm all in on this one. I have 13 images entered into the contest and you're allowed to vote for each one if you so please.
Fall 2010 Print Promotion is ready to start!
There's nothing like the smell of 815 promotional booklets in the morning! This weekend will be spent stuffing and stamping a 16-page CD booklet format that premieres work I did over the summer for indie band Arcade Fire.
It was designed by Greece-based designer Michael Karakostas and coordinated by photo consultant extraordinaire Jasmine DeFoore. It took about 10-12 weeks or so to complete from beginning to end. The printing was done by Jakprints and they did a phenomenal job.
It will be sent to 815 art buyers, ad agencies and photo editors across the nation.
What do you think?
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Pretty weather
A cool front finally came through Houston, bringing with it relief from months of humid, muggy weather. I spent some time yesterday at the Memorial Park driving range looking for a feature when I saw this golf lesson taking place.
Can you run on some news?
It's a question I get asked fairly often by the photo desk at the local paper. I get a strange mix of excitement and trepidation. Excitement because I know if I want the most dramatic photos, I'll need to get there quickly and hit the ground running. Trepidation because I don't get phone calls because something really good has happened - it's usually a fire where someone might be trapped, a SWAT stand-off with a hostage involved, or like yesterday, when I got a call to head to east Harris county because a four-year old girl had been shot. I knew that it would be at least 45 minutes before I could be on the scene. It was late in the day and I wasn't sure what traffic would be like. When I relayed this to the editor, he said the incident had happened hours ago. I settled down a bit, knowing that all I'd probably get was a shot of some yellow police tape flapping in the wind with maybe a cop standing around in the background. I wouldn't call this breaking news. It was more like news that was already broken.
Nonetheless, I'm a firm believer that there is always something worth documenting. I got to the scene and sure enough, there was the yellow tape in front of the tired, weather-beated apartment complex. Harris county sheriff's deputies milled about and I could tell by the feel of the scene that things were going to be wrapped up soon. I was about to pack up and leave after I photographed a deputy taking down the police tape. When behind me, I heard a woman crying. I followed her to ask her what was wrong. The police were taking her husband down to the station (others were later charged) for questioning. He had been sitting in the back of the police car since I had been there, but she had thought they were going to let him go.
Recent work
Happy accident
Lately I've been doing quite a bit of shooting with my Yashica T4, a great point-and-shoot from the mid-1990's that has a very sharp Zeiss lens on it. Part of the fun is heading to Walgreen's or CVS to turn in a roll of film when I'm done. I love the anticipation and waiting and most of all getting prints(!) when I come in to pick up my order. My last visit, I had the roll scanned to a CD instead of getting prints, figuring I can order prints individually (all these prints can get expensive, yah know? and where do I store them all? it's bad enough trying to keep digital files organized, but I digress). Before I left, I looked at the photos on a reprint kiosk next to the counter. I noticed that just about all of the scans were off, showing some or most of the edge of the negative frame between shots. Looking through them, I was excited by the dialogue these happy accidents were creating. I was reminded of one of my favorite quotes by photographer Keith Carter, who quoted poet William Stafford to "always be on guard against perfection." The image below is my favorite "mistake" from the roll.
Arcade Fire photo runs on Pitchfork Media website
Pitchfork Media uses a photo I made of the band in an abandoned drive-in theatre outside of Montreal. Check it out here.
I shot Arcade Fire, again: the Les Inrockuptibles cover
This is one of my favorite images I made of Arcade Fire. I'm very happy to see it on a cover. We photographed this in the woods near a resort town in the Quebec countryside. There was a lot of spontaneity on the shoot at this point. Win Butler jumped into the water on his own volition and this photo lined itself up soon after.
If anyone has a few extra copies of this magazine floating around and would like to send them to me in Houston, I'll make it worth your while - I'll send you a free 20" x 30" print of the band.
A tragic loss
Days ago, Stanislass Augustin lost her mother, Gertha Augustin, in a terrible car accident. Initial reports said the accident was caused by a local high school basketball superstar. The following day when the accident was reported in the news, only the name of the basketball superstar was mentioned. Augustin, understandably upset her mother's name wasn't mentioned in any news reports, called local media outlets to ask why. The reason is the family needs to give permission to release the name. That being said, it's a tragedy anytime a person, in this case a grandmother and a nurse, dies because of another person's irresponsibility. Gertha Augustin was a generous woman, originally from Haiti, who worked at M. D. Anderson.
Myself and Shaminder Dulai, a reporter at the Houston Chronicle, were called out to photograph and interview her daughter. Situations like these can sometimes be uncomfortable. I've been on more than one of these assignments where the surviving family didn't know we were coming. However, this was not the case this time. Augustin's daughter, Stanislass, was very open and inviting. While she chatted with Shaminder, I made a picture I thought was story-telling and documentary in style. I also always make a safety picture in assignments like these. Of course, the safe photo is the one they ran with.
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Stanislass Augustin, 32, pictured with her son Elijah, 18 months, talks about her mother Gertha Augustin, who was killed in a car accident with Belliare star basketball player Tobi Oyedeji May 17, 2010 in Richmond, TX.
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The "safety" shot.
Catching up
Its been a while, so here are some recent pictures that I'm sharing with Mom, Dad, and the countless spammers who comment numerous times on my blog through out the day.
As many as 13,000 runners run down Texas Avenue as they participate in the Conoco Rodeo Run Feb. 27, 2010 in Houston. The run, which kicks off the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo parade, took runners from Bayou Place through the streets of downtown to the finish just past Minute Maid Park on Texas Avenue. There was a 10K and 5K race.
Server Becky Castillo laughs with customers while refilling coffee at Tony's Restaurant in Sealy, TX. The Sealy plant that manufactures medium-grade Army trucks lost its $3 billion government contract, which likely means that all, or at least some, of the 3,400 jobs at the plant will evaporate by the end of 2010. In tiny Sealy, where the BAE plant is the town's biggest employer by far, that will be a big hit on residents and the businesses that have sprung up to accommodate workers.
Other stores are reflected in a window as construction takes place inside another store at PlazAmericas Mall in Houston. Months after a public development authority rejected Sharpstown mall's request for millions to help redevelop the mall, the owners are moving forward with their Plan B. New signs have gone up in and outside the mall with the property's new name, PlazAmericas.
Jeff Smisek, chairman, president and chief executive officer of Continental Airlines Inc., the world's fifth largest airline, photographed March 5, 2010 in Houston.
Brian Royo, with the U of H Cougar BBQ team pit, takes out pork ribs at the Rodeo's World's Championship Bar-B-Que Contest finals.
Vivek Sarkar, PhD, stands near a donated $7.6 million IBM supercomputer in Houston. The computer, donated to Rice University, effectively doubles the university's supercomputing capacity. Rice says it will use the computer, the first of a new line of IBM architecture, to collaborate with Texas Medical Center institutions to further biomedical research.
Former Chivas USA midfielder Ramon Ramirez is in town to promote Mexico's national team in a game against New Zealand.
Executive chef Danny Trace at Brennan's in Houston.
Rodeo volunteer Jay Justilian takes leftover food from the rodeo's Golden Buckle Foodie Awards to other volunteers in Houston. The contest recognized the best food at the Rodeo. The competition was judged on Thursday at the Kids Country Stage. The categories included best burger, taco, baked potato, barbecue, fried food, breakfast, food on a stick, dessert, seafood and most creative.
Fort Bend Bush plays Garland Lakeview Centennial for the 5A Texas state championship in the second half in Austin, TX. Fort Bend Bush won 65-58.
Giant Snowflake
An editor wanted a cold weather feature. The only problem was it wasn't cold enough for people to bundle up. I found this big snowflake reflection in a display at Macy's in downtown Houston and waited.
Patrick Prusko, left, and Philipp Ehses stroll through downtown on a chilly day, Nov. 30, 2009 in Houston. Both were in town from Germany for a wedding.
Honoring a hero
Military Moms and Wives of Brazoria county, and volunteers from the community set up flags in the parents' yard of Sgt. James Nolen, Nov. 25, 2009 in Alvin, TX. Nolen, of the 2nd Battalion, 508th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 4th BCT, 82nd Abn. Div. died when his vehicle struck an IED while conducting a convoy in Kandahar province.
Read MorePressure to leave
Inside a FEMA trailer park in High Island, Texas, Yvonne VanZandt said she and her husband are being badgered by caseworkers even though they have signed a contract with a builder and could have their home rebuilt by the trailer program's March 12 deadline. She said caseworkers told her they would photograph her property to see if work was being done. (quote from story by Houston Chronicle reporter Harvey Rice).
Yvonne VanZandt, posing next to her trailer, Nov. 13, 2009 in High Island, TX. FEMA is forcing out of her trailer before the trailer program ends March 12. FEMA is forcing her family out even though a house to replace the one washed away by Hurricane Ike is likely to be completed before the trailer program ends. She is one of many residents who complain about FEMA pressure to move out before the program ends. FEMA is ending its temporary housting program for hurricane Ike victims even though it extended the program in Louisiana for four years. FEMA is selling trailers to Ike victims for prices ranging from $3,400 to $16,000, but in Louisiana they were sold for under $100.
Adoption, thousands of trees and a war hero
Saturday was a busy day. Check it out!
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C. B. Black, 66, a former letter carrier and U. S. Army Sergeant received a purple heart and bronze star Nov. 21, 2009 in Houston at the central branch of the Houston Public Library. Black had lost the medals nearly 40 years ago in a fire at his father's house where his medals were stored.
TREES
Rony Kraft hauls away two sweet gum trees as the Trees for Galveston Project gave away 2,000 trees Nov. 21, 2009 in Galveston, TX. The project is helping to replace the 30,000 tree lost from Hurricane Ike. Each resident received two trees per a person. About 500 trees were given away in the first hour.
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Volunteer Pat Chianetta, center, holds a sapling as the Trees for Galveston Project gave away 2,000 trees Nov. 21, 2009 in Galveston, TX. The project is helping to replace the 30,000 tree lost from Hurricane Ike. Each resident received two trees per a person. About 500 trees were given away in the first hour.
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From left, Shannon Vincent holds Spencer, 1, who he and his wife Heather, holding Sarah, 2, are about to adopt as Galveston county Child Protective Services holds a mass adoption day Nov. 21, 2009 at Moody Gardens in Galveston, TX. The Vincent's are swearing in before the short five-minute process takes place. CPS is celebrating National Adoption Month and bringing awareness to the many children in the child welfare system who need and deserve permanent, loving homes. In the greater Houston area, including Galveston County there are more than 1,700 CPS children waiting for an adoptive home. Most of these children are older, part of a sibling group or have special needs. They are in CPS custody due to abuse, neglect, or abandonment by their own biological families.
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Shannon Vincent holds Spencer, 1, who he and his wife Heather, are about to adopt.
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Donna Venti holds Ruthie Venti, 1, moments after she was adopted by Donna and her husband Stephen.