Private Story
Career Challenges -
Protests are times when change could start to happen. I want my camera to be on the front lines documenting change regardless if that change is positive or negative.
The Occupy movement in New York City in 2011 was the first protest I went "all in" on. After the death or Eric Garner I began focussing on the Black Lives Matter movement. In 2016, I traveled to Standing Rock to cover the water protectors efforts for six straight weeks on assignment for Reuters. In 2017 and 2018, I documented the rise of white nationalism in America, traveling to several hot spots such as Charlottesville, where I was one of the few photojournalists to cover the torch march, and also to Shelbyville, Tennessee and Ann Arbor, Michigan where white nationalist were having events. In 2019, I went to Baltimore to show the roots causes of the horrifying homicide statistics there.
As protest movements in the United States have stalled my attention has additionally turned to Native American rights by doing a story about a 2 week horse ride by the Sioux Lakota people to call attention to the violation of their treaty rights, a story about Apache people fighting against a mining company and a story about inter-generational healing with the Lakota people from Cheyenne River. I know that these Native American stories have been very meaningful for me as well as for the participants.
I have never shied away from an intense situation be it a confrontation with the New York City police department or a blizzard on the plains of South Dakota. Year after year I have been documenting protests and calling attention to issues people feel passionate about.
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