sun in an empty room

Jim Murren, Under Pressure

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 13:12:55 -0500

MGM/Mirage CEO Jim Murren for BusinessWeek
MGM/Mirage CEO Jim Murren is leading the construction of CityCenter, a casino/hotel project that will add 4800 hotel rooms to Las Vegas. It's the largest privately-funded construction project in the US and has faced numerous setbacks, including loss of funding, and faulty construction that will limit the size of one of the buildings. The success of the project and the company's future are intertwined, and he is understandably under tremendous pressure to see the project through to completion.

My editor has suggested shooting some white seamless and I played a bit with the borders as well as continuing an exploration of some darker lighting schemes. Here's a couple more I liked.

When Life Gives You 300 lb. Bronze Pigs...

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 11:09:17 -0500

Smithfield CEO Larry Pope for BusinessWeek

"This is where we always shoot the pictures."

To the editorial photographer, I'm not sure there are eight words more depressing than these, as you're led to yet another conference room, with the same fluorescent lights, tired wall art and dusty, plastic tree in the corner.

Typically, this is where the negotiation begins - the polite request for a tour of the office, the hope for something that might catch your eye, and the gentle suggestions that the best photo might be on the roof, or among the office park's creative landscaping, or anywhere, anywhere except under those buzzing lights.

So when I was called by BusinessWeek to photograph the CEO of the largest pork producer in the world, and I'd just driven a long four hours through hard rain with the expectation of hearing just that phrase, it felt heaven-sent to have a kind secretary welcome me in from the rain, saying, "You can shoot wherever you want."

Even better, when not 30 feet from the door sits the aforementioned pig. I ended up shooting two other setups throughout the office, but it was clear the pig won and I'll happily take another dozen conference rooms for another opportunity like this one.

Corey Haas, one year later

Sun, 25 Oct 2009 21:14:59 -0500

Last September, I was sitting in a hospital waiting room, watching a nearly blind eight year old boy named Corey Haas as he clung tightly to his mother, tears streaming down his face while a nurse stamped a large, red "X" on the left side of his face to ensure surgery would be performed on the correct eye.

Soon after, I photographed surgeon Dr. Maguire as he made a small incision in Corey's eye and injected billions of copies of genetic code into his retina in an attempt to correct the genetic disorder that prevented Corey from seeing anything past a few inches in front of him.

As I wrote when the story came out, the surgery was experimental, and bore the risk of his eyesight becoming even worse.

A year later, the results are in, and Corey can see.

It's not often that you get to see how a story plays out from beginning to end, and I feel fortunate to have met this family and am in awe of the amazing doctors and researchers whose years of work has resulted in a little boy who can now play baseball and ride his bicycle.

The full set of gene therapy photos are here.

tearsheet Friday

Fri, 16 Oct 2009 15:05:10 -0500

The last few months have brought me to Afro-centric Washington DC charter schools, a coal-fired power plant in West Virginia and fastidious, painstakingly patient Asian Art restorers. Here are the tearsheets and a few extra images from each shoot.

Charter schools in Washington, DC for Le Figaro

American Electric Power CEO Michael Morris for BusinessWeek

Xiangmei Gu for Smithsonian Magazine

it's been quiet around here...

Thu, 15 Oct 2009 14:59:24 -0500

...for the past month, as my wife and I welcomed our son, Luke into the world. He was born on September 15, 2009, weighing 7 lbs. 8 oz.

Everyone's doing great and he's well on his way to being the most photographed little boy ever.

Back on the Bus

Tue, 08 Sep 2009 15:52:50 -0500

A few "tearsheets" showed up last week. First, I photographed radio host Diane Rehm for the local NPR affiliate here in DC. The ad is running on the back of buses celebrating her thirty year involvement with the station. My lovely wife was able to get a photograph via iPhone before the bus pulled away, exhibiting much better photographic instincts than I.

I also had a nice trip out into the country to shoot Kyle Becker for the Wall Street Journal's story on reluctant landlords.

A few more that I liked:

Futures in Medicine and Public Radio

Mon, 31 Aug 2009 11:28:21 -0500

While photographing interesting people is one of the best parts about my job, an even better part is the opportunity to pick their brains a bit about their area of expertise. After watching Hans Rosling's TED talk, that debunks many commonly-held perceptions about global health, I was able to talk with a bit about data visualization and the importance of making statistical data available to anyone who might want it. With NPR CEO Vivian Schiller, we had a long talk about the future of public radio and monetizing news content.

These conversations were fascinating to me, and covered topics that the subjects were passionate about which in turn, made them more engaging, dynamic subjects. Showing an interest in who they are also helps build some trust which is very helpful when asking a CEO to stand on a windy roof among satellite dishes for an hour.

Hans Rosling for BusinessWeek

NPR CEO Vivian Schiller for Middlebury College Magazine

Ted Kennedy, RIP

Wed, 26 Aug 2009 13:00:45 -0500

I woke up to the sad news this morning of Ted Kennedy's passing. While I only covered him for the past four years here in DC, I was always struck with his graciousness and patience in dealing with the press.

I photographed more than a few press conferences where the other politicians had already left and he stayed after to answer the reporter's questions. He seemed to relish this contact rather than shy away from it like so many others. Here are just a few favorite images I've made of him.

Detroit Schools in Education Week

Tue, 18 Aug 2009 14:26:43 -0500

I've shot a number of stories on my own over the years with the hopes of selling them later. While this is usually a hit or miss proposition, I think this work scratches the photojournalist itch that pulled me into photography in the first place.

It was gratifying then to hear from Charlie Borst at Education Week about the photos I shot inside Detroit Schools. Our initial phone conversation turned into a cover story in the newspaper and a few spreads of my photos in print and online, illustrating the plight of Detroit schools.

Rain Date

Thu, 13 Aug 2009 10:43:11 -0500

I was reminded recently of the importance of having a good back up plan when doing outdoor shoots. With the moonsoon-like weather we had in DC earlier this summer, there's no getting around the fact that it could go from sunny and humid to torrential downpour in the course of a few minutes.

After having a few close calls on the weather, my luck ran out during a shoot with lobbyist Steve Elmendorf for BusinessWeek. I had scouted out a few nice spots along K Street to photograph him and had worked out a walking plan and lighting set up for each that would allow my assistant to be mobile while hauling a softbox and light mounted on a boom pole, and a battery pack over his shoulder.

Steve arrived on time and we spent a couple of minutes talking about the shoot then headed across the street to our first location. At that point, the skies opened up and my dream of a multiple setup shoot went out the window as we retreated to a building overhang that was our backup spot.

Certainly there was nothing ideal about how the rest of the shoot went, but I was reminded (again) that location portraiture is a series of improvisations and it's not the obstacles themselves, but how one responds that ultimately determine the success or failure of a shoot.

Steve Elmendorf for BusinessWeek

Three Days Down Under

Wed, 12 Aug 2009 10:00:38 -0500

After spending a long weekend in Sydney, Australia, I think I'm ready to cast my vote for it as the city with the best light. It's similar to New York in the way the streets turn shadowy and cavernous past mid-day, but the abundance of glass buildings create reflections of jagged light that break up the long stretches of cool darkness.

tearsheet gigante

Wed, 22 Jul 2009 14:58:54 -0500

Roberta Ayala for SEIU

I had a shoot downtown yesterday and stopped by the SEIU building to snap a photo of a portrait I shot back in March as the SEIU began to ramp up their support for the Employee Free Choice Act. I'm going to peg this shot at about 40' high, making it far and away the largest I've ever had an image printed.

Back in May, I had the privilege of following around a couple of Smithsonian biologists who are working to map the DNA of every single plant and organism on a small island outside of DC in the Potomac river. On the day we were there, the island was accessible by a rickety connection of stones and logs, though often it can only be reached by boat. Following around the biologists as we hiked throughout the island brought me right back to when I was a Boy Scouts and weekend hikes like this were the norm.

Plummer's Island for Smithsonian Magazine

On one last note, I don't do much linking on this blog, but there are so many essential truths in this post by John Loomis, that I think it's required reading. I count luck and following my gut as being fundamental parts of any success I've had so far and John's short, thoughtful bits of wisdom mirror the hard truths I've come to on my own after a lot of failures and successes.

Early Summer Housecleaning

Tue, 30 Jun 2009 15:57:28 -0500

8 seconds at low tide in Big Pine Key, Florida Keys

I had a wonderfully restive long weekend in the Florida Keys, doing some swimming and snorkeling with my wife, but mostly just hanging out and marveling at the water color and assorted critters (land crabs, lizards!) that call this strangely un-American-feeling place home.

At the risk of creating some redundancy of linking, I was happy to see the NYT Lens blog link to my Detroit Schools slideshow.

Lastly, my photo of Jared Cohen at the State Department was published in BusinessWeek. Due to security restrictions, I was only allowed to set up in his office, which meant shooting two setups in an approximately 10x10 space that also held his desk, all of my equipment, and three walls covered in photos and documents that couldn't be in the background of any of the photos. This all made for an interesting shoot and it was only Cohen's willingness to climb over a couple of Pelican cases and a light stand bag that allowed me to shoot the second setup.

Jared Cohen for BusinessWeek

President Obama for The Wall Street Journal

Mon, 22 Jun 2009 13:06:19 -0500

Last Tuesday morning as I was coming out of a hearing, I got a call from an editor at The Wall Street Journal asking about my availability for a shoot that afternoon. A reporter had been granted a twenty minute interview with the President and I was along to document the interview taking place in the Green Room at the White House.

Having covered parts of the Obama campaign and presidency, an audience with the President wasn't anything especially new, except that this time I would be the only photographer in the room (with the exception of White House photo staffer Laurence Jackson) and be able to move around as much as I'd like. The interview went incredibly quickly and soon I was rushing to the press room to file the images.

Here a short video with all 366 images from the shoot.

90 Seconds with Gorbachev Promo and Video

Wed, 17 Jun 2009 12:35:04 -0500

I recently put together a new mailer with some of my work I shot in March, at the Reconciliation Forum in Washington, DC. Over the course of two days, I had the honor of photographing people like Desmond Tutu, Richard Dreyfus, James Nachtwey and of course, Mikhail Gorbachev. Here's a quick video of the mailer.

Here are those 90 seconds of shooting that gave the promo its name. Listen for his handler at the end (a very large Russian man) telling me, "You have enough material." Apologies for the quality of this, it was shot on an old Fuji P&S.

the results: