Occupy Congress
I was reading the paper this morning when I saw a brief stating that the Occupy movement would be descending on the Capitol to welcome Congress back into session. How did I nearly miss this? I’ve been following the Occupy twitter stream for weeks, but one busy weekend is all it takes to get dropped. [...]
A Yoga Holiday
If you’ve looked closely at my site, you’ll know that I love yoga (and motorcycles). That love goes beyond yoga practice and extends into a partnership with my wife, Kat, owning and running Bikram Yoga Columbia. I can count house photographer among my many duties there, and we’ve fallen into a tradition of shooting a [...]
MLK Memorial Dedication
Blue skies and 70 degree temperatures blew away any reminders of Hurricane Irene as a predominantly African-American crowd gathered to celebrate what had been a long time coming. The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King had officially arrived on the National Mall. Etched in granite, he is the only African-American and only non-president with a memorial [...]
Lee Andersen’s Designs
Lee Andersen owns one of the biggest little clothing design studios in the U.S., with presence in over 3000 boutiques nationally and internationally. Her staff of about 40 interns, seamstresses, and assistant designers manufacture and ship only about 100 pieces of each design that she creates, keeping the clothing unique and exclusive. Woman to Woman [...]
Black Male Identity Project
I’ve been chosen to participate in a show on Black Male Identity that opens Sunday, September 11 at the New Beginnings Barbershop in Baltimore. It runs until November 4, and is put on by Art on Purpose, a community arts group in Baltimore. Funded in large part by the Open Society Foundation, the Black Male [...]
Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial
Last week I covered some of the events surrounding the dedication of the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial on the National Mall. The effort to create a monument to Dr. King has been years in the making, and final result is absolutely stunning. This is the first national monument to an African-American, and the first [...]
Not my self portrait
My son, Kian started his summer break enrolled in a camp for gifted and talented artists. This drew kids from around the county, some of whom were quite older and more experienced than him. They worked with charcoal, paint and other materials that he had little or no experience with. Day 1 lesson: he would [...]
Shaman
Harriet McMahon is a healer. She’s a healer in the oldest sense of the word, and she draws on traditions that predate modern medicine. She’s trained in the energy work of Reiki, and has studied the Shamanic traditions of a variety of cultures. Spiritual teachers in Peru have initiated her and taught her the secrets [...]
Dead Prez
The concert series I’ve started photographing continues to stay hot as I hooked up with Dead Prez over the weekend at Sonar in Baltimore. If you’re not hip to their style of black liberation/social revolutionary lyrics, then you need to put it in your ear. Their latest mixtape, Revolutionary But Gangsta Grillz is available for [...]
Distant Relatives
The text said, “wAnted to invite u to nas & damian marley Tonight @ sonar”. A friend of a friend, Jon Sabban was reaching out. Jon and I are planning to collaborate on a project down the road, but hadn’t had an opportunity to meet yet. John clearly likes to do things with style, as [...]
Junior’s Story
PETIONVILLE, HAITI — Junior paints everyday. Bright colors on clothing, Creole slogans on sheets, acrylic on canvas; it doesn’t matter, his need to create is constant. Lyonel Elie, Jr., 30, has lost his home but not his art. His house, a concrete bunker cemented to a steep hillside in Petionville, is cracked. Too unstable to [...]
Port-Au-Prince by moto taxi
Port-Au-Prince suffered massive damage, with officials estimating that 70% of the city will need to be rebuilt. The downtown area was hit the hardest, with many buildings reduced to rubble.
Haiti, do not despair
Port-Au-Prince is in ruins, it’s downtown a field of rubble. As many as 1.5 million are estimated to be homeless, at least 200,000 lost their lives, and officials say the reconstruction will take decades. I had many days of mind-bending scenes of utter destruction and human tragedy. It was shocking in it’s ferocity, and has [...]
We are alive in Haiti
I should have come to Haiti before this. This is madness, and despite all I’ve read and seen, Haiti could never be like this. Driving across the border from Santo Domingo was a good way to to ease into the shock. As we approached Port-Au-Prince, the outbound traffic became increasingly heavier, and took over both [...]
Southern Exposures
I just got back from teaching at the University of Southern Mississippi Photojournalism Project, which always makes for a great change of scenery. This is the second year Iris PhotoCollective has run the project, and it keeps getting better. We had seven students this year, six high school and one freshman in USM’s photojournalism sequence. [...]