Postpartum Depression

There are some assignments that make me love my job.  This one, about Postpartum Depression for the New York Times, was one of those.  It was a project that really stayed with me, mostly because of my subject. Jeanne Marie Johnson was so open with me and the writer about something so incredibly personal and difficult.  And I clearly wasn't the only one that she moved with her bravery, BuzzFeed listed it as one of their top 9 stories of the week, and the NYT Opinion Page for the NYT was hopping.  One of those days when I feel like I may have made a tiny bit of difference in this great big world.

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Schizophrenia

Photographed an amazing story about early onset Schizophrenia that ended up on the cover of the Washington Post.  Basically the Behavior Health Services at the PeaceHealth Sacred Heart Medical Center are trying to figure out ways to help teens with signs of Schizophrenia way before they ever have a psychotic episode.  The program involves a two-year course of socialization, family therapy, job and school assistance, and sometimes medication.  Now some of this may sound super fancy, but what it actually, literally can turn out to be is taking a kid to the music store and talking to him about his day.  Crazy, right?  The counselor I photographed used his love of music and comic books to connect with his teenage male patients, and as a way to get them out of house and interacting with the world around them.  As someone with a psychology degree, I was pretty blown away by the simplistic brilliance of this.  It made me realize two things. One, that you can never underestimate the power of human connection, and two, that so many of us just aren't getting enough of it.

Faces of the Affordable Care Act - Wall Street Journal

The Wall Street Journal asked me to photograph local business owner and motorcycle enthusiast Tom Daly for a series called Faces of the Affordable Care Act. Tom represents The 'Young Invincible,' who is interested in health insurance, but decided it was too expensive.  However, his new motorcycle habit, impending marriage and recent status as homeowner have made him rethink this opinion.  Adulthood will do that to you I guess.

A Taste of Portland for Feast Magazine

Did a tour of tasty, tasty places for simply scrumptious Australian Food and Travel Magazine, Feast.  This required some intense research, i.e. eating everything I could get my camera on.  The adventure included, but was not limited to:

Bollywood Theater - Ace Hotel - Portland Saturday Market - Mediterranean Exploration Company - Clay Pigeon Winery - House Spirits - Olympic Provisions - Portland Airport -Tasty n' Alder - Raven and Rose - Pepe Le Moko - Pok Pok - Tidbit Food Farm - Tilt - Yard House - Ace Hotel - Saturday Market

Now go forth and feast.

AARP's Sandwich Generation

Spent the day with Janet Martinez and family for a story for AARP.  The story is about the "sandwich generation" adults bringing up young children while also overseeing the care of their aging parents.  Janet, a TV producer, was a joy; funny, honest and open about the balancing act of shuttling her daughter and mother through their daily activities.  After shooting she entertained me with a beer and stories of working on Lifetime Channel Movies.

Mother Jones Magazine Talks Rape

Photographed spitfire Jenny Wendt for a Mother Jones Magazine story on statute of limitations for sexual assaults.  Jenny, who was raped in 2005, has begun a campaign to change Indiana's laws, addressing rallies and meeting with legislators and is now working with lawmakers in Oregon.  A serious topic calls for some serious images, but Jenny's personality is one of joy, warmth and humor.  Well that and a will of steel.

The Cost of Not Caring - Photo and Video story for USA Today

Joan Rideout Ayala has a dual diagnosis of mental illness and addiction.  Now an addiction counselor herself, has learned coping skills to help end her addiction and cope with her mental illness. We spent some time with Joan at home and at work for an editorial video and photo assignment for a USA Today for a project called The Cost of Not CarIng, a series that explores the human and financial costs the country pays for not caring more about the nearly 10 million Americans with serious mental illness.  Powerful stuff.

NYT Mississippi Four Square Blocks

You can find just about anything you would want and nothing you would need on Mississippi Street in Portland.  But New York Times writer Julie Lasky says it so much better than we ever could, "North Mississippi Avenue in Portland delivers a hipster experience as reliably as the rain. The street’s commercial district, which runs five blocks from North Fremont Street up to North Skidmore Street, has coffee-roasting equipment, saltwater aquariums, chandeliers made with recycled wine bottles, jewelry cast from animal sex organs and possibly the best corned beef hash ever fried."

Thanks to all the businesses that contributed their design sensibilities: Sunlan (who was ironic before it was cool), Mr. Green Beans, Land Gallery, Flutter, Gravy, Paxton Gate, Mississippi Avenue Lofts, Silver Moon Creperie, The Big Egg, Prost!, and The John Palmer House. One thing's for certain, it's not easy being hip, but you do it with aplomb.  And a beard.

Paternity Leave - New York Times Story

Spent the day with Todd Bedrick and the fam for a New York Times Story about Paternity Leave.  Todd works at Ernst & Young LLP, so got to spend a little time in the 9 to 5 (though no suit and tie- this is Portland, after all).  Then home for some adorable father and daughterness.  Todd and his wife Sarah, who is a teacher, were a pretty picture perfect family; there was dinner, playtime, bath time, then a little purple-polka-dot-story-time and finally bed.  After that he washed his wife's breast pump accouterment and showed me his engagement photo album. What a champ.  In the article Todd mentions how much his time at home with his new baby really helped him bond with her.  Which only makes sense.  Sweden has figured it out.  Close to 90% of Swedish fathers take paternity leave.  Why does it take us so long?

Brown Book Magazine - Sublime Frequencies

Spent a fabulous day filled with gorgeous light at the Portland home of Hisham Mayet for Brownbook Magazine, which they call "An Urban Guide to the Middle East."  Mayet is the co-founder of the cult record label, Sublime Frequencies, and is responsible for unleashing Iraqi Choubi, Palestinian psyche-rock and Omar Souleyman on the world.  He spends several months of every year traveling the globe (when we met he had just gotten back from Burkina Faso and Niger) recording music, documenting, looking for bands.  Not a bad gig.  As a result his home is filled with treasures; books, art, records, you name it.  I had a blast playing show-and-tell with Mayet, listening to music as we went through his book collection or he showed me paintings hidden in his basement before taking smoke breaks in the backyard.  The print version is below, but the super photo charged online story is here.

Scholastic Magazine Cover Portrait in the Cold

Had the chance to shoot another interesting assignment for Scholastic this month, a cover photo for their story on football injuries that ran in Scope. Met Isaiah, who quit football to run track after sustaining a severe concussion his freshman year. You would never know it, but it was about 5 degrees out when this was shot but Isaiah handled it like a pro, even after he changed into his track outfit.  I, myself, was in a very long puffy coat.

Artslandia Xmas

Those wacky folks over at Artslandia came up with the brilliant idea of inviting the who's who of the holiday stage for one big photo Xmas mashup.  And we got to join in.  We mixed cocktails for Crumpet from the Santaland Diaries at Portland Center Stage, tempted The Oregon Ballet's Sugar Plum Fairy with cookies (heck no she didn't eat any), helped Lucy string up poor old Charlie Brown from Stumptown Stages and put George Bailey, Scrooge and Kris Kringle through the holiday wringer.  Then we just added a little fake snow and blasted the Pandora Holiday station to get everyone in the mood.  Talk about a holiday Cornucopia.  Someone brought their toddler to the set and I sure that child will never look at Christmas the same way.  That's right, changing people's lives with the power of photography.  Here's wishing all of you a happy non-secular December and a fabulous 2015.

Puttin' on the Schnitz: Capturing the magic of the Oregon Symphony

So lucky to have the Oregon Symphony as a client. For the last several years we have had the pleasure of getting a behind the scenes view of the whole shebang. This involves going backstage, annoying audience members with shutter noises, climbing tall ladders, hanging with Carlos, that kind of thing. This year's marketing involved capturing the magic of the Schnitz with all its amazing architecture and unique historic details, plus the excitement and anticipation of attending the Symphony. We were pretty excited ourselves to have access to all the little secret spaces the concert hall has, and were kept on our toes by the documentary vibe they wanted.

Carmen Peirano for Via Magazine

Via Magazine recently did a story on Carmen Peirano, the badass heir apparent to Nick's Italian Cafe in McMinnville. Pretty easy to take a good picture when your subject is a gorgeous chef, a cool apron always helps too. Question: How many photos can one take of the same space, using different angles?  My answer appears to be at least 4.

As a side note, I am a big fan of downtown McMinnville, it really has that small town, quaint feel, not to mention some great places to eat and shop.  Though maybe I'm biased. Carmen also runs a salumeria next door called Fino in Fondo, making Oregon a burgeoning meat empire.  I personally just like to say the word salumeria.

Acorns, More Than Just Squirrel Snacks - For NPR

I first met wild food expert John Kallas through a friend several years ago.  That is how I found myself up at 6am on a Saturday morning at the Oregon coast, digging for steamer clams. John has a year-long calendar of events that pit you against nature and have you come out the well-fed victor. Classes with titles like, "Wild Foods From Dirt to Plate," "Sea Vegetables of the Pacific Coast," and most recently, "Acorn Pudding." So with adventures like that, you can understand why I've been dying to do a story on him. Now just needed to find a wordsmith and well, a publication. Ah, technicalities. Luckily the plucky Deena Prichep was able to supply both and got National Public Radio's The Salt to come along for the ride. We spent the day watching, shooting and interviewing as John took a group of folks from Acorns to Pudding. Apparently this involves lots of grinding, lots of leaching and lots of sugar.  The result was warm, sweet, and porridge-like.

Those squirrels had no idea.

KungFu Live on Buzzfeed!

Check out my story about kung fu live on Buzzfeed. Eight-year-old ChengWu ShuQin is among the youngest of the girls training at the Shaolin Exquisite Kung Fu School in the Central Eastern Chinese Province of Henan. Newly arrived, she’s fighting to find her place among the crowd and against homesickness.

Portland Corporate Portrait - Lawyer Robert S. Banks Jr. for the NYT's

Popped over to the Banks Law Office to photograph Robert S. Banks for a New York Times article.  Robert was a great guy, and even thought to bring a prop to the shoot (his tres chic Coach brief case).  The tone of the article was pretty serious (his client unsuccessfully opposed the removal of her complaint against her former broker whose regulatory file included 41 customer complaints and a job termination!) and so we needed his vibe to match.  Luckily, he seemed to have the tough lawyer look down.

Writing His Own Script - Literally

We recently photographed Portland investor Stan Rosenfeld for Charles Schwab's high end investor magazine Onward. Stan is amazing, he still does everything the old fashioned way, with pen and paper. For the shoot we purchased a large piece of 1/8 inch clear plastic and hung it with C-stands inside the studio to get the handwritten "script" for the story headline. We opted to do this in camera, rather than in post to make it look more authentic.  We redid it so many times I felt like I was back in cursive writing class.  We also had Stan write some equations and stock lingo on the board to fill in the negative space and give it a bit more personality.  No stock tips though.....

Portland Urban Wineries for the NYT's

Somewhere along the line I have become the de facto, "Portland food, lifestyle and travel" photographer for the New York Times.  And if you've read the NYT lately, you realize that is a job that keeps me rather busy.  People in Portland now joke about it, when I mention who I'm working for, "Oh, man, they are doing another story about us?" is the response I get.  And I understand that.  Sometimes I feel that living the good life Portland is a secret I'd rather not share.  Unfortunately, I think the cat may be out of the bag.  Damn you, Fred and Carrie. Below are some outtakes from a recent Urban Wineries shoot I did for the paper which included stalking the tannin soaked halls of the Southeast Wine Collective, Clay Pigeon Winery, ENSO Urban Winery and Tasting Lounge, and Sauvage at Fausse Piste.  Gotta love that urban terroir.

Trust For Public Land

Had the opportunity to photograph for The Trust for Public Land this year.  TPL is a U.S. national, nonprofit organization that conserves land for people to enjoy as parks, gardens, natural areas and open space. And who doesn't think that is pretty awesome?  We were tasked with documenting Colwood Park, a golf course that it reinventing itself, and Nadaka Nature Park, a former Camp Fire Girl spot.  So we gathered a group of intrepid volunteers and let them run free, literally.