ISO: stories & Change

My father's camera was one of the earliest "adult" things I can remember learning how to use, and his subscription to National Geographic was a shared treasure. He was an engineer who spent a good part of his life figuring out how engines worked and how they could work better. Today, the engineer in me is focused on how communities work and how the power of stories and personal and communal change can help them work more effectively. My mother's love of people and keen ability to make any moment special broadened my horizons at an early age. For her, there was no "other"; she built and sustained community wherever she was.

From my first childhood camera through today's digital age, my work continues to reflect my passion for photographing people of every generation and the places that make each corner of our communities and the world at large unique.  My creative visual life has had me shooting still film, working with 3/4-inch videotape, beta videotape, back to still film and finally to digital imaging, both in still and video. My writing began on the printed page and now I blend words and images to strengthen the power of each.  I have captured newborns and ambassadors, worked with non-profits and corporations, photographed down the street and around the world. It has all been a privilege.

In 1993, the tagline of "telling stories...changing lives" came to mind as I was editing a documentary on the commitment of the residents of Richmond, VA to have an honest conversation on race, reconciliation and responsibility in the Capital of the Confederacy. Over 20 years later my passion for telling stories about change and transformation remains central to the work that I do in the belief that those stories not only inspire, but also encourage, equip and challenge each of us to do more in our communities, to impact our nation and remind us that it really is a small world after all.

After living in the Washington, DC area for close to three decades and creating throughout the Southern U.S., I now live on the North Shore of Boston and serve as the Director of Communications with the Massachusetts Communities Action Network.

Sidebar Images Above:

My first camera with KODAK C-126 film. Growing up in Florida accounts for the cool camera body or rather head. Today I shoot on Nikon DSLRs, but still proudly own (and occasionally use) film bodies, including my Dad's Leica.

An 8th grade expository writing essay entitled "Racism" in which I reference the KKK, apartheid in South Africa and fervently suggest that we are all responsible for 'tomorrow's world'. Thanks to Mr. Allen for giving me that freedom to pursue honest conversation at such an early age.