Last week I photographed an assignment for National Public Radio on a story about new depression drugs saving lives. I met 28-yr-old Chris Stephens, who was very open about his depression and his life in general. He was also super open about being photographed which really helped me. I spent a couple hours working on various portraits, in and around his home, and to his favorite writing spot. The challenge was to show a new life for a people suffering with depression.
This story is fascinating because the new drugs being developed are designed similarly to Special K. And in fact "Special K," which is "an FDA-approved anesthetic named ketamine, can relieve even suicidal depression in a matter of hours. And it works on many patients who haven't responded to current antidepressants like Prozac."
And for people like Chris, this has given them a second life.
An October travel assignment for the New York Times travel section sent me to Sebasotpol for the day to photograph their eclectic food and arts scene.
These assignments are always really fun, but they can be super crazy and stressful as I'm usually running around with my shotlist photographing places and people under varies lighting conditions. I try to shoot indoors when its in the afternoon and outside places when the light is softer. Sometimes I have to be at two places at the same time as I'm trying to compete with time before the light falls. Its just hectic sometimes! But I always meet really cool people and discover new places, such as one of the best thrift stores I have ever been too, Aubergine.
Sebastopol is also home to some very creative people, and one of them is Patrick Amiot, whom is picture in my outtakes. I also want to thank his wife Brigitte Laurent for giving me a private tour of their home, Mr. Amiot for showing me his "studio," which is pretty much a very cool junkyard, and a photographer's paradise to photograph.
The town also has really incredible food. I was also lucky to photograph a farm (this was off the list but I really wanted to go) where most of the foods for dishes at the restaurant, Peter Lowell, are grown.
For the New York Times and Bay Citizen...what a great assignment and program for these kids. I shot this in early December. I hope that more schools will develop hands-on, creative and innovative programs to help give disadvantage kids opportunities such as this. I'll just let you read the story by Trey Bundy, whom I've worked with a few times, and is a fantastic reporter. Here's the lede of the story, "For decades, teachers and school districts have battled truancy, struggling to engage students who cope with economic hardship, community strife, domestic violence and drug abuse. Some students avoid school because they are not interested or because they are being bullied. But since 2008, in part because of programs like those at Downtown, the San Francisco district’s chronic truancy has dropped by 31 percent."
An assignment for the Wall Street Journal about San Francisco becoming the first big city in the U.S. with a minimum wage topping $10 an hour, on Jan. 1, 2012. I was assigned to photograph a clothing manufacturing factory in downtown San Francisco in an area that most folks don't go. In fact one construction worked asked if I was lost because I was trying to find the backdoor of this building. But inside the seamstresses were busy. It was a bit challenging because first the lighting was awful. The women were also really shy, and didnt speak english, but they were all sweet and we had many laughs as I'm sure I looked really silly to them trying to photography inconspicuously.
Last month's assignment for the New York Times and Bay Citizen....was so fun to be out on the water.
The tugboat was a state-of-the art two-year-old boat that cost about $50m. I had first envisioned the old classic tugboat, being out in the elements, the wind whiplashing my hair and seawater spraying on my face..hahaha none of the really happened. But it was still a fun assignment! The captain did let me drive for a bit too...
That day's job entailed assisting a cargo ship coming in from Singapore to the Oakland docks. The ship was incredibly huge. I often see them off the coast of San Francisco from Ocean Beach or from the window of my flat. You really have no idea how enormous these ships are until you are next to it. Really interesting experience, and of course I love any kind of water assignment.