tearsheet: wsj, solaria

January has been a crazy month, both personally and professionally. Which is why I haven't been updating the blog with all the awesome assignments and personal work I've been stashing quietly on my little hard drive. I promised myself that this year, 2011, would be different: more posts, more writing, and hopefully more input from everyone following along out there.

So here's some outtakes from an assignment I did a couple of weeks ago for the Wall Street Journal. I had the pleasure of meeting and photographing Steve Andersen, a former employee at the Nummi auto plant in Fremont, CA (This American Life did an awesome piece about the closing of the plant; if you missed it, you can listen here), who now works for Solaria, a clean-energy plant that produces solar panels. Steve was incredibly welcoming, talking about getting hired by Solaria after only a few months of unemployment, and going to work at the old site across the street from Nummi.

If you want to read the article, you can see it online here, or click on the clip above.

2010

Every year since I've become a freelancer, I've tried to make a post with my favorite photos from the last 365 days. I was fortunate enough to travel across the country a few times, to get in a few good road trips, to see old friends and make new ones, to shoot some amazing assignments for talented editors, and perhaps most importantly I learned to step back and remember that sometimes life just needs to be lived and not constantly photographed. Although you probably couldn't tell that by looking at the pictures below. Ha.

Looking through thousands of photos from stories, assignments, and my own life... it's daunting, but it always reminds me that I'm surrounded by incredible people and incredible situations. It helps me remember I'm not alone in this.

So here's a selection of my favorite photos from 2010. Better late than never.

spirit of giving.

Every year, the Stockton Record (the paper I used to work for as a staffer) does a series right before Christmas. It is called "The Giving Spirit," and it is a collection of stories that highlight the work of local non-profit organizations that give to the community. This year, the Record hired me to work on the project with amazing writer Jennifer Torres. We battle-planned out the 7-part series, and tried to tell the stories of the good works of these organizations through the eyes of individuals who directly benefit from the services.

I loved working on these stories and getting to know folks who were willing to open up their lives to us during the good and the bad. Hopefully next year we'll have the chance to try it again and turn it into a deeper look at the holiday season for those in need. Either way, it was great to be a part of the Record team again, and I have to give mad props to Jennifer for putting in so much work to get access to just the right folks on a tight deadline, and also to Jeff Criesi for being a bad-ass designer and making them look good on the page.

So here's a gallery of how the stories ran in the paper, in date order. If you want to check out more photos and read the stories, you can see them online here.



And, just for fun, here are some of my favorite photos from each story that may or may not have made it into the paper. Enjoy!

economy for the WSJ

Now that it's a new year, it's time to sort through the old hard drives and finally catch up on some blog posts from the last couple of months! So let's start from the last assignment of the year and work backwards.

I couldn't have asked for a better assignment to round out 2010. The Wall Street Journal asked me to photograph the McLaughlin family in Sacramento for a story about the lasting effects of the economy crisis. The McLaughlins have been trying to sell their home for several years, hoping to upgrade to a three-bedroom house to accommodate their growing family. But with the housing market in the region at a standstill, they are stuck in a kind of limbo, waiting for something to give.

Here are some of my favorite photos from that evening. The McLaughlins and their children were incredibly sweet and open, allowing me to spend hours photographing their nightly activities. Since it was the day after Christmas, the kids excitedly showed me their new toys... and I got to practice taking pictures while being shot at, which is a skill that could come in handy in the future.

Enjoy! And if you want to see the story, check it out here.