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.

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.