THE CASE OF THE AUTOGRAPHED CORPSE

While the article was about an early 20th century Apache mystic, the photo editor asked me to make a visual love letter to Apacheria, specifically the land as John Silas might have known it. I called all my friends, had them call all their uncles, and did my best to learn as much as I could about life on the Apache reservations in 1920-1933.

I spent the better part of 10 days in research and photography, visiting nearly all parts of Western Apacheria. Though I did my very best to avoid contact with my friends or anyone else due to the pandemic. They didn’t run it, but I made my very first images of a bald eagle which alit next to me as I was photographing some free-range cows. I don’t know the meaning in that happening, but it feels meaningful, right? I made a collage of images from this assignment on my Instagram.

More High-Yield Muni Borrowers Are Defaulting but Investors Still Want In

Tricky assignment: the light gets super hard out here by 9 am, so I arranged to get out there at the mine several hours before sunrise when the crew usually arrives to make images of some of the labor that goes on at this mine. But on this day, there was essentially no crew, no movement, and of course no light at all. In fact, the only reason anyone was there at all was to make sure I didn’t wander into a machine and die. So I made do as best I could. Eventually the light sweetened and then got super rich as it lit up the surrounding mountains. I got lucky. There’s a collage of some images that didn’t run on my instagram.

Election Day 2020: Economy, Coronavirus and Race Split U.S. Electorate

Election Day! I’ve heard from many veteran photojournalists that Election Day is a grueling fast paced nightmare of a day that starts before dawn and doesn’t end until well past the cows coming home. Election Day 2020 was not like that for me. My editor at the Wall Street Journal didn’t even want me out before 9am. I was wide awake by 4am giddy with anticipation and just had to hit the streets anyway. I got to a nearby polling place at a church and made some beautiful if slightly grainy images of folks lining up to vote before dawn and then headed to Camelback Mountain to get some sunrise photos of Paradise Valley. Of course, none of those photos ran.

In fact none of the photos I made before 9am ran. I’m a goof. The rest of the day my editor had me pegged to staff writer, Eliza Collins, with whom I have a pretty good working relationship. We interviewed and photographed a dozen folks all over the Valley (seriously I logged so many miles) as well as Mark Kelly. 

I expected to be up until the wee hours of the morning still filing images as the results came in, but instead by 4 in the afternoon I was done. I begged my editor to let me at least photographer folks in line at golden hour, which must have bemused them (what kinda contract worker wants to stay on extra long for no extra pay?) but as with my early photos the golden hour stuff didn’t run either. Lesson learned? (NOPE). At around 7pm I told the WSJ security team that I was done for the day.

Then Dom Valente, Caitlin O’Hara and I went cruising to get images of folks reacting to results as the came in. I should have just gone home, but I was feeling too hyped. Probably too much Red Bull. We visited the Maricopa Democrats and LUCHA where Dom and Caitlin both got excellent photos. I tried to file my images from these events but my jetpack was dead. Oops.

Black Microbiologists Push for Visibility Amid a Pandemic

I got the call to make this portrait as I was heading home from working on a long term project for another client. Got it done using my spare (read: older janky) camera, which is always a treat. I made Dr. Johnson explain what he did over and over until I understood it, which wasn’t really necessary, I’m just a nosey parker.

The article was a group project with photographers across the nation. I feel glad I didn’t embarrass myself and put in a good showing, though I do wish that there had been more room for some detail images, from me and everyone else. Cause I’m totally geeked about microbiology.

What You Can Learn From a Dreamer in Arizona

An Op-ed by my friend and idol Fernanda Santos about a very cool young adult, Angel Palazuelos and what his experiences as a Dreamer graduating in 2020 can teach everyone as we all go through the Covid pandemic.

I made a bunch of more metaphorical images of Angel, but perhaps there were a bit too on the nose. haha. I’ve gone one of those up on my instagram.

In Arizona, Democrats See Blue Trend, While Republicans See Blip

These were just some images reused from previous assignments, but I did get into the print edition with them AND I got to have images in the same article as my Juntos Coop-mate, Caitlin O’Hara. That’s always nice. Not sure who the photo editor was on this assignment, but whoever they are, good looking out :)

Pandemic, Protests and Economy Are on Voters’ Minds in Key Counties

The Wall Street Journal took a deep dive into ten counties that seemed important for Democrats and Republicans to vie for in the 2020 elections. One of those counties was Maricopa County, the heart of Arizona and where Phoenix is located. I was assigned to make portraits of several voters from across the county who each had different perspectives and plans for how they’d be voting.

The Door-to-Door Election Battle to Swing an Arizona County

This was a difficult assignment, not for the emotional or interpersonal reasons that usually get me, but because scheduling so many portraits in a short time is just super hard. But I got it done, I met a lot of interesting people and ultimately I think the finished story looks pretty dang good. They even ran some of the moody images I filed expecting them to ignore. Wins all around.

‘I Don’t Want to Go Back’: Many Teachers Are Fearful and Angry Over Pressure to Return

This was a super fast portrait, I got the call to make this about 30 minutes before I arrived on site. Hannah didn’t have long before she had to leave, so I got it done in about 20 minutes. Filed it 10 minutes after that. Zoom!

Should 5-Year-Olds Start School This Year?

This was my first time working for the Parenting desk at the Times. It was super fun the kids were totally amiable and wanted to tell me all about everything. It brought me back to my days training as a reading teacher. I would love to do more work like this, it’s a welcome respite from the darker rougher parts of the news.

Sacred Arizona spring drying up as border wall construction continues

This one was a saga. I was tipped off that something was awry at Quitobaquito by a friend in Ajo. The NYT offered me a day rate to go down there and do some preliminary reporting with no promises that it’d make the paper. I took them up on it, but ultimately they couldn’t take the pitch. So I pitched 22 other outlets, mostly folks I’d worked with before, but no one could take it. Eventually I sent it as a travel pitch (Quitobaquito is after all a beautiful part of the Organ Pipe National Monument) to Nat Geo and while the travel angle was too flimsy to run, the environmental desk was interested and it was off to the races.

They ended up licensing a number of images from my archive and having me go out and make another day’s worth of images. Of course I would have loved to have been there for longer, but given Covid restrictions, it just wasn’t logistically possible.

Doug Main did excellent writing on this historic and dense subject in a very short period of time. I sent him contact info for everyone I know in the area and he did a great job talking to all of them and finding new sources too. I’m really really happy with how my first Nat Geo assignment turned out. Though frankly I’m still haunted by the drying of the pond. I haven’t been able to go back, the thought of seeing it totally dry makes me sick.