Monocle: Washington D.C.
I've spent the better part of the past two weeks in Washington D.C. photographing for Monocle. The assignment was to photograph an assortment of foreign faces in Washington D.C. It was a random and diverse group of individuals including the ambassadors to Estonia and Serbia, the manager of the Canadian Embassy, a handful of journalists, a Kurdistan government representative, the Egyptian military attache' and many more. I'll post imagery soon. The photographs will be in the 'Expo' section of Monocle's October 2010 issue. It's my favorite part of the magazine, so I was obviously thrilled and flattered to have been asked to do it.Sea Change Exhibition
The photo above is being featured in the group exhibition, 'Sea Change.' It's part of the Wassaic Summer Festival which examines our complicated relationship with animals and the environment in the wake of the greatest environmental disaster in American history, the British Petroleum oil spill. I'm one of 25 photographers featured in this exhibition.
More information on the show can be found here.Photo District News: Interview with Kira Pollack, Director of Photography at Time Magazine
In the July 2010 issue of Photo District News (PDN), Kira Pollack (Director of Photography at Time and former senior photo editor at The New York Times Magazine) is interviewed about her new post and also about the changing editorial photo world. She graciously mentions my name. You can read that excerpt here.Bill Dixon, 1925-2010
On April 21, 2008, I drove up to North Bennington, Vermont to photograph the avant-garde jazz trumpeter and composer, Bill Dixon.
I spent the entire day with Bill, and his partner Sharon, at their home. Without question, my time with them, and the photographs created that day, stand out one of the best experiences of my young career. Bill was so full of life and youthful energy, I never would've guessed his actual age. I was treated to lunch at a local deli and sent me off with one of his screen-prints and a collection of his recent recordings. I left feeling very full.
Bill Dixon passed away at his home on June 16th. I heard the news while, curiously, in Vermont again for work. He is the first individual I've photographed to have passed away. It brings new appreciation, not only to the time he so graciously extended to me, but to the photographs that survive him.
Read more here.
EFE24 #1, Barrios
EFE24 is a Madrid based photography journal. Their first issue was just released on the theme of barrios (neighborhoods) and they included a photograph of mine in it. The image is of the back of my grandmother's home in Chicago. My family is inside the glowing window having dinner. A fence had recently been constructed between my grandmother and her neighbor because they weren't getting along. I didn't help matters.
Time Magazine: The Innocence Project
The Innocence Project has used DNA evidence to free 254 falsely convicted men and women from death row since 1992. Co-director, Barry Scheck (Above, third from left)is redefining how prosecutors, defenders and jurors approach their roles in and out of the courtroom.
The Innocence Project has taken on an unlikely client in Claude "Butch" Jones, an alcoholic and an armed robber who once, while serving time in Kansas for murder, doused another inmate with lighter fluid and in the words of his own defense attorney, 'torched him." In 2000, Jones was scheduled to be executed by the state of Texas for the alleged 1989 murder of a liquor store (above photo, second from left) owner in Point Blank, Texas. Jones' trial(The jury box in Coldspring, Texas is above far right) was quick. Two eyewitnesses, who couldn't identify Jones, but saw a beer belly and a gray jogging shirt, both of which could have belonged to Jones, testified that Jones was guilty. There was a single hair found on the counter of the liquor store which was examined under a microscope and was found in the words of the state's crime-lab expert to have "matched" Jones'.
Not long after Jones' conviction, a new mitochondrial-DNA test came into use that could've identified the hair with far more certainty than the microscope analysis, a technique that remains largely unchanged since it was first used in 1861. From death row, Jones appealed to have the hair tested using the new DNA testing. Then Governor, George W. Bush denied Jones' petition for a stay of execution. Jones' request had very bad timing. His petition came in the middle of the Florida recount fight after the 2000 presidential election. Bush's legal team sent him a brief on the case, but it neglected to even mention the possibility of a new DNA test. Jones became the 152 and final inmate executed during Bush's tenure.
The hair however still exists and in 2004 the prosecution's star witness recanted his testimony, saying "I took a deal because I was scared and I testified as to what they told me to say." Although already executed, the existence of the hair has now made Jones a perfect client for the Innocence Project. The one inch hair has become the subject of a three-year-long battle between The Innocence Project and San Jacinto County's District Attorney Bill Burnett (pictured above far left). Scheck is fighting out of principle, to further declare the importance of proper testing in hopes of reaching the truth and exonerating those wrongly accused. Burnett is simply eager to close the book on the only death sentence his county has ever handed down. The controversy continues.Jonathan Ross for Weekend (Guardian U.K.)
Here's the cover story I worked on for Weekend (Guardian U.K.) of Jonathan Ross.
You can read the article here.Assignments for Dwell, Time, Wired, ARS, Art + Auction and Weekend (Guardian):
Fortunately, I've been quite busy lately (12 assignments in the past two weeks).
I just traveled to Connecticut to photograph a feature story for Dwell (photos above). Time Magazine asked me to do a two part story (one assignment in New York and the other in Texas) on The Innocence Project. I photographed the American architect and designer David Rockwell for Wired Magazine I just photographed the artist Ghada Amer for the new Madrid based art publication, ARS. Art + Auction asked me to photograph art collector Richard Feigen at his home in Manhattan. I flew to North Carolina recently to photograph a cover story of Britian's legendary Jonathan Ross for The Guardian:Weekend.
Kara Walker and Tom Sachs in ARS (Spain):
The current issue of the new Spanish art publication ARS contains my photos of artists Kara Walker and Tom Sachs.
Sight Unseen
My project For Better, For Worse was just featured on Sight Unseen, the new web project of former I.D. Magazine editors Monica Khemsurov and Jill Singer. You can read the feature here.
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