As 2011 winds down, I’m happy to have my head above water with this being my first year working as an independent photographer. The challenge of balancing personal work and hustling for assignments has been one that I’ve welcomed and surprisingly enjoyed. With the coming year I’m looking forward to building on the progress that I’ve made in 2011.

These pictures are my favorites- they help me recall how I felt during those moments over the twelve months. Though this is a batch of unrelated images, the sequence makes sense to me and conveys my feelings and mood throughout 2011. I’ve started to move away from single images to thinking about how photographs work together in a sequence.

In October 2010 I started work on a personal project looking at the city of Martinsville, Virginia and how the community is coping with the scar that the departed industries have left behind. This year I decided to stay close to home and immerse myself in the community. If I didn’t have an assignment or a commitment then chances are I was in my car heading south on highway 220 en route to Martinsville. I’ve learned quite a bit from the people this past year but I realize that I’ve only scratched the surface. I’m looking forward to continuing this project in 2012 and learning even more from the people in the community that have invested in me as I have them.

This year assignments and personal work allowed me to explore my home in Southwest Virginia along with neighboring communities in the central part of the state as well as Richmond- the capitol city, Paris, France, Baltimore, Maryland, Kansas City, Missouri, Raleigh, North Carolina, Oakland, California, Atlanta, Georgia, Western Pennsylvania, the Arkansas Delta region, the Ozark Mountains in Arkansas, the Mississippi Delta and the coast of Oregon. Seeing this list of places makes me smile- even though I consider myself a homebody, I really enjoy the travel.

My sincerest gratitude goes to each of the clients and publications that trusted me with their stories- they made the above paragraphs possible. Those that featured my work in 2011 were The AARP Bulletin, The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Marguerite Casey Foundation, Equal Voice News, Bloomberg, Guardian UK, Global Post, The National Post, Getty Images, and Bay Path College. Many thanks to all the editors I had the privilege and pleasure of working with this year- your assignments have helped fund my personal work and for that I’m grateful.

Also, a big thank you to all my friends, family, mentors and colleagues.

I’ll see you on the other side of 2012.

Happy Holidays!

I’m trying to get used to the idea of travel being a part of my new life as a freelancer. June was a blur filled with ticket counters, couches, hotels, maps, and many late conversations with friends.

Over 100 Romanian Roma are living in the woods near Villeneuve-le-Roi, a suburb of Paris, France. Of the 25 families most hail from Craiova the sixth largest city in Romania. I spent much of my time at the camp playing ping pong and talking with the teenagers about American rap music. Communication was difficult since my Romanian is limited “good day” and “good” but through broken French and English we were able to get our messages across to each other.

Roma encounter daily discrimination from locals and receive threats of deportation from police. In addition to that they also face many challenges including finding clean water, keeping shelters warm during the winter, and enrolling their children in school just to name a few. To view a wider selection please go to my archive by clicking here.

Call it funny or ironic but when I was working at the newspaper I always hated having to drive to Martinsville. The drive was at least an hour down a curvy US 220 South and the city is just big enough that you can easily get lost if you don’t have a good sense of direction. But, I would always leave Martinsville happy after my newspaper assignments because I would always get the chance to meet people who were warm and also quite open about having their stories told.

Last fall/winter I was making at least a trip or two a week to Martinsville to visit a few people and to listen to their stories. The drive is still long but I’m anxious to return back to Virginia to continue this project and to catch up with M. Shadus, Leonard, Brandon, Jay, and Tony along with their families.

copyright The Roanoke Times

You probably saw me on a Friday night working the sidelines of a high school football game or waiting for a moment at a festival. With cameras slung over each shoulder and a notebook in my back pocket, I did my best to cover my community. For the last four years I worked as a newspaper photographer.

copyright The Roanoke Times

As a young photographer, the daily grind of a newspaper was my classroom. I was fortunate to have great teachers in each newsroom that spent time with me to help me grow as a photojournalist and as a person. I learned how to reassure a subject of a portrait who might be a little reluctant. I learned that it’s not about my photography and that I need to let the people speak for themselves. I learned that moments are gifts. I learned that my life needs balance in order to be a compassionate photographer.

copyright The Roanoke Times

I’ve witnessed both tragedy and new beginnings.

copyright The Roanoke Times

I’ve tapped my staff mates on their shoulders and asked if they could take a look at a pre-edit. I’ve complained with them over beers about the way a photo was cropped in print. I’ve sat on the couch with them and had a laugh while cutting out photos for the clip contest before it went digital. I’ve stood by my editor during design meetings when we petitioned for a lede photo. Sometimes we got our way and sometimes we didn’t. Still, we cared and we understood that the story was important.

copyright The Roanoke Times

Now I am a  freelance photojournalist. I always thought I would be a newspaper photographer for life. I wanted to be the salty old-timer in the corner of the photo department, who gives directions to assignments by using landmarks that no longer exist. My interests have changed. I love newspapers and I believe in what they stand for. They need to be reinvented.

copyright The Roanoke Times

I will have more time to invest into my personal projects. I will miss the daily banter working alongside everybody on the photo team. Other than coming back with a solid daily photo my favorite part was the nonstop laughter.

Mom at my apartment in Roanoke, Virginia

Great Smoky Mountains National Park

A few favorites from Cap T and Ivy’s Wedding on August 14, 2010.