In January, one of my favorite clients dispatched me to McLean, Virginia to spend some time with Bob Rakes for a story about his experience with skyrocketing insurance premiums. To read Robin Gerber’s story in this month’s issue of The AARP Bulletin that details Rakes’ battle with his long-term care insurance provider please click here.

The April issue of Country Living is out now with a portrait I shot of Texas Tavern owner, Matt Bullington at his downtown Roanoke, Virginia diner. Matt was kind and very generous with his time. The back page layout is fantastic. Get your copy now!

Last month I spent my Leap Day in Nitro, West Virginia, working on a story about the recent $93 million settlement by Monsanto Co., an agricultural biotech company, which will provide medical benefits and professional cleaning of homes to residents that were affected by the chemical plants operations. Nitro, a town of about 7,000, sits along the Kanawha River in a region called Chemical Valley, which was populated by companies making chemicals for paint strippers, pencils and bulletproof vests. In the 1960s, close to 6,000 people worked at the valley’s chemical plants.

To read John W. Miller’s story and to see a photo gallery, click here.

For the past year or so this blog has functioned as a venue to share my assignment work. As a working photographer, I believe it is important to show that I’m able to find visual solutions for clients and that the work is showing up in their publications. However, I also believe that it is just as important to share personal work because it provides a window into why I am a photographer.

Last month I traveled to Hawaii for the first time in 7 years to celebrate my grandparents 60th wedding anniversary and to reconnect with family. It’s hard to believe that so much time had passed since my last visit. Back then I was just getting serious about photography and I didn’t really put the care into making photos of my family because I assumed that I would just be back for a visit the next year. With everyone getting older it is apparent that I need to be more present and active in their lives. 7 years is too long a gap between visits.

During my visit in February, my Auntie Denise asked me why I was taking so many photos and I responded by saying so that I could remember everything. These photographs are for me, they help bring me back to how moments felt. I can smell the salt water. I can hear the laughter in my grandparents’ backyard. I can feel like I’m in the living room surrounded by my cousins. I’ll keep revisiting these photos until I’m back on a plane to Oahu.

Memory is becoming a significant influence on my photography and I want to explore this in both my personal and assigned work.

It is a rare occurrence for me to have an assignment that is only a 5 minute drive away from my home, so when I started to read the description briefing me on the story I couldn’t hide my excitement. The assignment was to cover a Roanoke County Board of Supervisors vote on renewing the county’s membership to the International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives (ICLEI), an international association of local governments and regional local government organizations that is committed to fostering sustainable development. Area Tea Party groups had decided to attend this meeting to take a public stand against ICLEI and it’s link to Agenda 21, an action plan of the United Nations related to sustainable development. The Tea Party view this as a socialist movement.

I’ve lived in Roanoke for almost 5 years and I’ve never had the opportunity to cover a board of supervisors meeting. If there was ever a night to cover one of these meetings this was the night to do it. Almost all of the public seating was taken up by Tea Party members and a small group of citizens that were pro ICLEI. During the public statements section of the meeting, those wishing to speak were given three minutes to state their thoughts and opinions to the board. Some of these talks were filled with passion and made for interesting reaction photographs. However, I spent the majority of the meeting looking for telling moments on the periphery. The in between moment, the situation outside the margin, the stare or the body language that evokes what it feels like to be at this meeting- that’s what I was in search of during the almost four hour meeting.

And for those keeping score, the board decided to keep their membership with ICLEI much to the chagrin of the Tea Party.

To read Leslie Kaufman’s story click here.

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!

Last month I met Don Bright of Midlothian, Virginia while on assignment for AARP Bulletin. Bright, 69, lost his job of 30 years as a maintenance engineer for the Independent Container Line, an international shipping company in Richmond, Va., when his division moved to North Carolina in 2009. He collected unemployment for six months and e was diagnosed with leukemia and needed a year off from his job search for chemotherapy and recovery.

To read Judi Hasson’s story that appears in this month’s AARP Bulletin please click here.

Last Thursday I was talking about plans for a trip to New York City next month with a friend. After exchanging goodbyes, I decided to turn my attention to the mountain of grant applications and contest entry deadlines that are scattered over my desk. Just as I was settling into a working rhythm, my phone started buzzing- it was a New York area code. If you’re a working photographer a call from an NYC area code typically means a commission or an assignment is coming your way.

I picked up the phone and immediately said I was available. The editor told me that they needed me to get to Blacksburg, Virginia because two people had been shot on the campus of Virginia Tech and the suspect had not been identified or apprehended yet. My heart sunk, this was the first that I had heard of this situation and I hoped that this would not be a copycat of 2007. With instructions from the editor I headed to Blacksburg.

When I arrived, the entire campus was on lockdown. Tactical units from neighboring counties and cities patrolled the sidewalks and buildings where students would normally be milling around. It was eerie to be walking around the sprawling campus alone. Media outlets from across the state began to trickle in as minutes passed. Later it would be reported that Deriek Crouse, 39, a Virginia Tech police officer, was killed during a traffic stop on the Virginia Tech campus by a Radford University student, Ross Truett Ashley, 22, who soon after killed himself.

Please follow the coverage of my former co-workers at The Roanoke Times by clicking here.

To see more of my coverage for Getty Images please click here.

After attending a Citizens for a Better Greenville parents meeting a local restaurant, I was able to spend part of an evening with Robert Holloway at his home. The 21 year old Holloway was able to reach to 11th grade and then he was pushed out. He now works as a meter reader for an electrical company. To find out the path that lead Robert to be pushed please read Kathy Mulady’s story by clicking here.

During a recent trip back to Kansas to visit my parents I was able to fit in an assignment that involved spending part of a day with Paul Lillig, a home designer, who specializes in making homes more comfortable and safer for seniors and people living with disabilities. To read DeAnn Smith’s story please click here.