Washington, DC and Virginia based documentary photographer Jared Soares +1 816 260 2003 |

Ohana Means Family – Personal Work

March 7, 2012 by admin

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.

Posted in Family and Friends, Personal Work · Tagged Bagoyo, Family, Hawaii, Oahu · 4 Comments

Agenda 21 for The New York Times

February 21, 2012 by admin

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.

Posted in Photojournalism, Published Work · Tagged Agenda 21, ICLEI, Roanoke County, Tea Party, The New York Times, Virginia · Leave a comment

End of the Year Post

December 28, 2011 by admin

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!