Another not wedding post | Philadelphia Photojournalist

I know this is supposed to tell you all about my wedding photography and my thoughts on that subject. However, when good stuff happens elsewhere in my professional life I love to share.

After I left the newspaper world in 2005, I received a prestigious Getty Images Grant for Editorial Photography for a project I proposed about the diversification of American faith and the way that ritual and fellowship form the basis of all faiths regardless of doctrine. I worked on this project in Flushing, NY, the most religiously diverse place in the world. I documented a good number of the various faith and cultural groups there for the project.

This week, 100eyes.org, an online photography magazine published an edit of the project on their new section on Diversity. Please click on the picture to go take a look, leave a comment and share.

Thanks.

Wall Street Journal Assignment | Philadelphia Photojournalist

The other night I shot a fun, if a bit wacky, assignment for the Wall Street Journal. I spent the evening at the Phillies game, yes the one with a 21 run margin of victory, with this guy Zack Hample. Zack's a ballhawker. He chases, catches, begs for, finds or otherwise gets his hands on Major League baseballs during and before games. I have to admit I'm not much of a baseball fan, I just don't get it so this I really don't get. But one of the cool things about being a journalist is the chance to get access into all sorts of unexpected places, subcultures and meet a vast array of people and learn just a bit about a passion or their place in the world. The story, which touches on some of the "controversial" aspects of the ballhawking subject, and the pictures are {here}.

(Update: If you see the print edition please forgive the edit staff at the WSJ, that picture they published is NOT mine. It's not the strangest thing in the world for commissioned pictures not to get published, as it goes the photography department, and myself, were very happy with the slideshow that did get published online)

And here's a couple outtakes that I liked.

Heartbreakingly good

A new piece on Mediastorm's website, Common Ground, began 14 years ago by Scott Strazzante. Scott and I worked together during my three years with a small newspaper group on the outer reaches of the Chicago suburbs. Scott followed the simple life and ultimate ending of a family farm and then years later came back and followed the life of a family that moved into the subdivision that was built on the farmland. This work, which was also published recently in National Geographic, is hearbreakingly good. In a world where perfection is sought and rarely achieved this is a perfect story. It's told with passion, bravado and heart. I'm proud to say that I worked with Scott, and to have gone to grad school with Mediastorm's President Brian Storm whose passion for photography and storytelling know no bounds. And while you're at the site, check out all the other amazing stories.