Hypepotamus Magazine

In this assignment for Aha! Strategy, I captured the personality and work environment of the Founder for the launch of her Civic Dinners initiative. The feature was for a Hypepotamus article. The shoot involved a mixture of natural and artificial light in studio and on location at a private residence.

The revelatory memoir by former “poster girl for Scientology” Michelle LeClair about her defection from the Church, her newly accepted sexual identity, and the lengths to which Scientology went to silence it.

I photographed this cover sequence at Park Studios in Atlanta. I worked to produce deep shadows with careful attention to the subject matter and curiosity in tone of the book.

Devised creative brief and visual style for capturing the stories of a diverse group of Georgians. Coordinated photography, videography, copywriting, travel and equipment across 4 cities to ensure the timely delivery of the project within budget. Presented final project to leadership team including photo and video.

A two-week photo documentary of the last week of Ramadan in Senegal. My assignment was to capture the worship, culture and daily lives of working people. I had to build trusting relationships and a ground team to support translation, access and security.

Typical American Families

This year-long project was to capture Atlanta area families sharing stories of faith, hope, challenge and courage. They spoke from their own unique perspectives about transracial adoptions, raising other-abled children, same gender loving partnerships, inter-racial marriage, incarceration, single-parenthood, as well as Christian, Muslim, Jewish, and agnostic world views. 

Commissioned by One Region Atlanta

We Need More

Verizon asked me to interview and photograph middle school students about their future career choices as part of the Verizon Foundation's initiative to expose minority males to STEM careers. Many of these boys face peer pressure and lack educational enrichment opportunities that keep them from reaching their full potential. This project really hit home for me since before becoming a photographer I was an electrical engineer. For the shoot, we were in a time crunch so I had to quickly relate to the subjects and capture their personalities within a few minutes each. I also wrote and article to summarize the conference and the experience. 

Commissioned by Verizon

Dr. Jaman is working to shift her brand from fitness to lifestyle. Highlighting the Forever21 brand, I produced an editorial shoot at Pink Coco and Sunrise Resort on Gili Air Island, Indonesia.

SUP Yoga instructor TJ Mangrum wanted to expand her brand to include professional appearances, brand representation and weekly podcast. I worked with TJ to produce a portfolio of images to use in social media and print. The shoot at Morgan Falls spanned sunrise to midday in order to take advantage of the naturally changing color temperatures.

I Am a Coder

People who love to code are as different as the things they invent. Verizon asked me to creatively direct and shoot for a campaign featuring diverse programmers from across the U.S. I interviewed students and professionals about how they became coders and photographed the images in the subjects' natural environment. This solo project presented fun improvisation challenges from access to weather to lighting. 

Portraits of Empowerment

For this assignment I traveled to Burundi East Africa to highlight the success of the microfinance savings group program of Five Talents in partnership with the Mother's Union. I used mostly available light since I had to travel light through rough terrain to reach some of the villages. 

Portrait of a Refugee Farmer

For this project, I was selected by the Emory University Center for Ethics to use art to highlight social issues in Atlanta. I partnered with Global Growers to create inviting images of refugee farmers from Myanmar, Bhutan, Burundi, and Burma. For a full semester, I led a team of eight Emory students on a journey to learn how to conduct a photographic ethnography project with social sensitivity and location research. I split the group into roles based on their strengths and interests to include videographers, photographer assistants, location scouts and translators/interviewers.

Commissioned by Emory University and Southwest Airlines

Community2Community (C2C) is a non-profit service organization created to give Haitian earthquake victims a place to come together and share their expertise in a variety of areas – from education to medicine and from carpentry to communications – toward C2C’s goal of establishing lasting change in Haïti, and ultimately, other communities ravaged by chaos.

Strong Families

In this project I had to produce a powerful visual to highlight blood and chosen families throughout Georgia. The resulting exhibit for legislators was to exemplify that there is no typical American family and policies must reflect the state’s diversity. 

Commissioned by Feminist Women's Health Center and Forward Together

Back II Basics

I produced clean images of foundational yoga poses for International Yogi Dr. Sanaa Jaman. Her e-book, Back II Basics, focuses on modifications and advanced poses. An avid yogi myself, it's an honor to collaborate with other professionals.

A Home in Haiti is a movement of people around the world that are looking to provide permanent housing to orphans. The Miriam Center, located in St. Louis Du Nord, houses and educates Haitian children with cerebral palsy, severe autism and other major life challenges–one of the only facilities of its kind in Haiti. I was commissioned to photograph a marketing campaign capturing inhabitants of the town from the earthquake.

The Yoga of Travel

For this project I traveled to Barbados to capture the asana practice of international yogi, Dr. Chelsea Jackson Roberts. This article focused on philosophical yoga lessons that Chelsea shared off the mat through her cultural exploration of the island.