My work

Photos: Breaking Barriers – Martin Luther King – Seattle Photographer

My work, Seattle, Still photography, University of Washington, UW Bothell

This week in Breaking Barriers, the McKnight Middle School students prepared for a Martin Luther King, Jr. assembly and selected several of their peers to represent them and speak in front of the school at the assembly.

Breaking Barriers is an outstanding outreach program created by the UW Bothell Diversity Recruitment and Outreach office. Led by UW Bothell administrator Anthony Kelley and McKnight Middle School administrator Arty Christiano, several UW Bothell students run weekly workshops for groups of young male students at McKnight Middle School in Renton, Washington near Seattle. In supporting underrepresented populations, the program ends up working with mainly African American and Latino youth. In total, about 60 middle school students are participating in the program, which aims to develop leadership and communication skills. The program is also designed to transform the culture and teaching practices of the middle school in order to better serve underrepresented populations. It is a unique program and I really like it because it gives a voice to the students in a dialogue about how the school can better support them. I am making photos and filming some of the project, while advising UW Bothell student Amen Mengesha in his production of periodic video updates for the parents and a documentary film that will be finished at the end of the school year. Stay tuned! See photos below and more in this older post.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Photo: Margaret Anderson Memorial | Seattle Photographer

My work, photojournalism, Still photography

Jan. 10, 2012 — Park rangers console each other during a memorial service for Park Ranger Margaret Anderson at Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma, Washington. Anderson was shot and killed while working at Mount Rainier National Park on New Year’s Day. She is survived by two small children and a husband, Eric, who is also a park ranger at Mount Rainier. Shot for Zuma Press.

Photos: Quechua Women in Ayacucho and more – Peru’s History of Political Violence

My work, photojournalism, Still photography, Travel

Below: Quechua women chew coca and keep watch over the expansive hills around Ayacucho, Peru. It was in these hills and in the city of Ayacucho that the Maoist guerrilla movement known as the Shining Path was born.

September 12, 2012 will mark the 20th anniversary of the capture of Abimael Guzmán, founder and leader of the Shining Path, but the group has yet failed to completely disappear. Revitalized with money from its entrance into the cocaine trade, the Shining Path still survives, although Guzmán has proclaimed from his jail cell that the remaining rebels are simple drug traffickers that should not be allowed to claim philosophical affiliation with the Shining Path. As the fight against drugs in neighboring Colombia causes Peru to increase production and become the world’s leading producer of coca, the rebels in the hills are not going anywhere.

 

Below: The city of Ayacucho, Peru.

 

Below: Ayacucho’s future. A young boy stands for a portrait with Ayacucho, Peru in the background.

Peru’s Legacy of Political Violence

My work, photojournalism, Still photography, Travel

Today in Ayacucho, Peru I met Edgar, who has an incredible story. During the era of political violence in the 80’s and 90’s Edgar was accused of being a terrorist by the Peruvian military and was imprisoned for ten years. He was tortured. His mother did not know where he was, or if he was going to return. Many others were not as lucky as his mother, Ilda Marina, who did see her son return. But Edgar was in bad shape upon release. Not only did he endure a horrible ten years, but he was also later diagnosed with schizophrenia. He is now doing much better, thanks largely due to support from the Mental Health Commission of Ayacucho. Below are images of Edgar and his mother. Stay tuned for more images from this story.