The Past: I started my career as a combat photographer in the Army; a cool job for an 18 year old kid. I got a chance to travel the country and the world with a unique behind the scene access to military operations.
After my stint in the military I found I loved photography a lot better than combat so I returned home to get a degree in photography from the Art Institute of Atlanta. I spent a year and a half as a professional photographer in Atlanta with in agent in New York City. I received most of my assignments from New York – I used this relationship as an opportunity to relocate to Los Angeles (my agent had many assignments in most major cities).
In Los Angeles I set up a studio in a loft in the downtown area. These were the good times – living the dream. The good times eventually came to an end with the realization that profits needed to come before my creative desires. This unavoidable moment of clarity caused a mental break. Unable to compromise, unable to use my talents to produce lesser imagery for higher profits I was stuck; frozen unable to pick up a camera without the feeling of deep depression a depression that haunts me to this day nearly ten years later.
A photographer unable to produce photographs is not a good thing. The door was closed on that dream, nothing to do except patiently wait for another door to open. In hindsight that’s funny “patiently waitâ€; those were some pretty dark days – definitely the bad times.
The Present : Another door did eventually open. Unable to produce imagery I still had the ability to distinguish a good photograph from a poorly conceived photo. I still had “the eyeâ€. This “eye†was put to use by the worlds largest producer of imagery as a photo editor covering sports, entertainment and news events around the world. I have covered 4 Super Bowls including the Janet Jackson wardrobe malfunction, 3 Olympics – Salt Lake City, Greece and Turin, 2 World Series, the Lakers 2001 NBA Championship and riot that followed, the Women's World Cup in which Brandy Chastain had her wardrobe malfunction, the Michael Jackson trail in Santa Maria, Ronald Reagan's funeral, 2 Sundance Film Festivals, two Academy and Emmy Awards and many more events over the past 9 years.
The Future: In October I travel to Sao Palo, Brazil to cover final Formula 1 race of the year. In November it’s off to the Persian Gulf to cover the Asian Games in Doha, Qatar for about a month. Then take some time off to see the Fam and then out to Salt Lake City again for Sundance and then down to Miami for the Super Bowl.