Timmy and his dog, carpenter school, and a Reverend

Military Training and community fair...

FC Robert Koczan shows U.S. Army Reserves with the 339th Combat Support Hospital how to properly perform a needle decompression at a Combat Life Saver course at the U.S. Army Reserve Center in Coraopolis. A needle decompression is performed when a victim receives chest trauma and air rushes in and cannot escape, making breathing difficult and shifting the lungs and heart.  Capt. Carl Kusbit, who recently returned home from Iraq, said, "Once I got into Iraq it really struck home, this CLS class becomes extremely important, when a medic goes down, you could be called upon to save a buddies’ life.

These next few are from a community fair. I know I sound like a broken record, but I feel it is so important to shoot using your vision, even if a newspaper would never use it. After all, the personal vision is what has the most influence in all spheres of culture, not just art.

on the street...

This stuff is too much fun... i am particularly fond of this first one, i feel the i pod, cigarette, tie, and stark contrast say a lot. I also like the image of the little hat lady in the midst of all the chinese sauces. This area is called the strip district, and it is about as multicultural as Pittsburgh gets.

EMT, chef, and the park...

The Call, Washington D.C.

An estimated 50,000 people gathered on the National Mall in Washington D.C. for The Call, A twelve hour Christian gathering focused on prayer and fasting. Organizers were calling for the ending abortion, homosexuality, and pornography in America. (Sean Donnelly/Tribune-Review)

Somali video piece online...

check it out here...

2 days with McCain

I followed McCain for two days throughout PA, one of the most important states in the election. Obama has an 8 point lead in the state, and will have a lot of trouble winning the election without winning PA. The amount of image control the campaign is exercising makes these shoots very hard. They tell you where to stand and when to shoot, so it is hard to be creative. This is all a tool of image control, so only the images they want the public to see are created (in front of flags, with the working people.) It is especially hard to get something different, I really like the wink shot and the handshake below. It is also hard to not reference Christopher Morris' work on political campaigns, who photographed this type of control in a subjective and conceptual way.

East African Immigrants

Here are a few shots from a new project on East African Immigrants living in Pittsburgh. Most are from Somalia and fled the 16 year civil war there. I am trying to focus the project on the idea of home, and how it is created in a new place. This project will also utilize a lot of video.

Young Marine Multimedia Piece!!!!

click here...

Young Marines at home

these are portraits of children involved in the Young Marines program, and I have been photographing the kids without the uniform in their home environment to get a different perspective.

randoms