Portraits
Just continuing to share my latest work from my project: JP Neighbors. This last week has been awesome, getting to know my neighbors a little better and making some new work.
I wanted to get to know my neighbors and create a new body of work so I started a portrait project in my neighborhood of JP. This is one of the first shoots from the project and I can't wait to share more in the next coming weeks.
Over the last few years I have worked with an organization called Flashes of Hope that hires photographers on a volunteer basis to photograph sick children in Boston area hospital. I have photographed many children with life-threatening diseases, but no matter what the situation was, it has always been an amazing sight to see just how strong and resilient these children (and their parents) are in sometimes, the most dire of circumstances.
A couple of days ago I felt very privileged to witness an event I had never seen before while doing this kind of work. A little girl was given the news that she was finally well enough to go home after undergoing a major medical procedure.
Most of the children I photograph are usually too sick to move out of their beds, but this little girl was quite the exception and I certainly got my workout trying to keep up with her when only month's ago she could barely walk.
The nurses surprised her with streamers strewn across her hospital room door way she got to run through to mark her triumphant leave
What made this shoot also kind of special was that this little girl had received over 3,500 get well cards since Christmas from complete strangers after her desire for Christmas cards got out in the news over the holiday season.
That smile and infectious little voice filled with laughter certainly made my day.
Isabella Pecorari, a senior at MIT who is an aspiring med student began her fascination with science with an insatiable interest in biology. She is now working with several organizations around campus helping people with brain injuries and working with a student-run organization called, Peer Ears in which under Pecorari's leadership hosts dorm-wide study breaks that addresses common mental health issues students in college face. After a horse riding accident in her sophomore year in college left Pecorari in the hospital with a broken back in five different places, she had a new respect for being a patient and wants to become a doctor after graduation this year from MIT.
I got to learn a little bit about Yazmin Guzman after spending time with her during a portrait session for MIT News recently. This MIT dual bachelors and masters program major in urban studies and education is determined to change the academic landscape to provide educational opportunities to all K-12 students. She holds her Mexican heritage close and hopes to bring her past experiences with language and socio economic inequalities she saw as a student in elementary school and continues to see today to effect positive change as a teacher. Here is the story
This portrait shoot of Anjali Misra was one of my last assignments for late 2017. Anjali who is a senior majoring in brain and cognitive sciences also works as an MIT campus EMT. She was just awarded the Mitchell Scholarship to pursue a masters in public health at University College Cork in Ireland before returning back to the states to pursue her degree in medicine.
I recently got to spend a little time in BU's new Build Lab with Gerald Fine, who leads, and helped create, ENG’s Engineering Product Innovation Center (EPIC), and has been named executive director of Innovate@BU, a $20 million University-wide initiative giving all students the opportunity to engage in solving real-world problems and hands-on innovation.
I was commissioned recently to photograph a tour for Sappi Fine North America paper company for their annual sustainability report as some of the company's executives walked through one of their site locations in North Falmouth, Maine. Working with this company over the last few years I have learned just how committed they are to educating the public about their involvement with the foresters they partner with that maintain these lands in an effort to maintain forest health while generating revenue.
These are some outtakes from my time last week with professor Armando Solar-Lezama for MIT News. Solar-Lezama recently earned his tenure after teaching at the school for seven years. His road to MIT was not an easy one but after developing a new computer language called Sketch he was offered to teach at MIT.
I recently photographed Billy Ndengeyingoma for MIT News on a profile piece about the civil engineer turned urban planner who is seeking to improve affordable housing in Africa and more specifically in his home city of Kigali, Rwanda. Billy is certainly an inspiring guy that is already using his education from MIT to give back to his community.
It's always fun when you can get your subject to bust out in a little laughter
Last weekend I attended the Bluegrass on the Bogs festival (in one of the most unlikely of places) in Hanson, MA. I had never attended a festival like this one and never associated the Northeast with bluegrass music, but was certainly curious after my father casually mentioned a few weeks ago that he was going to camp out on Camp Kiwanee where the festival was being held. I thought it would be a great chance to make some portraits of some of the musicians and fans of the genre alike.
What I found was a group of people that had a lot of heart for a much overlooked genre of music.
Here is a small handful of some of the portraits made.
Bill Kobin, guitarist: "To tell you the truth I hate bluegrass, but I play country though. I'm old, I play old country!"
Gwen Holbrow, bassist for her band, Moonshine Alley: " I love bluegrass! It's so emotional, the lyrics, the tunes; it's about love, death and substance abuse."
Keith Barrette, mandolin player for Highway's End. "I'm on a short road to making some noise and idiomatic to playing mandolin."
Amber Wakley, managing member of Chili Bros. Traveling Medicine Show. "I always feel like bluegrass hits between my stomach and my heart, it makes me so happy."
Jack Meserve, guitar player for Class Action Suits: "Music is a big part of life; it's just something you have to make room for."
Rennie, bluegrass fan: "I'm a listener, my son is the musician, bluegrass is my favorite kind of music."
Whitney Randolph, banjo player for, Miners Creek: "I've been playing for 5 years, so I'm pretty new at it. For me bluegrass is a return to roots. I have a lot of Scots Irish in my blood."
Here is a collection of portraits I made while covering the demolition derby during the end of the summer.
