Seattle, Washington.
May 2012.

Anna is kind and quiet. She is a brilliant designer. John is just ridiculous and he builds the coolest sculptures. They bring so much joy to everyone they meet. At least that’s my take on them.
I can’t express how excited I am to photograph their wedding in August. It will be a blast.

Seattle, Washington.
April 2012. 

Naomi is probably the person I’ve photographed the most besides my family. I love this girl.
And yes, that last frame is my favorite.

This week I worked on a promo for an event coming up at SPU called Equilibrium.  The event is an advocacy campaign about social inequalities, featuring several visual art pieces from local artists and live music from The Cellar Door, Erin Wirth, and potentially a few other musicians. There will also be a screening of a short film that our team is producing.

Equilibrium is taking place on Thursday, May 10th. It’s gonna be good. If you’re on campus, be there.

Olalla, Washington.
April 2012.

This summer Within Broken Borders is going back to the Middle East to create a second film that takes a deeper look at the conflict. Our small team will spend a month in Israel and the West Bank meeting people, partnering with some established organizations, and filming away. I’m thrilled to spend a whole month filming, taking photographs, and writing stories. In order to make this film possible our team is currently seeking support and funding. We need to raise enough for our travel expenses as well as the costs for making and distributing the film. I would love it if you would consider supporting our project.

Here are two ways to get involved.
1) Buy a print. I’ve created a gallery of images that are for sale. All profits will go straight towards funding our project. So buy a cool print to hang on your wall and help us get to the Middle East! You can find the gallery here.

2) Pledge to fund our Kickstarter. Today we launched our campaign on Kickstarter. We need to raise $5000 by May 2nd. Here’s how it works. You decide how much you want to give. If we reach $5000 in pledges by our deadline we get the donations and you get cool gifts from us (a postcard, copy of the film, etc). If we can’t reach $5000 by the deadline, our team doesn’t get anything. Even by giving a small amount you can help us reach our goal. Check out our Kickstarter page here.

Over the next few months I will be sharing more about the project. Until then if you have any questions or want to learn more about the Israel-Palestine conflict, just email me!

2) I have some really exciting news to share on Monday.  A new project is coming up.If you follow me on twitter, you might have figured it out by now. But if not, just wait. Good things are coming!

3) I wanted to share something a bit different. I helped make a short promo video recently. These three women have designed a business called Tesfa Netela that works with Ethiopian women who have obstetric fistula. Through a year long program these women will receive education, training and physical rehabilitation so they are more able to rejoin their community. The program will be funded by the creating and selling of scarves that the women will weave while they are in the program.

At this point Tesfa Netela is still just on paper. It is a project created for SPU’s Social Venture Competition. However hopefully it could be a reality in the future and I’m so insanely proud of these three and all of the work they’ve put into it. Take a look!

Ocean City, Maryland.
March 2012. 

This is Katie. She laughs a lot and might be the most energetic and optimistic person I know.
Katie just got back from 6 months of working at a medical clinic in South Sudan. Basically she is really cool and I’m so glad we are friends.

• Thursday I woke up at 4am to get to SEA on time. Treated myself to a copy of The Economist and a disposable camera once I got past security. Two flights and an hour long shuttle ride later I made it to the conference and was tackled with a big hug from Whitney, a friend from Tennessee I haven’t seen in over a year.

• I attended the student practicum. Visited a ranch to wander, take photos, and eat dinner with the other students and instructors. Quickly learned that it would be difficult to be a gluten-free vegetarian in Texas.

• Friday morning was spent in the Stockyards having some wonderful conversations and trying to find a story to tell through photos for my student practicum assignment.

• Guess who ended up tripping over the sidewalk and into the middle of the street? This girl. Tore a hole through my jeans, gave myself a few good bruises and scrapes, and I made a few great first impressions. 

• Took lots of notes while listening to Garrett Hubbard, Brad Moore, Matt Jones, Lisa Krantz, and Alex Garcia. So many good words. Each session I felt myself being stretched and challenged in a new way.
• Went to a 24-hour diner after Friday night’s session with about 30 other people. Made some new friends and laughed a lot. We ate lots of Southern food this weekend…

• Had the opportunity to share and talk about 6 images from the project I’ve been working on for the past few months. Until this week, no one had seen any of the images. I received some positive feedback and I’m excited to share more soon!

• I sat down and talked with two professionals I very much admire. Had my work critiqued and talked about areas I can grow in. Just talked about what I’m passionate about and sought advice for what to do after graduation.
• Shot some film on my disposable camera.

• Things I was reminded of: Practice the art of storytelling. Focus on telling the story rather than being worried about creating the most beautiful photograph. Patience is key, so slow down, shoot less and be more intentional. Recognize your strengths and realize that you aren’t going to be the best fit for every situation. Which means you can’t compare yourself to your peers. Love people more and get to know them. It’s all about people.

So much to process through after this weekend. I’m getting there slowly but surely. After these four days I’m walking away recognizing my weak areas when it comes to visual storytelling, but I am also so encouraged and excited to keep moving forward. This time next year I’ll be back in Texas, hopefully with more experience and ready to learn the next step.

Now I’m at the gate, passing time with this week’s issue of The Economist, really wishing this granola bar in my hand would magically turn into a cup of just straight caffeine. It’s starting to hit me how ridiculous this all is.

I’m off to spend the next four days in Dallas. I’m thrilled to be participating in the Southwestern Photojournalism Conference this year. It was such a blessing 2 weeks ago when I found out a scholarship would be able to help me attend. I’ll be spending Thursday and most of Friday in a workshop with 20 other students before the main conference begins Friday evening.

Some great people will be speaking this year.  I’m most excited to hear from Lisa Krantz (and hopefully meet her!).  Lisa’s work is inspiring. The other morning I spent an hour sifting through her galleries.  The story Saving Zaid is beautifully done and almost had me in tears. Go look at it.

Honestly I’m not sure what to expect out of this weekend, but I’m just going to jump right in, make some new friends, and learn whatever I can. And hopefully get to enjoy the Texas sun a bit.  It’s a high of 82 in Dallas, definitely beats 45 and rainy in Seattle.

If I get the time I might post a few updates through the weekend, if not look out for one next week!  There will be plenty of photos, including a few from the disposable camera I just picked up. This should be good.

Post-graduation life, option #11: get a van (preferably one like this), drive around the US hearing people’s stories and photographing their lives.

I’ve walked by this van so many times before. Finally took a few photos of it today.

That Alice in Wonderland illustration on the window mixed with the sunshine today has me daydreaming a bit.