Winter Card

It's time for my favorite personal project of the year, my family's annual Winter Card!  The card was concepted and art directed by my talented wife Sarah Claxton. The goal was a dark and moody scene reminiscent of a Vermeer painting.  This has spawned a portrait series I'm working on in the same lighting style.

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Caregivers - AARP

I photographed Earl Harvey for AARP Magazine for an article about more men becoming caregivers to their aging parents.  Earl works in publishing in Philadelphia but lives in his family's home in Atlantic City where he cares for his mother.  He is a very interesting and sweet man; and I enjoyed visiting with him.

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Studio Sorg

I was in my old home city of Chicago recently shooting an interiors project for a client.  While there I got to spend a really fun afternoon with my friend and fellow photographer Brian Sorg.  I couldn't help but do some environmental portraits of him in his Bucktown studio as part of my To Each His Own Place series.

AARP Portraits

Alan Ward is a retired baker, photographer, and lover of old trucks.  I had a great time spending the day with him and photographing him for AARP Magazine.  Check out the article here.

Great Teachers Equal a Bright Future!

On A recent commercial shoot for the NEA (National Education Association) I traveled to an elementary school in the DC suburbs.  This school was a model for what I think a school should be, including the fact that students are taught in both English and Spanish.  I was honored to meet and photograph 15 members of the faculty and staff.  It made me want to be a kid in class again because the way the taught made learning seem so fun! The project was to photograph real teachers in their own classrooms and school.  We photographed 15 people over two days, it was pretty hectic.  Knowing that there are teachers like this educating our children, the future look bright!

Assignment for UCLA Magazine

I photographed this feature interview with Dr. Kay Redfield Jamison for UCLA Magazine.  Dr Jamison is the author of An Unquiet Mind: A Memoir of Moods and Madness as well as the co-founder of UCLA's Mood Disorders Clinic.  She has authored six books and received a MacArthur "genius grant."  She is now a professor of psychiatry at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore.  The space where I photographed her is the very place where the term "making the rounds" originated, as the building is a rotunda where doctors would walk the round hallway to check on patients.

Craters of the Moon

Craters of the Moon National Monument in Southern Idaho is an incredible and barren land.  During the recent wild fires it was made even more so by the ever present haze of smoke from not too far away fires.


Palouse Falls

Palouse Falls is an incredible geological wonder.  I've been going to the falls since I was a kid and they never cease to amaze me.  The main waterfall drops 198 feet (which is higher the the falls in Niagara) down to a serene looking pool that then continues to flow into the Palouse River.    This was the lowest water level I had personally seen here and it allowed me to cross the river above the falls and hike to the upper pool.  It's thrilling to be able to photograph this incredible landscape.

The Natural Beauty of Idaho

It's no wonder Idaho is known as the Gem State.  It is full of beautiful and diverse landscapes and is one of this country's hidden gems.  This series of images were taken near Seven Devil's Lake in central Idaho.  The evergreen forests and clear open skies will keep bringing me back.

Seeing Stars

I've always been interested in astronomy and I was excited to capture images of the night sky and Milky Way while I was on a hiking/camping trip in south-eastern Washington State.  While exploring the bluffs in the starlight I noticed a faint glow in the distance to the north.  I assumed it was the glow from a far off town or city. But when I set up my camera and made the 15 second exposure, I was stunned to see that it was actually the Northern Lights.  I had never seen them in person and didn't realize they occurred so far south.  I was only able to capture a couple of images before they dissipated into a soft pink glow.  I can't wait for the opportunity to experience them again.

Inmate Reunion

Every year Eastern State Penitentiary holds a reunion of former prison employees and even former inmates.  Believe it or not some former residents of ESP are happy to return and share their experiences with the public at a Q and A session.  I suppose since the prison closed down over 40 years ago, there has been enough time and distance for them to handle visiting the place where they were once imprisoned.  I have been doing several ongoing projects with Eastern State, which now a museum and hosts one of the most prestigious haunted houses in the country. Here are portraits of 3 of these former inmates standing in the very place they would have given anything not to be four decades ago.