Instagram@Photoville: Curator Interviews
Press previews for Instagram’s exhibition at Photoville 2014! The Observer and Wired Magazine, among others.
We Are What We Eat: Documenting Dinners Around the World
Wrote this introductory post for PROOF to launch a series of articles written by photographer and writer Matthieu Paley about his journey through our magazine story The Evolution of Diet, where we traced some of the oldest human diets across the most extreme environments for the September 2014 issue of National Geographic Magazine.
Revisiting the Rwandan Genocide: Origin Stories from the Associated Press
Interviewed AP photographers Jean-Marc Bouju and David Guttenfelder as well as former AP senior editor Sally Stapleton for the kick-off PROOF post of a multi-part series published on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the Rwandan genocide. More about the news feature story here.
Vox Media: Featured Creator
Brief origin story on my journey in photography by Vox Media for Microsoft OneDrive. Terribly surreal to be on the other side of the camera for once.
Tim Hetherington Grant Jury 2013
Served on the 2013 jury for the Tim Hetherington Grant, a joint initiative by World Press Photo and Human Rights Watch to honor Tim’s legacy with a grant to finish a photography project with a human rights theme. Photographer Olivier Jobard is unanimously selected to continue his project, “Dream of a Rain of Perfume”.
Celebrating the Courage of Children in Rajasthan
Latest blog post for PROOF featuring Stephanie Sinclair’s mobile phone GIF portraits of Indian boys and girls who refused their child marriages, the latest update in Stephanie’s continuing project, Too Young to Wed.
BJP: Around the World in 125 Years
Joined Director of Photography Sarah Leen and Deputy Director of Photography Ken Geiger in conversation with Olivier Laurent of the British Journal of Photography for an interview on the 125th anniversary photo issue of National Geographic.
Photography as Advocacy: Origins of a Journey
Wrote for PROOF to feature the archival images of Marcus Bleasdale that lead up to his new color story on conflict minerals in the Democratic Republic of Congo we worked on together for National Geographic’s Special Photography Issue, October 2013. .
The Photographers on Photography
Honored to author one of PROOF’s inaugural launch posts, debuting a project I’ve been working on all year long. Read about it here.
Look3 Festival of the Photograph Education Week
Taught an official class for Look3 Festival of the Photograph as part of Education Week. From the course description: It’s Not A Firehose: Curating your Content Across Multiple Platforms Pamela Chen, Senior Photo Editor, National Geographic magazine How can photographers navigate the landscape of today’s digital publishing world without losing their souls? This session is ...
Burn Magazine Emerging Photographer Fund
Juror with Olivia Arthur, Christopher Anderson and Monica Allende for the 2013 Emerging Photographer production grant supported by the Magnum Foundation. Congratulations to the winning grantee Diana Markosian for her essay ‘My Father The Stranger’; three minor grants to: Iveta Vaivode for her essay ‘Somewhere on Disappearing Path’, Oksana Yushko for her essay ‘Balklava: The Lost History’ and Maciej Pisuk for his essay ‘Under The Skin. Photographs From Brzeska Street’. ...
New York Times Portfolio Review
Participated in the New York Times Lens Blog’s first Portfolio Review as a reviewer from National Geographic Magazine. Truly a great event and was nice to be reunited with so many familiar faces, and to meet new friends and see new work.
New York Times Magazine Instagram Voyages
Excited to go on assignment as an iPhone photographer for the New York Times Magazine’s annual Voyages issue.
2013 Shorty Awards
I was a part of our small team as we experimented with a new model for Instagram in 2013 where the magazine photographers post unfiltered photo dispatches from the field on Instagram, and it won @natgeo the award for Best Overall Brand Presence on Instagram at the 2013 Shorty Awards. Congrats to all! Support team members: Robert Michael ...
2013 Special Olympics World Winter Games
Joined the professional volunteer documentary team shooting, editing, and producing alongside staff media coverage of the 2013 Special Olympics World Winter Games in Pyeongchang, South Korea. At the foot of the 2018 Olympic ski jump, Pyeongchang South Korea. iPhone photo by Nick Scott
100 Gallons: UNC Powering a Nation 2012
Had the pleasure of serving as a coach for the talented crew of students at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s Powering a Nation special report. You can see the resulting feature video-slash-launchpad to more content here: www.100gallons.org. From the site: “”100 Gallons” explores how our most critical resource goes far beyond traditional ...
Street Popcorn
A migrant worker family in Shanghai supplements their wages selling popcorn on the streets every evening, knocking open a heated pressurized vessel filled with rice and corn kernels as a customer braces for the explosion. (POYi 64 Magazine Feature Picture, second place)
Inside and Out
Wilderness scientists practice survival skills and living off the land in the forests on Lake Champlain, Vermont, including the complete skinning of a bobcat with a knife made from a piece of obsidian rock. The bobcat had been struck and killed by traffic on the nearby highway.
A path to friendship
A drug user waits for local outreach workers who visit the slums outside Phnom Penh, Cambodia, every week to distribute basic medical supplies and promote harm reduction.
LUCEO Images Student Project Award 2012
Juror for the 2012 LUCEO Images Student Project Award, a grant made by LUCEO Images in support of a student long-term photographic project. Congratulations to Alena Zhandarova:
Alexia Foundation Website Redesign
Served as supervising producer for the brand and website redesign of the Alexia Foundation, working with the talented design and development team of Mike Schmidt, Jody Sugrue, and Tom Jackson. Alexia’s mother and co-founder, Aphrodite Tsairis, welcomes all to the new site, the first redesign in the 20-year history of the foundation’s continuous support for documentary photography projects. ...
69th Pictures of the Year International
Damon Winter/The New York Times Honored to be included in the 69th Pictures of the Year International awards. Sky Cowboys was one of three pieces comprising Damon Winter’s winning Multimedia Portfolio of the Year. Too Young to Wed by Stephanie Sinclair places second for Issue Reporting Multimedia Story. Too Young to Wed by Stephanie Sinclair
Digital Ellies: National Magazine Awards 2012
Honored to be included in Wired Magazine’s win for Design: National Magazine Award for Digital Media 2012, for its Underworld Issue, February 2011 on the iPad. Presented by the American Society of Magazine Editors (ASME). Original music and sound design for the iPad video cover of the magazine.
Let a Monkey Be Your Guide
If we are about to lose our balance, maybe it is better to jump than fall. (China)
The Sky Cowboys
Sound design and additional reporting for the New York Times Magazine from original recordings and interviews with the iron workers atop the Freedom Tower in the making. Photographs by Damon Winter. The images and soundscape were part of the Magazine’s commemorative series for the ten-year anniversary of September 11, 2001, and was also exhibited in ...
Life is Like a Zebra Crossing
Maybe running away from the truth only finds you alone with it in a faraway place. (China)
School of Visual Arts: Multimedia for Photographers
Adjunct Instructor, Fall 2010-Spring 2011 for the School of Visual Arts’ MPS Digital Photography Program Introduction to Multimedia.
Monster’s Breath
A cold sunrise reveals the lake monster’s breath. (Sunrise on the lake at Shelburne Farms, a national historic landmark in Vermont.)
Wired Magazine: Issue #19.02
Eva Midgley introduces issue 19.02 of Wired magazine, with a short film based on the theme, Underworld. The magazine promised to expose the world’s largest social network, organized crime and offered a guided tour to the dark side. Eva interpreted the theme under water, creating a murky, ominous, yet beautiful atmosphere, in which you never ...
International Center of Photography
Instructor for Full-time Programs, Documentary Photography and Photojournalism. From the course description: This course integrates visual communication skills with sound, voice, and narrative storytelling and presentation. Students expand their visual vocabulary, learn the core principles of audio storytelling, integrate their vision and style with multimedia tools, and combine their photography with sound to create a ...
New York Times: The Vanishing Mind
For the New York Times’ ongoing series, The Vanishing Mind, focusing on global efforts to combat dementia, music composition for a story set in South Korea: Children Ease Alzheimer’s in Land of Aging by Pam Belluck, photography/video by Todd Heisler, produced by Nancy Donaldson and Soo-Jeong Kang.
FotoWeek DC: International Awards Competition
Served as a juror for FotoweekDC 2010 International Awards Competition, Multimedia Division.
New York Times Magazine: Beauty of the Power Game
I was commissioned to score music to film for the New York Times Magazine August 2010, in a series of videos capturing in bullet time the women of professional tennis, shot and directed by Dewey Nicks on phantom cameras, produced by the New York Times Magazine (full credits). Watch the videos, See the photos, Read ...
Maine Media Workshops
Instructor for Multimedia Production at the Maine Workshops. From the course description: Storytelling is at the heart of multimedia. Developing compelling narratives increases the odds that viewers engage documentary content and remember it. For this workshop, students bring previously shot multimedia pieces and work directly with industry professionals to shape and craft their stories. Students ...
Eighty-six Years Ago
Xie Xianglong, 99, and his wife eat lunch in the same house they have been living in since they were married in 1943, nestled in the remote mountains in Jiangxi province, China. The mountains here are hailed as the birthplace of the Red Army. Xianglong met the future Chairman when he was 13 years old. ...
Monks Prefer Nokia
Things that transcend time, place and language: music, monks, the World Cup… (A monk walks through a neighborhood outside of Phnom Penh, Cambodia.)
The Railroad Village
Runners barefoot sprint through black mud against sheet metal as the stench of the open sewage rises. “Who lives here?”, I ask him. “Those without a choice,” he replies. (along the tracks)
Cilantro Hating in the Blogosphere
My aggressive opinion of cilantro makes a guest appearance in food writer Regina Schrambling’s Epicurious blog. Read it here.
Draw the Dragons, Dot the Eyes
The most life-like strokes of a subtle portrait come from the eyes. In the drawing of dragons, it must not be done, lest they fly away from the wall into the sky. (Chinese proverb)
Three Women
Role: photographer From the Project Description: Three Women is a work of fiction. I wrote a script and I directed actors. But for me, these stories are also true. They tell the story of women in pain who struggle to make sense of their lives. Photographs tell these stories, not video, as I wanted ...
A Light Upstairs
“Gravity doesn’t go upwards suddenly every Tuesday.” -Eric Maierson February 22, 2008. (Flamingo)
Newhouse Network: 25 to Watch
Featured in Syracuse University S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications’ Newhouse Network magazine’s “25 to Watch”, Spring 2010.
Photo District News: Anatomy of a Grant
Interviewed by Photo District News for article: Anatomy of a Winning Grant Proposal: Louie Palu’s Kandahar Project. See the proposal here.
Today’s Cravings are but Sun-drenched Dreams
Don’t look back but for all we ever loved. Look ahead, but for all we will fear. Today’s cravings are but sun-drenched dreams submersed in logic and buoyed by a hope. (Catalonia)
Nominated: Top Ten Works of Journalism of the Decade
Intended Consequences by Jonathan Torgovnik, produced by Chad Stevens/MediaStorm was nominated for New York University Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute’s Top Ten Works of Journalism of the Decade. Role: original music
POYi 67: Editing & Multimedia
For Pictures of the Year International, served on the Multimedia & Editing Division judging panel with Heidi deLaubenfels, Sonya Doctorian, and Jim Lo Scalzo. Humbled with gratitude for the work of so many visions. About Pictures of the Year International (POYi): Since its founding in 1944, POYi has become the oldest and ...
Flee the Well
“To a frog at the bottom of a well, the world is just a blue circle.” Six days and a thousand stories ago, was someone else. Dive deep, but breathe the sky. (Missouri)
The 2009 Alexia Foundation Grant
Served as a juror for the professional and student grant awards The Alexia Foundation for World Peace with Tom Kennedy and Patty Reksten. About: The Alexia Foundation promotes the power of photojournalism to give voice to social injustice, to respect history lest we forget it and to understand cultural difference as our strength — not our ...
WHNPA: Eyes of History 2010
At the White House News Photographers Association Eyes of History 2010 contest, served as a New Media judge with Meredith Birkett, MSNBC.com and Bruce Strong, Syracuse University. Amazing work to see, and congrats to all… Role: judge, New Media category
One Jellyfish Hunter
The convenience store clerk studies my American friend guessing gum flavors in their Chinese packages. She waves me over, “Hello. Convince me of something. Convince me why it’s worth going to America, when I can find everything here in Shanghai.” I say, “In America, you can live life going entire days without seeing another person.” ...
Eleven Minutes
A flour-capped mountain of wet dough is the day’s hourglass: when the dough is gone, the day ends. The noodle maker digs a deep fistful then beats and weaves thick goo into taut threads, from whence my noodle bowl lunch emerges in eleven minutes. “How can you make a living today?” he shakes his head, ...
2010 Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Awards
MediaStorm’s Intended Consequences by Jonathan Torgovnik and produced by Chad A. Stevens receives the first duPont Award for a Web-based production. Congrats to all! role: original music
Five Miles Per Hour
A cab driver tells me that he only ever drives when he works. “Frankly, if you don’t see something interesting walking six blocks in your own town, I question your fascination with life,” he says, “What you see going 35 miles per hour is not what you see going five.” “I call architecture frozen music.” ...
National Public Radio
Worked with National Public Radio newsroom producers and reporters in workshops on conceptualizing and producing visual stories as part of the two-year long Knights in Training multimedia training program.
Where is the good in goodbye?
Smile because we lived, and that we part only to meet again. (goodbye)
“Launch” Exhibition
Co-curated with Susanne Miklas/Newsweek and Melanie McWhorter/Photo-Eye the Women Photojournalists of Washington’s “Launch” exhibition at Honfleur Gallery during Fotoweek DC 2009 Festival, opening November 7, 2009. Thanks to all, photographers! PHOTOGRAPHERS: Astrid Riecken, Allison Shelley, Abby Greenawalt, Ashley Twiggs, Algerina Perna, Amanda Lucidon, Andrea Bruce, Carol Guzy, Gabriela Bulisova, Jamie Rose, Katie Falkenberg, Laura Elizabeth ...
Opera for Breakfast
If I were riding my bicycle through the village at daybreak on a frigid September morning, wouldn’t I stop to hear a live opera performance at a noodle stand, too? (Neighbors gather in the early morning to watch or participate in an open air opera practice, central Shanxi province, China.)
“Yep, It’s Love”
A perfect day. “Love itself is what is left over, when being in love has burned away.” -from the ceremony reading (congrats, Jody and Tom!)
The Soccer War Author
Learn to love a thing together and become connected by something timeless. “…written polyphonically, meaning that the characters, places, and themes that thread their way through its pages might reappear several times, in different years and contexts.” -Ryszard Kapuscinski (Summer dreams, Riverside Park)
30th National Emmy Awards
Intended Consequences by Jonathan Torgovnik and MediaStorm (produced by Chad A. Stevens) was nominated in the 30th Annual Emmy Awards for New Approaches to News and Documentary: Documentaries! Role:original music.
Would Rather Ironman’s Perspective
A wish fulfilled in sleep. “Did anyone ever have a boring dream?” -Ralph Hodgson (overcast day)
Look3: Greenroofs
Slideshow featurette on the Green Roofs story in May 2009 National Geographic Energy Issue debuts at Look3 Photography Festival in Charlottesville, VA. Photography and narration by Diane Cook and Len Jenshel. Production by Blair Madigan. Role: original music
NPPA Multimedia Immersion Seminar
National Press Photographer’s Association, Seth Gitner and Will Sullivan host a massive weeklong adventure of people and knowledge and gear in Las Vegas. Role: coach, speaker
Partnering with NGOs to Produce Meaningful Work
Guest speaker at Jonathan Torgovnik’s workshop, “Partnering with NGOs to Produce Meaningful Work” on collaborating with NGOs and Non-for-Profit organizations to communicate issues of contemporary social significance at the International Center of Photography.
On Traveling
“Pam relies on the good humor of the universe to get from point A to B” -overheard in the office.
Operator #1871
“You don’t have a TV? You must be an artist or something. People who don’t have TV’s are very interesting people. They gotta be! They can’t rely on their TV to make their life interesting. They are inherently interesting.” -Lynette, operator #1871, Time Warner Cable Customer Service “Like dew on the tip of a leaf..” ...
2009 Webby Awards
Congrats to all–MediaStorm’s Intended Consequences wins 2009 Webby Award for Documentary: Individual Episode. Role: original music.
One Billion Heartbeats
How can we measure the length of a life? “So let us look upon that clock on the wall, not as measuring minutes, but rather heartbeats of the creature watching it. It turns out that all animals live for roughly a billion heartbeats.” -John Lienhard (Leica yawns, Bushwick)
Diamond Nightmare
On the List of Things To Learn Soon, Added #45: How to Whistle, #46: How to Climb a Rope, and #47: How to Throw Something with Accuracy. (old Yankee Stadium)
Prehistoric Dawn
“Just poured a cup of black tea with honey. It’s so cold the honey hardly ran out of the bottle and the tea is some kind of free organic promotion. The package said that ‘Each cup tells a thousand stories’. Who the hell comes up with these stupid things? Everyone knows a cup of tea ...
Invisible Sights Are Best Enjoyed Ignored
A traffic conductor strides into oncoming traffic. Two unmarked cars blow past him and fishtail stop, dramatically forming a barrier. In the same fluid momentum, one car door swings open and a man hits the ground sprinting. Mid-stride he intercepts a flying rubber cable hurtled halfway down the block by someone appeared on the curbside. ...
The Ambiguity of Mornings
Half past dawn. An Upper West Side mom pulling a pink-leashed Yorkie and pushing a stroller-saddled toddler approaches me on the curb. Suddenly the dog darts across the sidewalk, a flash of hot pink turns tripwire and I stumble just as toddler begins yodeling. Mom shouts, “TINA!” and it was impossible to tell whether Tina ...
How to Orient Yourself in Park Slope
Mobile Phone Transcript: pc: I’m out of the subway! Which way do I walk? tk: Do you see this plane flying overhead? pc: No, but I can hear it. tk: Wait for the plane to fly overhead. <plane flies overhead> pc: OK I see it. tk: Walk in the opposite direction the plane’s going until ...
Telekinetic Fire
One autumn night in upstate New York, we all made a fire and discussed superpowers. “Can I tell you something I have never told anyone?” asked the fire-tender, “I was very young at the time. When I shook my head, my ears would ring a little, and I believed this was the start of becoming ...
Special Olympics World Winter Games
Coaching a small army of students to film, edit and post video footage of every athlete in every heat of every event at the 2009 Special Olympics World Winter Games in Boise, ID.
Oink and Moo
Flight home was made possible by my dear sister who, upon being abruptly shaken from peaceful Saturday morning slumber, raced from the upper west side to JFK to deliver the entire contents of my forgotten wallet.Born Year of the Industrious Ox, meet Born Year of the Careless Pig. “Moo may represent an idea, but only ...
The Shire Organist
In the exit row, a friendly young liver surgeon from New Zealand confirms my dreams: Middle Earth does indeed resemble The South Island. I confirm that some photojournalists shoot weddings on the side, and he nods knowingly. “I am a liver specialist. But on the side,” he muses, “I do kidneys.” “They saw the sky ...
Beyond Bootcamp Workshops
Spoke on multimedia strategies for the Open Society Institute and original music composition for storytelling at the inaugural Beyond Bootcamp Workshops at the University of Miami.
Good Mor Nging
from the travel log: February 5, 2007. Senegal is new and cryptic. The air smells of concrete and sea salt in the early dawn, pickled fish in the evening twilight. There was a man selling trinkets by the shore who introduced himself as Mor Nging. “Yes,” he clarified, “Like the sunrise. Here is my dog. ...
To the sound of ocean pebbles clacking
From the Log of Inexplicable Dreams: We all raced to the green cliff and when we leapt off the edge turned into various seabirds, dived gracefully into the ocean and resurfaced as humans. I think I was a tiny penguin, but you my friends were species most impressive. Wide awake. (a summit in Piatra Neamt)
All these male thunderbolts
I have been informed that it is still football season. Census strategy by Joubert, taxi driver, Coconut Grove, FL: “You can find out just how many New Yorkers live in Miami when the Dolphins play the Jets.” “…Whose brains are in their hands and in their heels…” -Tennyson (Roanoke, VA)
Not as a fallen angel, but as a risen ape
I love to leave this place I love returning to. Happy Thanksgiving, (the L train, for ten15am.com)
What is it else?
Strangers do bond over lighters and doorways. “Love is a smoke made with the fumes of sighs.” -Shakespeare (Soho)
INAFU6059: The Wired World
Had the pleasure of serving as a reoccurring guest speaker on video advocacy strategies and production at Columbia University’s School for International Affairs (SIPA) in The Wired World, taught by professors Tom Glaisyer, Jed Miller and Anya Schiffrin. From the course description: Students will learn the practical skills of new media, including blogging, audio and ...
I Coasted West
Missing parts. “A beautiful sunset that was mistaken for a dawn.” -Debussy (Divers prepare to recover submerged ship wreckage off the coast of Dakar, Senegal.)
Can’t tilt windmills that aren’t standing still
Loving the romp through a jumbled tumble of ideas today. “Using words to describe magic is like using a screwdriver to cut roast beef” -Tom Robbins (The Bund)
Election Day 2008
Joined the proudest queue of strangers and neighbors at dawn today. “Democracy is the recurrent suspicion that more than half of the people are right more than half the time.” -EB White (125 West 109th St)
