Where are you originally from and where are you based today?

I’m from the Skagit Valley, a farming community in Washington State, though I’ve been based in New York City for ten years.

How did you start out in photography and develop your career?

My father taught me to use a camera when I was around 13 or 14. He had a B&W darkroom in our house and we’d photograph around the valley when I was growing up. Before seriously injuring my knee at 15, I was pretty heavy into the outdoors (skiing, etc.) and, after the injury, I felt alienated from those friends so I began using photography as a sort of therapy.

As a senior in university I took classes in art history and mythology, the latter of which made a big impact in terms of the role of imagery throughout history. I wanted to create and took art classes. I poured through photography books, worked for college newspapers, then part-time at a weekly newspaper in the Skagit Valley.

I could not get an internship after applying at many newspapers around the country, so I went to grad school at Ohio University. And still I could not get an internship. The idea was to make a living doing photography, as I needed to do something to make money. Eventually Rich Saal at The State Journal-Register in Illinois gave me a shot. Then I received an internship at National Geographic magazine, which was a big break. After that I moved to NYC and was given an award at the Eddie Adams workshop to do an assignment for Getty Images. That assignment led to others, and eventually work with the New York Times; the more people I met in NY the more jobs I began to receive.