Best of 2010

2010 was a big year. Riots in Puerto Rico, shooting on the Hill and around DC have been pure growth.  It has been great really focusing on my work and telling stories. That said, the past two years of just shooting news has me really itching to get out and do some documentary projects. This summer I will be traveling and doing just that which is very exciting.

This last semester I plan on focusing on doing multimedia and video. I’ll be interning at the Washington Post and I have a long form multimedia project in the works that I hope on finishing by May; more on that when it’s closer to being done. 

I’m starting the New Year putting my new years resolution into practice: more blogging. Keep an eye out for a weekly post of my images, images I’m looking at and thoughts.

The full recap of 2010 in images and text after the jump.

The year started on Capitol Hill shooting as an intern for The Hill. It was a privilege to cover the State of the Union as well as health care and financial reform. Furthermore, shooting next to veteran Washington photographers was a real treat. Watching Steve Crowley disappear from the well and see what he shot in the Times the next day is schooling all on its own.

After interning for El Nuevo Día a couple of summers ago I came back this past summer as a freelancer.

Just as I got to Puerto Rico in May the two-month long university strike was ending. The governor was being heavily criticized for his use of police force during the strike. All of this came to a head at the end of June during a protest at the Capitol Building in San Juan.

I chose to document the event from within the crowd of students. Most other journalists were behind the police line when it broke out. The photographs I really cemented a sense of responsibility in me to shoot from within an even and develop intimacy with subjects. The photographs I made of this protest I feel is my best work to date.

At 7am on August 11 I got a call from my editor to hurry to Trujillo Alto. When I arrived at the house family members were just being told the news: 22 year-old Coraly Campos had fatally stabbed her one-year-old and three-year-old and tried to set the house on fire. Spending time with this family mourning was difficult to say the least but I feel gave them a voice to tell their story.

Back in DC I mentored under Melina Mara. She really changed the way I think about image making. The strong ethics and intimacy her pictures have are something I truly hope to acuire as I shoot more.