Bringin' the Blues to Athens

Although, the Athens County Harmonica Club’s members consist of men primarily over 70 with varying talents on the instrument, the club seems young at heart as it performs and practices traditional folk tunes in numerous settings, and all the members enjoy it more than the audience in most cases. These men, however, are a dying breed of talented folk harmonica players, some having learned as young as 5 years old. As the club seeks younger members to carry on the tradition, they find a thrill in the tiny wind instrument and performing for others.

















A few notes about this story:
I'm mostly done shooting, and I realize that this is a huge edit, so I'll most likely narrow it down. The next step is audio, which will be a project for spring. This has been one of the most enjoyable projects I've ever done, and I can't wait to continue.

Volunteer Story

Supporting Diversity

Jessie Williams goes above and beyond the average senior at Vinton County High School. She is in the drama club, Science Olympiad, takes the highest level of classes offered, and spends much of her time volunteering for an organization in McArthur, Ohio called Sojourners, which provides programming for Foster Children in Kindergarten through 6th grade. But beyond all her involvement, another thing that makes Williams unique in Vinton County High School is that she is the only African American student in the entire school.








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This is my only story from this quarter that is officially done.

Inauguration Day - 1.20.2009

I know it doesn't seem timely, but pretty soon VisCom is putting out a magazine of images from the day. Here are some of mine.





All of the above images were taken at Mary Ann and Norman Garber's home in Athens where they had a small gathering of their friends over to watch the historic event.


At night at 19 South there was a "Bye Bye Bush" party that was also a fundraiser for the indie film 'Trailerpark' being produced here at OU.

Recent Hip Hop Congress stuff

Here is some stuff on Hip Hop Congress from winter quarter thus far. I am lucky enough to have Sam Katz doing audio for this story now, so we plan to have a complete multimedia presentation in time for Soul of Athens.

Volunteering with Sojourner's at their annual MLK Day Dream Camp.




Hip Hop Shop

Living With Ben

This is something that I've been working on over a long period of time with more still to come, though now it is limited to whenever I go home. The following are a collection of images of my brother, Ben. Ben was diagnosed with Autism when he was 18 months old after his DPT vaccination.
This personal narrative depicts Ben in daily life doing his normal activities in mini-stories throughout. I wouldn't consider this a documentary at all, but rather my take on how Ben impacts my life, my family's lives, and how we try to include him in the real world as much as possible.
Luckily, Ben is familiar with me so it was no problem shooting, which other photographer may encounter. If it were anyone else, he probably would have been very uncomfortable. But since I didn't have that problem at all, I think I captured the essence of my brother, who is one of my favorite people in the whole world.
Enough blabbing, here are the photos.


Music Therapy

Swimming Lessons


Working out at the YMCA, a weekly tradition for my dad and Ben








Just some daily activites - he likes his music.



Inclusion with holiday festivities


Bingo night at home (he likes us to repeat sounds and faces he makes)


Eating his most favorite food: potatoes


Pressure on his body is necessary so he can feel himself in space. It makes us laugh.


He's very good at puzzles
Something else I'm thinking about:
What if I made it all black and white?