Returning to daily journalism

Time for a Change

For nearly 11 years I was a regular AP Photo contributor working with Chuck Robinson in Indianapolis. I would like to be considered for the photographer opening with the Associated Press in New York City I recently learned about from Indeed.com.

I was based in Bloomington, Indiana during the surge in demand for images on the AP Photo wire made possible by the switch to digital transmission. Bob Knight also made every basketball game newsworthy. My focus gradually shifted towards business development and earning an MBA, but I have continued to be an active photographer and journalist. An immersive eight-week experience this past summer “covering” the Asphalt Green Summer Day Camp reminded me of all I have missed over the years making photos only occasionally. This semester I am also teaching three journalism classes at Long Island University in Brooklyn. Once a journalist always a journalist. 

I came to the profession after working many years in television production, but union rules limited my advancement. I shifted my major to photojournalism at Indiana University and never looked back. Indiana's daily campus paper, The Indiana Daily Student, was also the Bloomington “bureau” for AP so we had a transmitter in the lab connected to Chicago, and an instant connection to Chuck to work on assignments in South Central Indiana. A job to manage the production and design of publications for the Athletic Department at Indiana University came together after graduation, and on the side I continued photographing sports for the AP and other publications. An opportunity to work in Singapore and Vietnam got me out of Indiana the first time. The MBA I completed after I got back got me out of Indiana a second time. IBM moved me to New York City to work in marketing, and I covered IU when they played in the area and covered the Belmont three times. Sadly, I've outlived three client newspapers and the contraction in the field overall since moving to New York. Working on a range of business projects by day since I left IBM, I also did occasional corporate or editorial assignments and experimented with building community at our sons’ schools with photography. Then the pandemic changed everything. 

With assignments suspended I was thrust into the gig economy and I became more connected to the breadth of the economic experience in New York City. I can relate to the challenges of living on the margin in New York City in a way I couldn't have imagined when I first arrived in New York City in 2001. Two years working on the 2020 Census investigating complex cases took me deeper into the boroughs of the city and to Buffalo. Working for UPS the past three holiday seasons gave me deeper exposure to parts of Long Island and Brooklyn. Working for a temp agency in retail at the US Open and events at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden meant working with younger co-workers struggling to make ends meet. Thankfully, photo work eventually resumed, but I’ve resorted to plasma donations, Medicaid, SNAP, and driving for Instacart to establish a stable base to reset our finances. I'm ready to bring a fresh, but experienced, eye to making images for AP again.

The opportunity to work full-time in journalism again inside a great news organization will reinforce and revive the lessons I learned from faculty at IU like Will Counts, John Ahlhauser, and Paul Lester. Professionals like Chuck Robinson and classmates like Eric Deggans, Ryan Murphy, Eric Shanks, Matt McClain, Sue Morrow, Jon Elswick, and others still active in media. I would enjoy and benefit greatly from this experience and look forward to bringing new perspectives to the Associated Press.