Back Online and Two Award Announcements

After an extended stay offline as I travelled to Charlottesville, Virgina to attend the Festival of the Photograph and then to Mexico City to participate in the Foundry Photojournalism Workshop, I finally made it back to Barcelona in one piece. 

I also returned to some exciting news as I was informed that I had been included in the FOTO8 Award and Summer Show to be held at the Host Gallery in London on July 22nd. A day later I was notified that I came in second place at the PX3 in the non-professional photojournalism category for my story on the daily lives of African immigrants in Barcelona entitled 'Living in the Shadows.'

Both Look3 (Festival of the Photograph) and Foundry were great experiences and I highly recommend them to anyone who might be interested.  At Look3 I attended a project criticism class with Mary Anne Golon (formerly of Time) and Maggie Steber. They were both positive, helpful and master editors. You really should have seen them work, editing stories down in 2-3 minutes. And they were not the only stars. The class was chock full of fantastic photographers, many not well known but definitely worth tracking. My favorites were Oscar Hidalgo, Steven Voss, and underwater specialist Thomas Peschak. 

From DC I flew to Mexico City where I spent a week with many other aspiring photojournalists. It too was a fantastic experience with class time, portfolio reviews, evening slideshows and of course some hard work. Here, Guy Calaf, was my inspiration as he is a veteran at the ripe old age of 30. The class was small, which was ideal and Guy was really generous and honest about the state of photojournalism, so it was an encouraging experience. On top of that he's a really down to earth person who leaves the ego at home.