“Hannah” Ocracoke Island, North Carolina

Where does the time go? It’s true what they say, each year does go by faster. That said, I know this year felt that way because I was constantly in motion, whether on the road or at home. It’s an exercise in frustration to try and boil an entire year down into a set of pictures that you call “the best”. My perception of that moniker evolves over time and whatever I feel is “the best” now certainly won’t be my perception of this year’s worth of work further down the line. 

“Jabari, Quan, and Ellen”, Baptist Town neighborhood, Greenwood, Mississippi

“The doorkeeper at Scruples”, Itta Bena, Mississippi

“Ellen after her stroke”, Baptist Town neighborhood, Greenwood, Mississippi

“Winky and the boys”, Baptist Town neighborhood, Greenwood, Mississippi

“Jessie Jr. boxing his cousin Dominic”, Columbus, Ohio

“Dialia walking home from church”, Baptist Town neighborhood, Greenwood, Mississippi

“Melissa and Madelyn in the back yard”, Norfolk, Virginia

“Bathing the ferrets”, Columbus, Ohio

“Sorting for the skinning room”, Daneco Alligator Farm, Houma, Louisiana

“Toss”, Columbus, Ohio

“Mamou Mardi Gras”, Mamou, Louisiana

“Chop”, Daneco Alligator Farm, Houma, Lousiana

“Friday Night in Baptist Town”, Baptist Town neighborhood, Greenwood, Mississippi

“Stephen”, Daneco Alligator Farm, Houma, Louisiana

“Mamou Mardi Gras”, Mamou, Lousiana

“Bored children at a lacrosse game”, Norfolk, Virginia

“Waking up”, Columbus, Ohio

“Tyler passed out in the bathroom”, Norfolk, Virginia

“Art Car Parade”, Houston, Texas

“Spanish Town Mardi Gras”, Baton Rouge, Louisiana

“Test Flight”, Ocracoke Island, North Carolina

“Winky shares a blunt”, Baptist Town neighborhood, Greenwood, Mississippi

“On the Corner”, Baptist Town neighborhood, Greenwood, Mississippi

Our blog mistress, Kendrick Brinson, asked everyone to do a run-down of their happenings and accomplishments this year so I will do my best to distill the craziness of the last 365 days below. 

This year I shot assignments for TIME, AARP Bulletin, Mother Jones, Newsweek.com, New York Magazine, Businessweek, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The Chronicle of Higher Education, The Washington Post Magazine and was published in National Geographic, GEO, Spot, Photo District News, The Sunday Herald (UK) and Newsweek Japan. Online my work was featured in Burn Magazine, Fraction Magazine, NPR’s 100 Words, The Boston Globe, This Is The What, Feature Shoot, Booooooom, and a number of other places that never asked permission to publish my pictures… 

In 2010 my work was exhibited in group shows with LUCEO + MJR at 25CPW (NYC), Clark-Oshin Gallery (Los Angeles), twice at The Griffin Museum of Photography (Massachusetts), The Visionaris Festival (Palma de Mallorca, Spain), LOOKbetween Festival (Charlottesville), twice at Center for Fine Art Photography (Ft. Collins, CO), twice at The Houston Center for Photography (Houston), Getty Images Gallery (London), The Dairy Barn (Athens, OH), Night Vision Vancouver (Vancouver, BC) and The Museum of Fine Arts Houston. The Museum of Fine Arts Houston also just recently acquired two pieces from my Carry Me Ohio show at HCP through their annual Photo Forum event. 

I got to participate in panel discussions at Columbia College in Chicago and the Rochester Institute of Technology in Rochester, help coach the Syracuse Fall Multimedia Workshop, and was published in two books, the first a compilation of American Photography 26 winners, and secondly, my first self-published book, Carry Me Ohio, edited by LUCEO Partners Mike Davis and designed by Deb Pang Davis with a foreword by Brian Paul Clamp. I was fortunate enough to be interviewed by Paul Giguere of Thoughts on Photography, Olivier Laurent from The British Journal of Photography, Ange Fitzgerald for the weekly Friday Art Star, Marco Pavan for e-PhotoReview Jim Estrin and Amanda Rivkin for separate New York Times LENS blog posts, and reporter Stephanie Clifford for the article “For photographers, the image of a shrinking path.”

In late 2009 I received the 2010 HCP Fellowship and in May held my first solo show at The Houston Center for Photography. I won a 2nd place in POYi, was selected for American Photography 26, selected for and participated in Review Santa Fe, commended in the Ian Parry Scholarship, a finalist for both the Burn Emerging Photographer Fund and the CDS/Honickman First Book Prize, received the F25 International Award for Concerned Photography, won the People’s Choice Award (Editorial Category) in Blurb’s Photography Book Now competition, was one of the Critical Mass Top 50, named one of PDN’s 30 Emerging Photographers to Watch and awarded the National Geographic Innovation in Storytelling Grant. 

When forced to write all of that out it is no wonder the year flew by. Professional bullshit aside, it was twelve months full of movement, memories, meeting wonderful new people, experiencing new things and being pushed to grow by everyone around me. I am so incredibly grateful for the time I’ve had this year. 

Thanks to my family for putting up with me throughout all the travels and madness, to my LUCEO colleagues for constantly kicking my ass and also to Andy Spear for weighing in on what few disassociated pictures made the cut for this blog post.  And a huge thanks to you, dear reader, for keeping up with my ramblings throughout the year and for all the love and support that LUCEO has received. 

"Hannah" Ocracoke Island, North Carolina Where does the time go? It's true what they say, each year does go by faster. That said, I know this year felt that way because I was constantly in motion, whether on the road or at home. It's an exercise in frustration to try and boil an entire year down ...