Aaron Spicer
Aaron Spicer is a professional wedding and event photographer out of Fredericksburg, VA. Having founded Aaron Spicer Photography in July of 2008, he is excited about his photographic journey. Recently, he has covered political gala events such as the Missile Defense Agency's Ronald Reagan Awards and the FAA's 50th Anniversary Celebration. Aaron is available for global assignments and destination weddings. You can visit Aaron's website here.
Aisha B.
Aisha B: Southern girl, non-traditional student in her senior year of fashion merchandising, big sister, lover of big hair, bright colors, sweets, shopping, and fashion magazines, best friend, girlfriend, baker of a mean red velvet cake, Wikipedia geek, habitual line-stepper, and many other things too numerous to list.
Aisha is in her third session as a Kenneth Cole Productions intern, currently in apparel buying for Company Stores. She moved to the big city almost two years ago to follow her dreams. She also found this bio harder to write than her contribution to the blog.
Specialty: fashion, baking, dance
Alan Cumming
Eclectic Tony Award winning actor Alan Cumming, trained at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama, and is currently enjoying one of the most fruitful and creative periods in his prolific professional career.
In 2006, Alan returned to London’s West End in Martin Sherman’s Bent, which earned him a Best Actor nomination at the What’s On Stage People’s Choice Awards. Back in the United States he won the Best First Feature at the 2007 Independent Spirit Awards for Sweet Land, which he produced and starred in. He also co produced and appeared in Showbusiness: The Road to Broadway which recently hit theaters. Alan’s latest film as a director and star, Ghost Writer, is causing a sensation on the festival circuit, with Alan winning awards at the Phoenix, Birmingham and Provincetown film festivals.
Cumming is also no stranger to Broadway, recently starring as Mac the Knife opposite Cyndi Lauper The Threepenny Opera. Previously on the New York stage Alan played the Pope in Jean Genet's Elle, which he also adapted, and for the Roundabout he has appeared in Noel Coward’s Design for Living and Kander and Ebb’s Cabaret, for which he won the Tony, Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle, Theater World, New York Press, FANY and New York Public Advocate’s Awards. In London: Hamlet at the Donmar Warehouse (for which he won the TMA Best Actor Award and a Shakespeare Globe nomination), Cabaret (Olivier award nomination), La Bete (Olivier nomination), Conquest of the South Pole (Olivier nomination) and seasons with the RSC and the Royal National Theatre, where he won an Olivier Award for his performance in Accidental Death of an Anarchist (which he also co-adapted).
Among his extensive film work, Cumming wrote, directed, produced and acted (with Jennifer Jason Leigh) in The Anniversary Party, which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival and won a National Board of Review Award and two Independent Spirit Award nominations.
Other films include: X Men 2, the Spy Kids trilogy, Eyes Wide Shut, Emma, Romy and Michele’s High School Reunion, Urbania, Nicholas Nickleby, Titus, Goldeneye and Circle of Friends. Cumming’s television work includes The L Word and Reefer Madness on Showtime and Sex in the City on HBO. In Britain he wrote and starred in the cult sitcom The High Life as well as many other films for the BBC including Bernard and the Genie for which he won a British Comedy award.
Alan’s activism and charity work for various civil rights and sex education causes has earned him several humanitarian awards including two Human Rights Campaign awards and GLAAD’s Vito Russo media award. He is also the author of a book, Tommy’s Tale, and has recently launched a successful fragrance and body line called - what else? - CUMMING.
Alan recently starred in the Sci Fi Channel mini Series Tin Man, an adaptation of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz in which he played the character based on the Scarecrow, Glitch. The series debuted to a huge audience, making it not only the top cable mini-series in 2007 but also the most watched event in Sci Fi history! He can currently be seen off-Broadway in the Classic Stage Company’sThe Seagull, starring opposite Dianne Wiest. Alan will next be seen on stage this summer at The 2008 Lincoln Center Festival in the North American Premiere of National Theatre of Scotland’s production of Euripides’ The Bacchae, directed by John Tiffany. Alan will be reprising his role in 13 performances between July 2 – 27th as the seductive, androgynous god Dionysus, son of Zeus and the mortal Semele, which he originated last year in his first return to the Scottish stage in 16 years for the National Theatre of Scotland at the Edinburgh International festival.
Website: http://www.alancumming.com
Albert Stichka
Albert Stichka fell in love with cameras the moment he first began convincing his parents to develop film for his from disposable cameras. As the second son of a single mother, financial concerns precluded photography from being anything more than an occasional escape. When his brother served in Iraq and Afghanistan, though, he made enough money to purchase Stichka’s first professional photography equipment. Stichka eventually ended his short string of IT jobs and travelled across the country for the sake of being a photographer. He decided that if he had any chance of making a living in photography, he would have to devote more time to it than to anything else.
Specialty: Photography
Website: http://alby.mootnet.us
Alejandro Ilukewitsch
Biography: I am an electronic engineer dedicated to healthcare IT. Always been fund of Photography but it’s only since last year when I decided to get into it more seriously. The beauty of photography is been able to capture that infinitesimal moment which will be able to transcend through the eyes of many thanks to just that moment capture. To freeze time with just a click so others can experiment what the person photographed was feeling it’s what’s lovely to me about photography. Every new photo is a story which amazingly can be seen and told as many times as the viewer wants to, just by looking at the photo. To me right now is a hobby, but as time passes by, is starting to be part of my life. It has taught me to see life with a different perspective and always to observe my surroundings with a more critical view.
Specialty: Photography
Alessio Osele
I have spent many years telling stories, and I have always asked myself what is the right way to do so, to render the visual reality as close as possible to that which we see. Today I can say that this is not possible or that there are as many ways of seeing this reality as there are characters, dramas and faces in the stories that I would like to tell. I feel better knowing this. I put myself on the sidelines of a world that I observe, participate in without hesitation, in the hope of creating both vision and sensation. This is my work. Therefore, I am a teller of stories and like any storyteller I can invent, create, manipulate, colour, cut and paste; like a good tailor or a skilled mason. To be a teller of stories is a profession as old as prostitution or that of a hunter. It allows me to play, to recreate or simply notate that which we know as reality. My departure point may be one person's story but in this, I search to find and reflect strands of our common humanity.
Specialty: Photography
Website: http://www.alessioosele.com
Alex Forrester
Alex Forrester grew up outside of Princeton, NJ and graduated from Harvard University in 2003 with a degree in Postmodern Philosophy and Theology. He co-founded Rising Tide Capital in 2004 and now serves as its Chief Operations Officer. In addition to his work on micro-entrepreneurship, he is interested in social enterprise, restorative justice, and efforts to combat modern-day slavery. He is also working towards a Masters Degree in Management and Urban Policy from the New School University.
Website: http://risingtidecapital.org/
Alice Karekezi
Alice Karekezi is a freelance journalist based in NYC and currently researching for Harper's Magazine. She has studied at the University of Chicago and Columbia University, and holds a degree in comparative literature. Her passions, in no particular order, include international politics, film, food, Arabic literature and dance.
Specialty: international politics, film, food, Arabic literature, dance
Amanda McLean
When she invested in her first digital SLR, Amanda McLean rekindled a passion for photography that began years ago with a high school black and white film class. She quickly realized how many photos she had missed during her college years, when books, class, and horses took up most of her time. Now an employee of the Federal Reserve, Amanda has found that photography is the ideal escape from office life, and she enjoys exploring her vast backyard of Washington, D.C. with a camera almost always in hand. She is looking forward to seeing her first photograph in a gallery show with the opening of the 2009 DCist Exposed exhibition. You can see more of Amanda’s work on her photoblog and online album
Specialty: Photography
Andrew Huff
Andrew Huff is a freelance journalist, editor and blogger based in Chicago. He has been blogging since 2001, and is editor and publisher of Gapers Block, a Chicago-centric web publication he co-founded.
Specialty: Blogging, Consumerism and Healthcare
Website: http://www.me3dia.com
Andy Pag
Andy Pag is the BioTruck expedition organizer, with over 12 years experience in running vehicle based expeditions in Africa and around the world. He is a filmmaker and an award winning journalist.
Website: www.biotruck.co.uk
Angela Hartwig
Angela Hartwig lives in the proverbial middle of nowhere, in Sioux Falls, SD, with her husband and 3 sons. She was completely psyched to attend this Obama rally.
Website: http://www.veeso.com
Angelique Kidjo
Angelique Kidjo, the Grammy-Award-winning, much-celebrated singer, composer, and performer began her career in Benin, Africa, at the age of six. The political turmoil in her country led her to relocate to Paris, the capital of world music, and then ultimately to New York City, where she now resides. Her striking voice, stage presence and her fluency in multiple cultures and languages has won her respect from her peers and expanded her following across national borders. Kidjo has traveled far and mesmerized audiences on countless stages, speaking out on behalf of the children in her capacity as a UNICEF and OXFAM goodwill ambassador. Recently, she created her own charitable organization, Batonga, dedicated to support the education of young girls in Africa.
With her Razor & Tie Entertainment/Starbucks Entertainment album, DJIN DJIN (pronounced “gin gin”), Kidjo returns to the soul of Benin – and, for the first time, shares it with a cast of all-star guests, in a marriage of cultures that has significance far beyond music alone. The contributions of stellar guest artists such as Alicia Keys, Ziggy Marley, Josh Groban, Joss Stone and more illuminate Kidjo’s concept. By finding a place for their distinctive talents within the marriage of African and Western influences, DJIN DJIN celebrates the beauty of diversity as well as the unity of cultures that Kidjo achieves through her music. DJIN DJIN won Kidjo this year’s Grammy Award for Best Contemporary World Album. She wrapped up not one, but two North American tours supporting Josh Groban last year and is currently on a North American headlining tour.
Benjamin Goldhirsh
Benjamin Goldhirsh is the founder and CEO of GOOD, a multi-platform media company that produces content at the intersection of entertainment and relevance. GOOD’s efforts include print, video, online, and live events.
The print arm, GOOD Magazine, is a national, bimonthly publication covering the ideas, innovations, people, and businesses affecting change in the world. The magazine has partnered with twelve innovative nonprofits and adopted a bold subscription strategy called Choose GOOD. 100% of the subscription fee goes to the organization chosen by the subscriber.
GOOD maintains offices in Los Angeles and New York.
Active in both regional and international philanthropic endeavors, Goldhirsh is one of the Directors of The Goldhirsh Foundation, which supports dynamic social programs, environmental initiatives, innovative medical research, and leading cultural institutions. The Goldhirsh Foundation served as founding sponsor for the Los Angeles branch of CITY YEAR, an international organization that calls on 17-27 year olds to engage in civic service.
Goldhirsh serves on the Board of Millennium Promise, an organization guided by the UN’s Millennium Development goals to end extreme global poverty by 2025, as well as the Los Angeles Board of the National Foundation for Teaching Entrepreneurship.
A graduate of Brown University and Phillips Academy, Goldhirsh currently resides in Los Angeles.
Website: http://www.goodmagazine.com/
Beth Wilson
Beth Wilson is a Web Developer and photography enthusiast who has lived in Austin, Texas most of her life. Still striving to find her photographic style and subject matter, she enjoys exploring old, abandoned buildings that "they just don't make anymore," attending protests and rallies, and observing animals. She recently embraced her "crazy cat lady" destiny, a title she inherited from an elderly neighbor. Many of Beth's photographic subjects are the neighborhood strays she feeds and makes sure are spayed and neutered. You can view more of her photos in her flickr stream.
Website: http://www.miriland.com/
Brooke Anderson
Brooke Anderson is an organizer and photographer living in Oakland, CA.
As an organizer, Brooke has spent the last ten years of her life working for social, economic, and racial justice in Illinois and California. Working with students, labor unions, grassroots community organizations, immigrant worker leaders, veterans, and faith communities, she is proud to have been a part of significant advances in environmental health, affordable health care, living wages, immigrant rights, and worker justice.
As a photographer, Brooke is inspired by the courage of everyday folks who – tired of suffering under a system in which their lives and health are too often viewed as acceptable casualties of corporate wealth – find common cause amidst their many differences and make a stand against injustice. She hopes that capturing on film these precious moments where humanity finds its dignity will honor the sacrifices of those who struggle and will inspire others into action. She learned compassion from her mom, and photography from three generations of photographers on her dad's side.
Specialty: Photography
Byron Edwards
Byron Edwards worked for 15 years as an editorial photographer in London back when film was all the rage. His clients included the BBC, IPC Media and Associated Newspapers.
In 2001 he left London for a quieter life in South Wales where he now freelances as a web-developer with clients on both sides of the Atlantic.
"When I realized to be really successful one had to be either brilliant or a tosser it was time to leave London", he says, "there were too many people in the latter category."
After abandoning photography for 7 years he has started to shoot again,
finding a new joy in using his 'serious compact' a Ricoh GRD1.
Specialty: Photography
Website: http://www.byronedwards.com
C.S. Muncy
C.S. Muncy, 27, is a freelance photojournalist based out of New York City. In a freshman attempt to meet women, he borrowed his mom's Minolta and took up photography, winning over a girl who would eventually go on to steal nearly all of his gear. Since then he has photographed everything from the various candidates of the 2004 election, to anti war protests, to scenes and subjects within the GLBT community, as well as military events and deployments. Since 2003, his portfolio includes shots of Wesley Clarke, John Kerry, George W. Bush and Laura Bush, Jesse Jackson, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Michael Moore, Ari Fleischer, Gavin Newsom, Siegfried and Roy, as well as an itinerant Las Vegas Elvis impersonator. He has had a number of images published in weekly papers in Nevada and California, in addition to his body of online work. He is currently recovering from the D minus he received in High School Photography.
Specialty: Photography
Camilla Olson
Camilla Olson is an advocate with Refugees International, a non-governmental organization that advocates for lifesaving assistance and protection for displaced people and promotes solutions to displacement crises. She has conducted field assessments with the organization to Thailand, Malaysia, Bangladesh, Sudan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), and Uganda.
To learn more about Refugees International's work on the DRC, click here. To read the most recent report on the DRC, following an assessment mission that Camilla conducted in January and February 2009, click here. And to view a photo report from the most recent DRC mission, click here.
Specialty: photograph, Africa, refugee rights
Website: http://refugeesinternational.org/
Camilo Rayo
Camilo Rayo is a photographer, writer, and student at SUNY Purchase. His main photographic focus is on music and culture, and is currently photographing the next brochure for the Conservatory of Music at SUNY Purchase.Visit his blog at funtimeusa.wordpress.com, his flickr at Camilo Rayo's Flickr, and you can follow him on twitter at twitter.com/milorah.
Picture the Homeless Blog: http://picturethehomeless.org/blog
Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/picturethehomeless
Facebook: http://tiny.cc/pthonfacebook
Flickr: http://tiny.cc/pthonflickr
Twitter: http://twitter.com/pthny
Specialty: Photography
Website: http://funtimeusa.wordpress.com
Change Agent: Janice Mirikitani and Cecil Williams
Reverend Cecil Williams and Janice Mirikitani have been transforming lives for over 40 years.
Reverend Cecil Williams has expanded the limits of spirituality, compassion and diversity as Founder and Minister of Liberation of Glide Memorial United Methodist Church in San Francisco. As minister, author, social activist, lecturer, community leader and spokesperson for the poor and marginalized, Reverend Williams is respected and recognized as a national leader on the forefront of change and in the struggle for civil and human rights. Janice Mirikitani is nationally recognized as a visionary, community activist, leader, poet, and editor. She is San Francisco's second Poet Laureate, author of four poetry books and editor of nine anthologies. Mirikitani is the Founding President of the Glide Foundation where she in partnership with Cecil Williams, have achieved worldwide recognition for their groundbreaking organization which empowers San Francisco's poor and marginalized communities to make meaningful changes in their lives.
Specialty: civil rights, spirituality, homelessness
Website: http://www.glide.org/
See all of Change Agent: Janice Mirikitani and Cecil Williams's articles
Change Agent: Joe Solmonese
As president of the Human Rights Campaign, Joe Solmonese has demonstrated that he has the political, strategic and communications skills to make the organization a powerhouse both in Washington and around the country. Under his leadership, the National Journal has rated the organization the second most successful interest group in all of Washington during the 2006 election.
Effectively Communicating with the American People
His vision for equality is clear: to make sure that HRC is wherever there are gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender Americans, and to equip them with all the assistance and resources he can to help secure equality. Whether it's listening to gay families tell their stories over coffee in Kansas or advocating for GLBT workers on factory floors in North Carolina, he's working tirelessly to win the hearts and minds of the American people.
Breaking Down Barriers and Building a Coalition for Fairness
Committed to making clear that nobody has a monopoly on religion, Joe launched HRC's Religion and Faith Program in 2005. The program provides new innovative resources for GLBT and straight-supportive people of faith so that they can stand up to those who use religion as a weapon.
He has also worked hard to engage a younger generation whose commitment to equality is greater than any of their predecessors. He has mobilized hundreds of students, including those at historically black colleges; overseen HRC's highly success Youth College campaign trainings; and spoken on several campuses, including Columbia University and Cornell University. Joe understands that this next generation is the one that will lead us to full equality for all Americans.
Strengthening Successes and Leveraging Experience
Before coming to HRC, Joe was chief executive officer of EMILY's List, overseeing one of the nation's most successful efforts to elect progressive women in every part of the United States. Joe brings that experience to HRC and is leveraging his experience to make the organization a national model of effective advocacy.
Heading up an organization with more than 700,000 members and supporters, as well as an annual budget of more than $30 million, Joe understands that the fight for equality is a people-powered movement that is only as strong as the troops "on the ground." That is why he implemented an unprecedented field and political operation in the last two years. During that time, HRC has seen several impressive victories. The House of Representatives passed a hate crimes bill for the first time ever. The Senate and the House of Representatives both soundly rejected the discriminatory Federal Marriage Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. And, despite the bitter and divisive climate, HRC convinced Congress to pass groundbreaking new pension benefits for same-sex partners.
With Joe at the helm, HRC was instrumental in moving the Congress, the Senate and state legislatures all over the country toward more fair-minded majorities. He leveraged HRC's political action committee, the largest PAC in the nation for GLBT rights, in critical races nationwide. Out of the 225 candidates endorsed by HRC in the last election, an astounding 211 were elected. And HRC successfully flexed its electoral muscle in several high-stakes races, such as the defeat of the notoriously anti-gay senator, Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania.
Changing Hearts and Minds
Joe also understands that equality doesn't come only from legislative solutions. Since joining HRC, he has worked with corporate leaders across the country and helped guide influential businesses, like Microsoft, to take strong public stances for fairness. With the release of HRC's Corporate Equality Index 2006, 86 percent of Fortune 500 companies now include sexual orientation in their non-discrimination policies and 51 percent offer same-sex partner benefits.
Whether adding expertise and resources to HRC's Workplace, Family and Coming Out Projects, appearing on CNN or in The New York Times, or hosting his weekly XM radio show, "The Agenda with Joe Solmonese," Joe is committed to educational work that changes public opinion and ultimately moves our country forward.
A native of Attleboro, Mass., Joe is 42 and lives in Washington, D.C. He graduated from Boston University in 1987 with a Bachelor of Science degree in communications. As president of the Human Rights Campaign, Joe Solmonese has demonstrated that he has the political, strategic and communications skills to make the organization a powerhouse both in Washington and around the country. Under his leadership, the National Journal has rated the organization the second most successful interest group in all of Washington during the 2006 election.
Specialty: Human Rights
Charles Messina
Charles Messina is a playwright, screenwriter and director, whose critically acclaimed works have appeared both on the big screen and on the off-Broadway stage. Charles is a New Yorker through and through, born and raised on the mean streets of lower Manhattan and of Italian-American descent. He is a graduate of New York University. Charles is known for his deconstructive take on biographical subjects. His first non-fiction book was published this year. Charles currently lives in Tribeca.
Specialty: Crime Drama, Biography, Non-fiction
Website: http://www.nahproductions.com
Christopher Bevacqua
My name is Christopher Bevacqua and I am a Vancouver based documentary photographer. Having spent many years as an outreach worker with the homeless youth of Vancouver, I picked up a camera in 2006 and started to document the people and places affected by homelessness and poverty in my city. Realizing that it was possible to fuse my love of photography with my love of social activism has really opened my eyes to a whole new world of possibilities. You can view more of my documentary and photojournalism on my flickr account.
Specialty: Photography
Cindi Leive
Cynthia Leive has served as Editor-in-Chief of Glamour magazine since May 2001. Glamour is the most celebrated women’s magazine today, having won more than 170 journalism awards. It reaches more than12 million readers each month, or 1 in 10 women in America.
Under Leive, Glamour has received a record number of editorial awards, including a National Magazine Award for General Excellence in 2005 (a women’s magazine had not even been nominated in over a decade); and, in 2007 Glamour won the National Magazine Award for Personal Service. Crain’s put Leive on its “Top 40 Under 40” list, and she was also named one of Gotham magazine’s most powerful women under 40 in New York.
Leive’s work has also been recognized outside the media industry. In 2008 she received a White House Project “EPIC” award for publishing In Search of Hope: The Global Diaries of Mariane Pearl. In 2006 she received a “Matrix” award from Women in Communications; a “Champion of Choice” award from NARAL-NY for her continued coverage of women’s health; and, along with Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton and Gloria Steinem, a “Lead Her” award from Girls Learn International for her activism in bringing Pakistani heroine Mukhtar Mai to the U.S. for the first time. She received the 2005 “New York Success Is Working” award from Dress for Success; and, the “Celebration of the Power of Women” award from the NOW Legal Defense Fund. Leive also frequently discusses women’s issues, from fashion to politics, on industry and community panels and regularly appears on Today, Good Morning America, The View and ABC World News Tonight.
Prior to joining Glamour, Leive served as Editor-in-Chief of Self magazine, which enjoyed unprecedented gains in circulation during her time as Editor. A graduate of Swarthmore College, Leive began her career in publishing at The Paris Review and The Saturday Review. She lives in Brooklyn with her husband, film producer Howard Bernstein, daughter Lucy and son Isaac.
Website: http://www.glamour.com/
Cliff Douglas
Cliff Douglas is a teacher, attorney and international public health advocate. He is Executive Director of the University of Michigan Tobacco Research Network and teaches tobacco policy and law at the University of Michigan School of Public Health. He served as Special Counsel for Congressman Martin T. Meehan and staffed the Congressional Task Force on Tobacco and Health. His 111-page "prosecution memo" to the U.S. Attorney General led the Justice Department to conduct a four-year criminal investigation of the tobacco industry. His career in the tobacco wars is chronicled in Civil Warriors: The Legal Siege on the Tobacco Industry (New York: Random House, 2000), by investigative journalist Dan Zegart, which tells the story of Cliff's recruitment of a scientist code-named Deep Cough, the first major tobacco company whistleblower, who helped Cliff expose cigarette manufacturers' secret manipulation of nicotine to addict millions of unsuspecting consumers in an award-winning ABC News program exposé produced by investigative reporter extraordinaire Walt Bogdanich (now with the New York Times). Cliff served on the Obama campaign's national Health Policy Committee and as a voter protection lawyer during the election.
Damon Taylor
Damon Taylor is a photographer, astronomer and organic gardener who lives in Chicago.
Specialty: gardening, environment,
Website: http://backyardharvester.com/blog/
Daniel Milder
Daniel Milder is a freelance writer and filmmaker based in Los Angeles. He most recently wrote about rat catchers in India and motorcycle doctors in Africa for GOOD Magazine. If you know of any people or organizations doing interesting work that are not getting enough attention, he’d like to hear about them.
Daniella Zalcman
Daniella Zalcman is a senior at Columbia University inexplicably majoring in architecture even though she is determined to become a journalist. Passions, hobbies, side jobs, and bad habits include web design, piano, doodling on napkins, getting lost in large tourist traps, naming inanimate objects, and being in the wrong place at the right time.
Website: http://www.dan.iella.net
David Alm
David Alm is a freelance journalist, editor, and part-time professor of journalism and cinema studies at Hunter College, CUNY. He has written about contemporary art, film, design, and New Media for American Artist, ArtByte, The Independent, PAPER, RES, Time Out Chicago, SOMA, and the Utne Reader. He was also a staff editor at the Silicon Alley Reporter, where he covered Internet business and culture. He has helped write books on New Media design and digital filmmaking; served on several panels and juries to evaluate art, film, and New Media projects; and taught a wide range of courses in the humanities and writing at colleges in Chicago and New York. In his spare time, he trains for marathons, which he runs in as many cities worldwide as he can.
David Burstein
David D. Burstein, 19, is the Founder and Executive Director of 18 in '08, the nation's largest youth-run young voter engagement organization. The organization is based on David's documentary film of the same name. 18 in
'08, which is aimed at getting young voters engaged with the political process, is the product of three years traveling the country, interviewing over 100 Congressmen, Senators, presidential candidates, policy makers, activists - young and old. 18 in '08 is currently leading a major national campaign to register, engage, and mobilize young voters for the 2008 election. David has devoted much of his time, efforts, and energy throughout his life to youth empowerment and political involvement. In 2003, David worked with a group of fellow students to create the highly successful Westport Youth Film Festival. The festival has since become the world's premier film festival run by high school students for high school students, for which David served as Director until leaving high school. In May of 2005, David was appointed to serve on the Weston Commission for Children and Youth, responsible for advising his home town on issues and activities related to students and children. David has also done extensive work with local civic and community based boards and organizations in Connecticut and New York. He currently serves on the advisory boards of The Westport Youth Film Festival and Presidential Classroom. He is a student at Haverford College in Pennsylvania. He resides in Weston, Connecticut. You can learn more about David and 18 in '08 at www.18in08.com.
Website: http://www.18in08.com/
David Hershkovits
David Hershkovits is a founder of Paper magazine and papermag.com. His column Eyespy appears monthly and he has written extensively on the intersections of art and politics. He is married and lives with his wife and two young children in the East Village.
Debra Sue Lorenzen
Debra Sue Lorenzen (Co-Founder and Executive Director) has managed Making Books Sing's program development and rapid growth since 1996, and directed its transition to an independent organization. She has a 20-year background as an arts manager, specializing in fundraising and program development. Prior to founding Making Books Sing with Mrs. Krieger, she raised nearly $10 million as the development director for the preeminent Dance Theatre Workshop, after serving as a fundraiser for Theatre Communications Group. She has served as a development consultant for nearly 20 arts and community organizations throughout New York City. She holds an M.F.A. in Performing Arts Management from Brooklyn College and a B.A. in Theatre from Florida State University.
Specialty: performing arts,
Website: http://www.makingbookssing.org/
Denise A. Collier
Creating through craft has always been a part of Denise's life. It's a way for her to connect to the world in an age of ever increasing technology and disconnect. She harnessed her craftiness into a business, running Akemi Designs, a one-woman-show creating meticulous, hand-created social stationery inspired by Japanese culture as a way to honor her roots. And to pay the bills, she is a freelance graphic designer for local San Francisco businesses and individuals.
When she's not playing with paper, Denise enjoys snapping pics, and is often seen toting her camera around. She likes to capture human emotions, and jumps at the opportunity to photograph her 5-year-old daughter having a meltdown.
Specialty: Photography
Website: http://littlesnoopy.blogspot.com/
Diana Mai
Diana Mai photographs in Boston and New York and is currently an art and photography student at Northeastern University. Her work can be viewed on her site as well as on flickr.
Specialty: Photography
Website: http://dianamai.webs.com/
Dillon Storie
Dillon Storie is 16 years old from northern B.C. He was called a “wayward sheep” because he did not like the way church seemed to want to make him a follower. He felt he had to believe what they wanted him to believe, to obey what they thought was right and wrong and to follow whatever else other people found desirable in church. From a young age, this is what motivated him to think logically, reasonably, and at the very least form his own opinions. Three months ago be began to take an interest in photography and now he feels pretty much addicted. He bought my first DSLR, a Nikon D40 in March and since then he has been taking a lot of pictures, some with more of a political message and some without a message at all. He enjoys listening to tons of music. He tries to be as open minded as he can when he approaches anything from music, photography, school, work and especially when dealing with other people.
Specialty: Photography
Dominik Ogilvie
Dominik Ogilvie is a web developer currently occupied with writing a master's thesis in sociology. His spare time is devoted to photography, some of which is on display at stadtbild.ch, a portfolio website. He lives in Zurich, Switzerland.
Specialty: Photography
Website: http://www.stadtbild.ch/
Duncan McMillan
Duncan McMillan was born in the East Riding of Yorkshire, UK, in 1965. The Humber Estuary and the city of Kingston-upon-Hull have provided the backdrop to his life, and are often evident as underlying themes in his work. In 2006, McMillan rediscovered photography with a passion and acquired his first digital SLR. His workflow embraces digital processing as means to distill an inner truth from the photographic image. McMillan’s main interest is contemporary landscape photography and is also intrigued by abstract forms within the context of urban and architectural environments. He regularly contributes to Flickr and posts to his photoblog at but less often than he should.
Specialty: Photography
Website: http://www.dung-cart.com
Efraim Keisari
Efraim Keisari is currently a college student at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia. He is originally from Orlando, Florida.
Eneas
Mexican Photographer. I started shooting film when I was 15, in high school. I moved to digital in 2005. I've been a very active Flickr member since then, which has allowed me to share my work with the world. I'm currently in the process of learning all about photojournalism and getting the necessary experience to work for a newspaper or magazine. Formally, I studied English Literature up to Master's.
Specialty: Photography, Mexico
Website: http://www.flickr.com/photos/eneas
Eric Sondheimer
Eric Sondheimer has been covering high school sports in Southern California since 1976. He has been a sports columnist for the Los Angeles Times since 1997. Before that, he worked for the Los Angeles Daily News and for The National Sports Daily. He is a graduate of Cal State Northridge and co-author of the book, "College Football's Most Memorable Games, 1913 through 1990," published in 1992.
Eva Steele-Saccio
Eva Steele-Saccio is an editor and writer based in New York. Her articles have appeared in GOOD Magazine, Surface Magazine, and on MotherJones.com. She also writes for children’s television on PBS.
Evan Greenberg
Evan Greenberg currently resides in New York City via American University (Washington, DC) and Newton, MA.
Ezra Roth
Ezra is a Religion Major with a Chemistry Correlate at Vassar College. As a part of the class of 2010, he refused to go abroad now in favor of setting sail later. Living in New York is abroad enough for this Minnesota man. As chair of the Vassar branch of Hunger Action, he often raises funds to buy food and then cook it for those who need it. This Fall, Ezra is interning in the lovely and professional marketing department at Kenneth Cole Productions. In general, he enjoys casual conversations and watching It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia.
Farhad Warasta
Farhad Warasta was first introduced to photography by his father, an Afghan immigrant whose business utilized commercial photography. Growing up in New York, Farhad developed a tradition of scanning Sunday newspapers for news of his father’s old country. Often this exercise was fruitless, eventually the internet gave consistent news, never good, and then in 2001 the flood gates opened. Farhad has traveled to several countries in Asia, North America, and Europe always with a camera. In 2004 he exhibited his first photo essay, about Japan. Currently Farhad is working to refocus American attention on the war in Afghanistan, in hopes that rebuilding will be revitalized and echo European reconstruction in the 1940s.
Specialty: Photography
Website: http://www.FarhadWarasta.com
Glen Pepin
Glen Pepin is a Photographer who moonlights as a Project Manager at a multi national Tech company during the day. Glen enjoys photographing people both candid and posed and has shot some weddings in an attempt to make some money in order to support his photography habit. You can see more of Glen's work here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/relativestranger/
Specialty: Photography
GOOD Magazine
GOOD is a multimedia company creating content at the intersection of entertainment and relevance across the print, web and live events platforms. GOOD provides a new voice in media, embracing this generation’s merger of capitalism and idealism, and bringing together a community of smart, engaged, creative, ambitious individuals who “give a damn.” GOOD’s mission is to stimulate the culture of good by creating dialogue around things that matter. As a lifestyle brand, GOOD reflects a movement toward pragmatic idealism expressed through business, politics, culture and more.
Website: http://www.goodmagazine.com
Graziano "Cino" Bocchi
Graziano “Cino” Bocchi was born in 1971 in Cremona, Italy. He currently resides in the northern Italian city of Piacenza.
At the age of 13 he spent the whole summer harvesting fields in order to buy his first camera, an Olympus OM-10, which has been his loyal companion for 15 years.
In 2005, in an effort to expand the range of his photographic achievements, he attended some workshops with Alexandra Boulat and Lorenzo Castore, after which his approach to photography changed drastically.
In 2007 he created “In Pixels We Trust (in film too),” a non-periodic collective photographic slide show presenting interesting works of young (and not so young) artists. In the same year he organized the photo-contest “Integralism and differences” within the “2mille1: For a culture of differences” cultural festival.
He currently works as a freelance IT teacher, in addition to spending his spare time photographing his surroundings with a particular focus on social issues, the movements that are dealing with them and the troublesome question of historical memory.
At the moment he is working on several projects aiming to give voice to the issues of psychiatric victims and to foster the values originated among the Partigiani during the Resistance Movement to the Fascist regime in Italy.
Website: http://flickr.com/cinocino
Gregory Montaño
I am 20 years old and I’m a film student in Mexico City.
I took interest in photography when I was 17 years old and since then it's been a real hobby to me.
Specialty: Photography
Website: http://www.flickr.com/photos/freg/
Hans Proppe
Hans Proppe has been a lifelong hobby photographer - combined with my penchant for travel and work related "re-locations". He has a substantial archive of images - many of them can be found in the four years that he have been uploading daily images to his site on flickr.
He has produced over sixty hours of television, movies and mini-series, including "Into Thin Air: Death on Everest", "Path to 9/11" and the Peabody and Emmy award winning "Anne Frank".
Heather Dumford
After graduating from University of Georgia in 2005, Heather moved to New York and began her career at Kirschenbaum Bond + Partner’s media department, The Media Kitchen, working on two vastly different accounts, Limited Brands and PBS. Her love for fashion and desire to instigate social change naturally led her to Kenneth Cole Productions in 2007 to begin work as Marketing Manager, Media. To her, the Kenneth Cole Blog enables the company to participate in dialogue around the issues held dear for the past 25 years, which is key in not only explaining the brand and its heritage to consumers but also in encouraging action for social progress. In her spare time, she enjoys visiting New York City art galleries as well as spending time in the kitchen, concocting her own artistic creations.
Website: http://www.kennethcole.com
HELPUSA
HELP USA is a national not-for-profit organization with a mission to empower the homeless and others in need to become and remain self-reliant. Through the development of quality housing with on-site support services, HELP USA provides resources for its residents to become independent and productive. We break the cycle of dependency by addressing underlying causes in a way that respects the dignity of those we serve. We help our clients help themselves.
Living in a pleasant, safe environment elevates clients’ expectations for themselves, and motivates them to realize their full potential. HELP USA residences do not sacrifice aesthetics for security.
The comprehensive continuum of services offered at HELP USA residences includes employment training and placement, life skills education, childcare, and domestic violence counseling. As clients build confidence and skills, they take control of their lives and find a new beginning.
Specialty: homelessness
Ian Witlen
Ian Witlen is an internationally shown freelance photographer living and working in South Florida. He specializes in photojournalism, documentary, editorial and commercial photography. From the time he got his first camera at the age of six, Ian’s passion for photography has grown exponentially over the years. He started his career as a photographer’s assistant on shoots for well known fashion magazines and advertising campaigns. Some of his clients include the Chicago Tribune, Village Voice, Cirque Du Soleil, Interview, and HEEB Magazine.
His portfolio can be seen at: theCameraClicks.com. His daily photography can be seen on flickr.
Specialty: Photography
Website: http://www.thecameraclicks.com
Igor Smirnoff
Igor Smirnoff is the founder of Joyjobs.com, a website with the focus on international employment for US, UK and Canadian educators. Igor graduated from the Archangel University in Russia. He now shares his time between Oregon USA and Western France. Website: igorsmirnoff.com.
Specialty: Photography
Website: http://www.igorsmirnoff.com/
James Michael Thorne
James Michael Thorne is a London based freelance photojournalist with a degree in Multimedia Design and Technology from Brunel University. Over the past three years he has documented various social and political protests in the UK, and has had a number of images published in print and web based publications around the world. His long term goal is to work for Aid Agencies and Non- Governmental Organizations around the world.
Specialty: Photography
Jane Eggleton
Jane Eggleton is the Communications Manager for Crisis U.K., a British charity that fights homelessness and empowers people to fulfill their potential and transform their lives.
Website: www.crisis.org.uk
Jay Black
Jay Black is an internationally published poet and photographer who lives in Vancouver, Canada. The past three years have seen his poetry, and French translations of it, appear in 25 literary reviews in 8 countries. His self-published bilingual collection -- Blackbird Hollow : Le creux du merle -- recently won two awards at an international competition of fine arts in France. As a photographer, he seeks to document the socioeconomic impacts of the coming 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games on Canada's poorest neighbourhood, Vancouver's Downtown Eastside. He uses his camera to confront protests and demonstrations against rising real estate values and accelerated gentrification, displacement and homelessness in the lead up to the Games. Black's pop photojournalistic approach allows for intriguing, street-level coverage of activist organizations. His photography may be viewed on Flickr, on the National Film Board of Canada media for social change web site CITIZENShift and on the Homeless Nation website. Jay has a full-time day job at a City of Vancouver operated community recreation centre.
Jenny Buccos
Jenny is the Founder of
Specialty: Filmmaker, Producer, and World-traveller
Website: http://www.projectexplorer.org
Jethro Soudant
Jethro Soudant is based in Buffalo, NY, and enjoys the low overhead. He can be anywhere in the world in under 24 hours, provided there's an airport. When he's not out photographing US Presidential contenders and their handlers, he ekes out a living making pictures of fabulously glamorous models and inanimate objects for book covers. He and his cameras are currently haunting strip malls in the Northeastern United States.
Specialty: Photography
Website: http://jethrosoudant.com/
Jhara DeLaCruz
After graduating with a psychology degree in May; Jhara decided that it was time to pursue her true passion and turned her attention towards her writing. After being accepted into an English Master’s Program at Montclair State University she has had the opportunity to write about everything and anything; and loves it. Her main focus today is to make her readers aware of important issues and all the different ideologies referring to them. She is also an avid and devoted music writer and truly believes the music has immense power and can be used to translate many ideas.
Joey Pantoliano
Joey Pantoliano is an Emmy Award-winning film and TV actor. He is also the founder of No Kidding, Me Too!, a nonprofit organization that unite members of the entertainment industry in educating the public about mental illness.
[Image: Zach Dilgard]
Specialty: Actor, activist
Website: http://www.joeypants.com/
Jonathan Rougeot
Jonathan is an award-winning online, magazine, and newspaper journalist who has been covering news, arts, business, and technology for more than a decade. He has known he was gay since he first heard Madonna sing "Burning Up." He does not credit Madonna with making him gay, though; that he attributes to his genes. He is currently the managing editor of ComputerShopper.com. He and his partner, Craig, live in New York City.
Specialty: Gay Rights Activist
Jonathan Walton
Jonathan Walton is a published author, poet, and motivational speaker from Brodnax, a town in rural southern Virginia. After a life-changing motorcycle accident 6 years ago, he has devoted his life to advocating for underprivileged youth and spreading a message of purpose, compassion and justice rooted in his Christian faith.
Specialty: Faith, Art, and Activism
Website: http://www.jonathanwalton.net
Joshua S. Treviño
Joshua S. Treviño is the founder of Trevino Strategies and Media, Inc. When notworking, he pursues his PhD in political science at the University of California at Davis. His professional experience includes leading scholars at a think tank, working as“consultant” for a big multinational management consulting firm, writingspeeches for the George W. Bush Administration, a stint in New York City atvarious dot.coms and service in the United States Army. His unprofessional experiences include crashing a Palestinian maternity clinic, making friends with Sandinista girls, and attending Divine Liturgy with the Pope.
He is a longtime blogger, having founded the now-defunct tacitus.org and cofoundedredstate.com, among others. None of his writings reflect the views or values present, except the ones you find especially laudatory.
JRJenny
The first time I ever realized that photography was more than magazine ads and senior portraits was in high school during a band field trip to Scotland. Witnessing the incredible beauty of the world even in the ordinary changed me during that week. Since then, the camera has become like an extension of my being. Whether it’s volunteering to take photos for my college’s art’s and entertainment magazine, taking senior photos of students at no cost, or losing my dignity in my retail photography job, it seems I am never more than a few feet away from a camera. I love documenting the extraordinary and the mundane for the simple fact that life itself comprises of so many different colors, contrasts and exposures. A hundredth of a second here, or a hundredth of a second there… I don’t want to forget any of them.
Specialty: Photography
Julie Dermansky
Julie Dermansky was born NYC in 1966. She got a BFA from TulaneUniversity. She has completed major public art projects and shows internationally. She is working on aseries about Dark Tourism including genocide memorials and sites of historic blight. She is also developing a project utilizing Tulane’s Natural History Collections that will combine her post-Katrina series with her work on natural history and anthropology within a natural history context. The Chicago Field Museum has incorporated aspects of her project in their show Called “Nature Unleashed that opened in May 2008 and will travel to eight other natural history museums.
Dermansky has also been documenting the Louisiana National Guard at work. She published a book called “Under the Radar” after spending several weeks Riding along with them. This work led her to Iraq, where she is now, to follow up with some of the guard she shot in New Orleans, Dermansky was awarded an NEA fast track grant for her work at the Everhart Museum and is a Thomas J. Watson Fellow. She was recently Named an Affiliate Scholar at Rutgers University’s Center for the Study of Genocide and Human Rights. She is available for editorial work and private commissions.
Specialty: Photography
Website: http://juliedermansky.blogspot.com/
Julie Turkewitz
Julie Turkewitz is a photographer, reporter and recent graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She has interned at The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and The Baltimore Sun, covering immigration issues, social trends and the pollution of an Atlanta neighborhood by a waste plant. She loves journalism because it allows her to explore new issues and meet new people every day. She will spend half of Summer 2008 as a photo intern at the (Raleigh) News & Observer and the other half working on a documentary project in Thailand. She plans to move to Buenos Aires in September. You may view her photos here and her writing here.
Specialty: Photography, Writing
Website: http://www.flickr.com/photos/24867313@N02/sets/72157604182230981/show/
Kara Dallal
After graduating from the University of Michigan, Kara began her career in advertising, working as a media planner. After a couple years, she decided to return to graduate school at Columbia University to obtain a masters degree in organizational psychology with a minor in counseling. She now works at Kenneth Cole as the Internship Coordinator, managing the internship program. She not only works to find the company interns but strives to assure that each intern is having the best experience possible. While now pursuing a path more related to counseling and psychology, Kara often misses her media days and was delighted to learn that Kenneth Cole had a blog she could participate in, especially one that serves as a platform to discuss social change!
Katie Halper
Raised on the mean streets of New York City's Upper West Side, Katie Halper is a comic, writer, blogger, satirist and filmmaker based in New York. Katie co-founded Laughing Liberally, a political comedy collective that performs around the country, and is an artistic director of The Tank, a non-profit performing and visual arts space in Manhattan. Katie performs comedy throughout the country and can be seen at venues including Town Hall, Symphony Space, and The Culture Project in New York, and at NetRoots Nation (the Convention formerly known as Yearly Kos). Katie has performed with Lizz Winstead, The Yes Men, and Jim Hightower.
Katie's political satire appears regularly on the front pages of the Huffington Post, Alternet, Open Life, Working Life, Culture Kitchen, 23/6, and Participant Production's Social Action and media website Takepart.com. Most recently, Katie has started writing a humor column for the journal the Progressive Populist . Katie's comic essay on secular Judaism was published by J Books and Secular Culture & Ideas in their memoirs issue. Katie has been interviewed or featured in the LA Times, In These Times, Air America, The Sam Seder Show, The Mark Maron show, Laura Flanders' GritTV, WBAI, Sirius Radio, and XM radio POTUS (whose host hung up on Katie after she mentioned the media's silence over a certain McCain incident involving "the C word.")
Katie's award-winning documentary, La memoria es vaga, about historical memory in Spain, has been screened throughout Spain and the U.S. Katie is currently editing her next documentary Another Camp is Possible a documentary about a social justice summer camp, Camp Kinderland, which she, along with her mother and grandmother, attended. The film focuses on The World Peace Olympics, the camp's version of Color Wars.
Specialty: Politics
Website: http://Katiehalper.com
Kelly T. Gaule
Kelly T. Gaule is a native of New Orleans, LA. Her career in the non-profit sector originated at the New Orleans Symphony Orchestra as a part-time employee while she attended Loyola University. During her tenure at the New Orleans Symphony she rose to the position of Assistant Director of Development. She brings over twelve years of development experience to her current role as the Director of Development at the AIDS Action Committee.
Kelly learned “in the trenches” at the Symphony how vital donor relations are to the success of a not-for-profit. She has fostered this belief with organizations she has had the privilege to work for, including the Whitehead Institute at MIT, the Boston Living Center and the Initiative for a Competitive Inner City. Kelly also teaches this to students at the Simmons School of Social Work as an instructor with the Urban Leadership Program.
Website: http://www.aac.org/
Kenneth Cole
A renowned American designer and humanitarian, Kenneth Cole, has been on the frontline of fashion trends and important social issues for more than 25 years. Ever since innovatively launching Kenneth Cole Productions in 1983 from the back of a 40-foot trailer truck in New York City, he has been shaking up the fashion establishment. In the process, Kenneth Cole has become just as well known for his social activism as his shoes and clothing. At Kenneth Cole Productions, he is the ultimate driving force and creative director in all areas from design to marketing. As Chairman to The Foundation for Aids Research (amfAR) Kenneth Cole has made it his business to fuse fashion with social action. Kenneth is also a board member of the Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA) and The Sundance Institute. Mr. Cole resides in Westchester, New York with his wife Maria Cuomo Cole and their three daughters.
[Image: Timothy Greenfield-Sanders]
Website: http://www.kennethcole.com
Kevin Lam
Kevin Lam is a freelance photographer based out of Toronto, Canada. He combines his interests in social documentary photography and travel to explore the world through his camera. His photographs have been featured in various publications, documentary films and museum exhibits. To see more of his photographic work, check out his personal Website .
Website: http://www.kevinlamphoto.com/
KR
Kathleen Reynolds lives in Maplewood NJ where she is constantly inspired by what regular people do to make the neighborhood/community/world a wonderful place to be! She is a former Kenneth Cole Productions employee.
Kresta King Cutcher
Kresta King Cutcher Venning is a former English and Eastern Philosophy teacher who now uses photography to raise awareness and support for humanitarian issues. She has taught at the university and secondary level, and was elected into the Who's Who of America's Teachers 2000 – 2006 and Who's Who Among American Women (2005-2006). Her primary subjects include at-risk women and children, orphans, education, employment, genocide, AIDS, and spiritual practice. In 2007, she received an international scholarship to complete a Masters of Photography at The Arts Institute at Bournemouth, England.
In 2005, as part of its “Seeking Needed Actions for Peace” Program, Kodak’s not-for-profit SNAP Foundation sponsored Ms. Venning’s project to teach photography to 70 orphans at Gisimba Memorial Centre in Kigali, Rwanda, an orphanage directed by genocide hero Damas Gisimba. Ms. Venning's work has since been published worldwide by academic institutions, scholars, artists, organizations, and businesses such as The University of London, Chapman University, UNICEF, The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, CARE, The United Nations, and The Lonely Planet.
Ms. Venning was married in 2007 and is expecting her first child in May 2008. She lives on the south coast of England.
Pearl Children
Sisters of Rwanda
Images of Rwanda
Africa Mission Alliance
KT Tunstall
Kate "KT" Tunstall was born on June 23rd, 1975 in St Andrews, Scotland. UK is a BRIT Award winning, Grammy-nominated Scottish singer and songwriter. She broke into the public eye with a performance on Later with Jools Holland of her song "Black Horse and the Cherry Tree". She has enjoyed commercial and critical success since, selling over four million albums and picking up three BRIT Awards for Best British Female Solo Artist, two Grammy nominations and a Mercury Music Prize nomination. In 2005 she outsold every other female artist in the UK. She also won the Ivor Novello Best Song award for writing Suddenly I See.
Her first name is Kate but she chose to go by KT as her first name, saying "[Kate] just makes me think of a buxom lass baking bread for her man working in the fields. I have no problem with that, but it's just not really how I pictured being a rock star."
In September 2007, she released her popular album, Drastic Fantastic. You can keep updated of her tour date schedule with this easy to use widget: http://www.gydget.com/my_widget/38/show?page=promote
Specialty: Music
Website: http://www.kttunstall.com/
Latoya Peterson
A certified media junkie, Latoya Peterson provides a hip-hop feminist and anti-racist view on pop culture with a special focus on video games, anime, American comics, manga, magazines, film, television, and music. Her perspectives have been quoted in the Boston Globe, CNN, the Guardian (UK), The Metro-Times (Detroit), ColorsNW , the Austin Chronicle and Newsweek and she regularly speaks on topics of race, gender, and social media at conferences like WAM! (Women, Action and the Media) and SXSW (South by Southwest).
Skilled in interviewing, creative non-fiction, and editorial content, Latoya Peterson spends her time editing the blog Racialicious.com - the intersection of race and pop culture. She has written for The American Prospect, Bitch Magazine, Clutch Magazine, the Women's Review of Books, Slate, and the Guardian. Her essay, "The Not Rape Epidemic" was published in the anthology Yes Means Yes: Visions of Female Sexual Power and a World Without Rape (Seal Press, 2008). She is currently a Sense Making Fellow at the Poynter Institute and will spend the next year working on projects related to the future of new media, journalism, race, and video games.
Specialty: race, journalism, pop culture, video games, feminism
Website: http://www.alteregomaniacs.com/
Liza Sabater
Liza Sabater has been blogging since 2001. Her work as an activist, technologist and culture critic, has made her one of the top latina bloggers in the US.
She is founder and publisher of culturekitchen, which has been described as a culture pundits' safe haven and of The Daily Gotham, the largest progressive community site dedicated to political microcosm of New York City.
Specialty: Activist. Web Evangelist. Blogdiva.
Website: http://www.culturekitchen.com
Louise Reid Ritchie
Louise Reid Ritchie is a photographer and peace activist who lives in Tallahassee, Florida. She enjoys using her camera to document activities and issues related to social justice as well as things reflecting the beauty of the world. She believes the artist appears and the butterfly spreads its wings. You can see her pictures at Flickr.com, where she is known as Mettamomma
Specialty: Photography
Luke Montgomery
Luke Montgomery is the co-founder of WeCanBuildanOrphanage.com, an interactive charity building a home, clinic and school for AIDS orphans in Haiti. Passionate about helping children and obsessed with leveraging the power of "good ideas for good causes," Luke has worked as a marketing and Internet fundraising consultant for non-profits. His work as a media strategist has captured front page coverage in The New York Times, Washington Post, USA Today and Los Angeles Times among others. His projects have been the on-air talk of John Stewart, David Letterman, Howard Stern, Rush Limbaugh, Donahue and Pamela Anderson. Luke's TV producer credits include a documentary aired in-part on CNN, a 30-minute comedy series pilot and a pet adoption TV special starring Drew Barrymore and Kelsey Grammer. Other celebrities recruited to his work include Larry King, Alicia Silverstone and Jack Lemmon. His consulting has focused on animal welfare with work including the Humane Society of the United States and the SPCA of Canada. Luke was founder of Adopt-a-Pet.com, a national non-profit pet adoption website that saves tens of thousands of homeless pets every month. Luke divides his time between Haiti, Montréal and San Francisco.
Specialty: pets, charity, adoption
Website: http://www.wecanbuildanorphanage.com
Maggie Fessler
In her mind's eye, Maggie has been taking stills of her surrounding for as long as she can remember.
Born and raised in Salzburg, Austria she values tradition but enjoys reinventing it even more. Living in Canada taught her about the importance of staying true to herself, studying in Greece taught her to slow down and enjoy the moments she is given.
A degree in education made her realize two things:
Children never fail to amaze her and teaching wasn't providing her with the creativity I longed for. In 2005 she moved to the San Francisco Bay Area.
Today, she is a professional wedding and portrait photographer and can't think of anything she'd rather be. A hint of OCD blessed her with an eye for details but it was the thought of capturing the candid that first intrigued her abut this medium.
Specialty: Photography
Mandar Sengupta
Mandar Sengupta is from West Bengal, India.
He has a masters degree in Zoology. His hobbies are photography, drawing cartoons, reading books and listening to music. His passion in life is photography. Click here to view his photography. .
Specialty: Photography, Zoology
Marc Schiller
Marc Schiller is the CEO of the New York based digital brand strategy agency, ElectricArtists.
Website: http://www.hyperempowered.com
Marcella Rosen
In July 2002, Marcella established Campus Truth Foundation, to combat intolerance on college campuses.
Marcella has held top management positions in advertising and internet companies. She has been president of Trager-Rosen Inc. and Executive Vice President and a Corporate Director of NW Ayer Inc, one of the largest ad agencies.
Marcella is a Director of the 92nd St Y, the Jewish Community Relations Council, the Heschel School and the Hebrew Free Loan Society. Previously, she was a Director of the Advertising Council, The Audit Bureau of Circulation, the International Radio and Television Society, Citizens for NYC, the Womens Forum and Barnard College.
She was the Founder and Chair of The Deciding Vote, an ad hoc group in the communications business, which ran a campaign to get women to vote in 1992. The group obtained $3 million in free time and space in major media. (13% more women voted.) She skis, plays tennis and is a pilot.
Website: http://www.campustolerance.com
Mark Bittman
Mark Bittman is the creator of the popular New York Times weekly column, "The Minimalist," and one of the country's best-known and widely admired food writers, beloved for his candor, his non-chef attitude, his straightforward writing style, and his simple recipes. (You can now check him out daily at markbittman.com or at his blog, nytimes.com/bitten.)
Mr. Bittman’s best-selling How to Cook Everything has become the bible of basic cooking for millions of Americans; his most recent book, How to Cook Everything Vegetarian, was one of the best-selling cookbooks of 2007 and is on track to change the way America cooks.
He is the host of the Public Television series Bittman Takes on America's Chefs, which first aired in spring 2005 and won the James Beard Award for the best cooking series of 2005. The second season, The Best Recipes in the World, is currently airing on public television.
How to Cook Everything won the Julia Child general cookbook award, the James Beard general cookbook award, and three other major international cookbook awards; it also spent a record 130 weeks on the L.A. Times Cookbook Hot List. In the late 90s, Mr. Bittman created a best-selling collaboration with the internationally celebrated chef, Jean-Georges Vongerichten. Their classic, Jean-Georges: Cooking at Home with a Four-Star Chef, is widely considered to be among the most accessible chef's cookbooks ever published. Mr. Bittman's first book, Fish—The Complete Guide to Buying and Cooking, currently in its eighth printing, is the best-selling book on the subject. In fall 2005, he published his blockbuster The Best Recipes in the World: More than 1000 International Dishes to Cook at Home. He's also produced the award-winning Minimalist Cookbook series: The Minimalist Cooks at Home, The Minimalist Cooks Dinner, and The Minimalist Entertains, now collected in Mark Bittman's Simple and Easy Recipes from the New York Times.
Website: www.nytimes.com/bitten
Mark Harrington
Mark Harrington joined the seminal AIDS activist group, ACT-UP (the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power) in 1988, five years after receiving his bachelor's degree from Harvard University. As a member of ACT-UP's Treatment and Data Committee, Mark helped plan and execute ACT-UP's "Seize Control of the FDA" demonstration in 1988 and its "Storm the NIH" demonstration in 1990. The events helped initiate a fundamental shift in regard to how the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH), and other government agencies addressed HIV community health priorities.
Mark wrote and edited many reports for ACT-UP, including three editions of the National AIDS Treatment Research Agenda (1989–91). He was a founding member of the US AIDS Clinical Trials Group (ACTG) Community Constituency Group, serving from 1990 to 1993 on the ACTG Opportunistic Infections and Primary Infection Committees.
In 1992, Mark and 20 other AIDS activists cofounded the Treatment Action Group (TAG). The group scored its first major victory when a groundbreaking report he coauthored with Gregg Gonsalves, AIDS Research at the NIH: A Critical Review (1992), led to federal legislation restructuring the NIH AIDS research effort and strengthening the NIH Office of AIDS Research, signed into law by President Bill Clinton in June 1993.
At the Eighth International AIDS Conference in Amsterdam in July 1992, Mark delivered a plenary address entitled "Pathogenesis and Activism," using slides of his own HIV-infected lymph nodes to illustrate critically important unanswered questions about the basic science of HIV infection. In 1993, he wrote The Crisis in Clinical AIDS Research, an exposé of inadequate clinical trials then being carried out by the ACTG, the U.S. Department of Defense, and others.
Mark edited and cowrote two TAG reports that were influential in the development of HIV protease inhibitors: Rescuing Accelerated Approval: Moving Beyond the Status Quo (1994) and Problems with Protease Inhibitor Development Plans (1995). He served as an ad hoc community representative at several meetings of the FDA Antiviral Drugs Advisory Committee, and also served on the NIH AIDS Research Program Evaluation Working Group (the Levine Committee), whose 1996 report called for sweeping restructuring of the NIH AIDS research program.
Mark received a MacArthur Foundation Fellowship in 1997, and that same year he became TAG's senior policy director. In 1998 he delivered a plenary speech, "Cure: Myth or Reality?" at the Twelfth World AIDS Conference in Geneva, where he showed the impact of progressive HIV infection on one of his lymph nodes, and the impact of antiretroviral therapy; he called for studies on when to start antiretroviral therapy, and for massively increased treatment access in developing countries.
In 1999 Mark helped organize the first of three Structured Treatment Interruption Workshops cosponsored by TAG, the Foundation for AIDS and Immune Research, and Project Inform. He served on the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) Panel on Antiretroviral Guidelines for Adults and Adolescents from 1996 to 2008. He is a member of the writing group that produces and updates the World Health Organization (WHO) Guidelines for Antiretroviral Therapy for HIV Infection in Resource-Limited Settings, and is a member of the WHO advisory groups for tuberculosis (TB) and for HIV, and of the Stop TB Partnership's Global TB/HIV Working Group and its Multidrug Resistant (MDR)-TB Working Group.
Mark has coauthored papers published in The Lancet, PloS Medicine, Science, and other journals.
Specialty: HIV/AIDS, health care
Website: http://www.treatmentactiongroup.org
Mark William Brunner
I like to travel independently and to make the street portrait as I walk the cities, towns.
Specialty: Photography
Martha Burzynski
Martha Burzynski is a Brooklyn-based writer and photographer. Her work has appeared in The Village Voice, Publisher's News (UK), and online for Gawker Media, Gothamist LLC, The Black Table and many others. She
is available for freelance projects in New York and beyond. [Headshot Photo Credit: Bill Wadman]
Specialty: Photography
Martin Olson
Martin Olson found his first camera, a red plastic point-and-shoot, abandoned on a park bench in the small harbor town of Öregrund, Sweden. Born just outside Stockholm, Martin had moved to exotic (to him) suburban New Jersey at the age of 7 and was back visiting his home country for the summer. He dutifully dropped the camera off at the small local police station and was told that if nobody came to claim it, it would be mailed to him in the US via his grandmother. A month later the camera arrived in New Jersey, although, sadly, grandma Luppe had decided to remove the nearly finished roll of film.
20 years later, after thousands of photos and a degree in high school history education, Martin lives and works in Brooklyn as a Web developer. He tries to stay busy with as many creative things as he can cram in, including a number of musical projects. He is always carrying around a camera to indulge in a bit of photography when something interesting pops up. He still tries to get back to Sweden when he can but has yet to find another piece of consumer electronics just lying around.
Marvin del Cid
Guatemalan photographer and passionate about the digital world! Marvin del Cid is a Motion Graphics professor at the New York Parsons School of Design affiliate in Santo Domingo, Altos de Chavon School of Design. Ecological activist and scuba diving aficionado. With more than 10 years of photography experience, he has participated in various collective exhibitions and in 2008 held his first individual show. His work has been published in several magazines, newspapers and books. His web projects range from blogs to photography galleries as in guate360.com and dominicana360.com . For more info on Marvin del Cid, visit marvindelcid.com.
Specialty: photography, motion graphics, design, Guatemala, scuba
Website: http://www.marvindelcid.com/
Mary Catherine Hamelin
Mary Catherine Hamelin is a performer, writer, photographer and mother living in Los Angeles. You may visit her blog here and her photography site here.
Website: http://www.mchphotography.com
Mary Schafrath
Mary is a freelance graphic designer with experience in branding, identity and editorial development for print and multi-media. Her clients include Robert Valentine, Maryjane Fahey Studio, YARD NYC and Kenneth Cole Productions. Working with the AWEARNESS -Kenneth Cole brand in the fall of 2008 inspired Mary to take her social convictions to the next level by volunteering in Peru for the winter and spring of 2009. Living and volunteering in South America has granted Mary a unique freedom to explore design solutions to problems that are outside of the box. Much of the photography and writing from her blogs was also directed toward marketing campaigns for small tourist ventures. Returning to New York, her goal is to design and art direct projects that allow her to continue this spirit of ingenuity, creative freedom and honesty.
Website: http://www.msdesigns.us
Matt Falloon (aka Smoke Feathers)
Matt is the lead singer and songwriter in British-based alternative soul band Smoke Feathers. He has worked as a journalist in South America and Europe and currently lives in London with his wife where Smoke Feathers have built a reputation as one of the capital's most mesmerizing live acts. They have gained notoriety for giving away most of their music at their MySpace page and can count Ian Brown (ex-Stone Roses) and Shaun Ryder (Happy Mondays) among those caught nodding their heads in approval. They are currently up for Best Alternative Act in the UK 2008 INDY Music Awards, a contest decided via a public email vote.
Website: http://www.myspace.com/smokefeathers
Matthew C Wright
Matthew C. Wright is a San Francisco-based photographer with strong ties to Austin, where he lived for 8 years before moving out west in September. He's a huge fan of Andre Kertesz, the San Antonio Spurs, and breakfast tacos. You can visit his Photoblog here. .
Specialty: Photography
Website: http://mattwrightphotography.com
Matthew Wisniewski
Matthew Wisniewski is a student photojournalist at the University of Wisconsin. After graduation, he hopes to pursue a career in photography. You can view his work on Flickr or on his website. His love for photography stems from his relationship with his beautiful girlfriend Megan. You can view their combined work here. Matthew has been published in or worked for a variety of different publications in Wisconsin, including the
Website: www.matthewwisniewski.com
Melanie Lary
Originally from Dallas, TX, Melanie is a lifelong animal lover and a passionate advocate for animal welfare issues. She graduated with a BS in Biology from Skidmore College in 2000 and earned a Master of Science degree in Animals and Public Policy from the Tufts University, School of Veterinary Medicine in 2006. An avid photographer, Melanie adores exploring the outside world and feels blessed to have spent an amazing year abroad, living and traveling throughout Australia and New Zealand. She is currently pursuing a career in the animal welfare field as a Programs and Research Associate for a non-profit, animal advocacy organization based in Boston, MA.
Specialty: Protecting Animal Rights
Melissa Fendell Moschitto
Melissa Fendell Moschitto is a playwright and director living in NYC. As the founding artistic director of The Anthropologists, a NYC-based ensemble company, she has developed the original work Give Us Bread (based on the 1917 NYC food riots), Falling, The Columbus Project and The Potato Play. Other directing credits include The Developer (Brooklyn Playwrights Collective) and Walkabout (The Flea). As a playwright, her full-length play When Santo Domingo Isn't Enough was a Top Ten Finalist for Repertorio Espanol's National Play Competition, Nuestras Voces in 2007 and won Best Play at the 5th Annual Downtown Urban Theater Festival at the Cherry Lane Theatre in June 2006. Melissa has trained with SITI Company and was a directing apprentice to Ricardo Iniesta, director of Companía Atalaya (Seville, Spain). She holds a B.A. in Theatre from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. Melissa currently lives in Washington Heights.
Specialty: Theater
Website: http://www.theanthropologists.org/
Michael Bouldin
Michael Bouldin was born into an Air Force family in California in 1970. He grew up, as service kids often do, all over the world, mainly in the United States, Germany and the United Kingdom. Michael speaks several languages and has a Master’s Degree in Communications, Political Science and Comparative Literature from the Gutenberg University in Mainz, Germany.
His background is in traditional and interactive advertising, in which fields he has worked for numerous domestic and foreign blue chip clients in the automotive, finance, banking, consumer and travel sectors. He started his own firm in 2002.
Michael got involved in Democratic causes during the Presidential election of 2004, when he served as a fundraiser for the Democratic National Committee and worked on the final push in Columbus, Ohio. Presently, he serves on NDM’s Board as a Director of Events. He is also primarily responsible for the organization’s online activities, is involved in strategy, and keeps on eye on judicial nominations.
In the blogosphere, Michael serves as Managing Editor of The Daily Gotham, one of New York State's top Progressive blogs, and is a contributing editor of CultureKitchen, one of the top national blogs.
Website: http://advolabs.com/
Michael Karnjanaprakorn
Michael Karnjanaprakorn wakes up everyday to make the world a better place. He is the Co-Founder of All Day Buffet, a social innovation brand for creative mavericks. Michael has dedicated his professional life to increase social innovation through the power of creativity and entrepreneurship. By challenging the conventions of phlianthropy and making it "cool", he hopes to get the world full on good. He's been spotted eating crawfish in New Orleans and known to be one of the greatest Photo Hunt players alive.
Specialty: Helping Others
Website: http://www.alldaybuffet.org
Michaela Hackner
Michaela Hackner is the Director of Online Strategy at World Learning, a US non-profit involved in international experiential education and international development. Prior to this position she worked for a women’s microfinance program in Cambodia and Kenya where she documented her travels heavily through photography and her personal blog.
Michaela had a transformative study abroad experience when she found herself photographing displaced persons in a earthquake relief camp in Bolu, Turkey in 1999, subsequently shifting the path of her life forever. Through her international photography series, Michaela hopes to share a unique window into the world, increase global awareness of poverty, and empower people to make a difference in their own lives. Through a smile in a rural village, a laugh shared between two travelers, or a “thumbwar” in a relief camp, Michaela explores the truth that no experience is too small to have an impact on someone’s life.
Website: http://blog.kalabird.com
Nancy Paiva
Like many ex-pats, Nancy Paiva came to Canada for a short visit, fell in love, and decided to stay and make Canada her home. That was several years ago. Nancy has since explored many paths, taken on many roles, the latest role, that of a photographer has had a profound impact on her life. Her passionate interest in human relationships, capturing and chronicling intimate moments in the lives of people began a few years ago when she purchased her first camera. Since then photography has become an obsession. You will hardly ever see Nancy without her camera in hand or stuffed carelessly in a bag.
Nancy's body of work has become a unique and valuable documentary on Toronto, its districts and its people. Naturally drawn to people, her photographs capture life experiences that go beyond lines etched in their faces. Her photojournalistic style bridges the gap between sensitivity and overt sentimentality.
Nancy's work has appeared in exhibitions, local newspapers, and several magazines. Most recently on the cover of a Canadian photography magazine. Her body of work will continue to grow so long as she will continue to document life in Toronto and beyond.
Specialty: Photography
Natalie Behring
Natalie Behring is an American documentary photographer based in China. Her award-winning work can be viewed at on her personal website, Natalie Behring.
Website: http://www.nataliebehring.com.
Natalie Nowicki
Born in 1987 to Polish political emigrants and raised in Colorado, throughout school Natalie had struggled finding a place to fit in until she took an art class in high school. There, she had found a dormant passion, drawing and painting, and through years of dedication went on to receive two outstanding congressional awards for her artwork. Outside of school, Natalie became a recognized Scottish dancer and athlete. After graduating from high school in 2005, Natalie first attended Colorado State University in Pueblo focusing on business and French. She later transferred to the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York City concentrating in product development.
When not in school, Natalie immerses herself in the world of literature and fashion design. Years before her move to New York, she became a volunteer for the Italian Greyhound Club of America Rescue which focuses on finding a home for abandoned and homeless Italian Greyhounds. Natalie's passionate about not only helping dogs but other animals in need. In her spare time, Natalie likes to conduct random cooking experiments in her kitchen, and tries to make it her duty to go snowboarding in the Rocky Mountains every winter. Among other hobbies and interests, Natalie is fluent in Polish and French, enjoys painting and drawing as a stress reducing medium and would someday like to travel the world.
She now lives in New York City awaiting her degree and currently an intern at Kenneth Cole Productions.
Specialty: fashion, animals, skiing, French, art
Website: http://kennethcole.com
NezuaX
Nezua X. is a published artist and author as well as a blogger at theunapologeticmexican.org and culturekitchen.com. His art and writing has been published in its own book, and his illustration and art appears in many others. In 2007, Nezua won a spot on MTV's Street Team '08 representing Oregon and his recent video work can be seen at think.mtv.com/nezua. In his blogs, Nezua focuses on immigration, the perception and presentation of race in modern-day culture and media, politics, and a philosophical overview of human nature. Also featured regularly are the issues of human rights, police brutality, and the environment. Nezua is the owner of XOLAGRAFIK.com, and has designed many well known blogs online such as LatinaLista.net, ICIRR.org, and The Sanctuary (promigrant.org). Nezua is also a founding editor of The Sanctuary, a blog concentrated on bringing a human rights angle to the immigration dialogue, reform to the political issue, and relief to those being harmed by the lack thereof.
Specialty: Social Rights
Nico Lizarraga
I was born in Buenos Aires, raised in Brooklyn & Queens and am finally at peace with life and love in San Francisco. I run a bed and breakfast with my lady Monnica and am beginning my studies in Nursing this year at City College of San Francisco. I am putting together a website of exclusive performances by some of my favorite musicians. Three performances have been shot and will soon be available on thewellisfullofpennies.com.
Specialty: Photography
Website: http://thewellisfullofpennies.com
Nicole Benedetto
Nicole a Junior at the University at Albany is currently majoring in Communications and working on a double minor in Business and Sociology. As social chair and active member of the Alpha Phi Fraternity she organizes various events to fundraise for Women’s Cardiac Care and the American Heart Association, as well as planning fun social events with other organizations at her University. She has a strong passion for the art of cooking and testing new ingredients while making a mess of her kitchen! Nicole also enjoys entertaining and satisfying desiring appetites! With a fervent interest in marketing, media and fashion Nicole is interning this summer at Kenneth Cole Productions in their marketing department.
Specialty: communications, women's health, cooking, marketing, fashion
Website: http://kennethcole.com
Ola Jacobsen
Ola Jacobsen has been photographing since college but chose to specialize on written journalism. He has been working for the newspaper Metro in Stockholm, Sweden, since graduating in 2004, today on the technology edition "Metro Teknik". As reporter both for the paper and the tv-show.
Ola has traveled to several countries in Europe and South America and Asia, Iran and U.S. Always with a camera.
Currently Ola is enjoying the benefits of the Swedish welfare system, spending nine months home with his 1-year-old son.
In November Ola opened his first photo exhibition, promoting the teatre play Bagdad Burning in Hemse, Gotland, Sweden.
Specialty: Photography
Website: http://olajacobsen.com/
Oliver Quillia
Oliver Quillia, New York native and freelance photographer can be found at FormDigital.com.
Website: http://formdigital.com
Orhan Tsolak
Orhan Tsolak is a part-time, self-taught photographer, specializing in photojournalism and street photography. He is of Greek-Turkish origin, and lives in London, UK. His color and black & white portfolio can be seen on Flickr.
Specialty: Photography, Social Issues
Pat Jarrett
Pat Jarrett is currently a staff photographer at the News Leader in Staunton, Virginia and pursuing a lifetime of visual journalism.
Jarrett got his start at Kent State University in Ohio where he got used to photographing protest and dissent at the annual May 4 th memorial ceremonies honoring the four students killed in 1970.
Jarrett was the first photographer to work at the local public radio station, 89.7 WKSU, bringing a visual element to public radio and winning an international award for multimedia storytelling. He is currently doing everything in his power to become a photographer for NPR.
Jarrett lives for live music, black coffee, good conversation and the beauty of truth. He is currently being a professional tourist in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia.
Specialty: Photography
Website: http://patjarrett.blogspot.com
Patricia Simpao
Patricia Simpao was born in the summer of 1978 in Manila, Philippines.
Patricia started a love affair with photography when she first stumbled upon a broken, antique camera at the age of 7. From then on, she saved and spent on disposable plastic cameras, instamatic cameras and film rolls until she bought a digital camera in 2003. In hopes and efforts of wanting to take better photographs, she finally purchased a dSLR in 2007 and attended various workshops and classes, after which her interest in photography changed almost drastically. Photographs that tell a story then became her goal.
She is currently a full-time local staff for the development section of a diplomatic mission in Manila, Philippines. Her weekends are mostly devoted to doing random projects to improve her craft, injecting sardonic humor into reality and art, albeit with technical imperfections.
In the future, she hopes to play a bigger role in the development of a third-world nation, be a serious chronicler of the honest state of the society, and go back to film cameras. You may view her photographs here.
Specialty: Photography
Website: http://pattsi.multiply.co
Periel
Periel Aschenbrand is the author of the internationally acclaimed book, The Only Bush I Trust is My Own (Penguin, 2005) as well as the head designer and founder of the tee shirt company, Body as Billboard. She is also the Director of 401 Projects. For more information, please visit www.bodyasbillboard.com.
Website: http://www.bodyasbillboard.com/
Pierce and Nobu
Pierce Jackson is the director of PAPER Tv at PAPER Magazine. He recently completed NYU with a BA in Organizational Behavior. Born in New York City, Pierce Jackson grew up in the SoHo art scene and is a Photographer, DJ, Musician, and Writer. You can find him late night behind the turntables of many of New York’s nightclubs.
Nobu Massiah is an editor/ producer for PAPER Tv at PAPER Magazine. He recently completed NYU as a Film major at the Tisch School of the Arts. Nobu’s interests range from shooting to editing with a focus on screenwriting. When asked about his screenplays he replied that they are written in a very ‘Cassavetian’ style.
Website: http://www.papermag.com
Pietra Brettkelly
Pietra Brettkelly is a passionate documentary maker whose work includes "Beauty Will Save the World" which screened at the American Film Institute Film Festival in Los Angeles and in competition at Hot Docs International Documentary Festival, Toronto and IDFA in Amsterdam. The documentary follows Libya’s first ever beauty pageant and features extraordinary footage of Colonel Gadaffi.
Her most recent film is "The Art Star and the Sudanese Twins," which received critical acclaim at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival.
Pietra produces and directs her own projects which have featured not only on New Zealand networks but internationally.
Primarita Smita
Born in 1985, Primarita S. Smita is an Indonesian who has been living in Canada for almost five years. She is currently a fourth-year Sociology and Women’s Studies student at the University of Toronto. When she is not busy studying for exams or writing papers, she likes to roam the streets of Toronto and observe people and light with a camera in her hand. She first started doing street photography to familiarize herself with the city, and has been passionate about it since. As she finishes up her last semester, she hopes to find a career in the future where she can combine both her love for photography and her education in social justice, especially for women and children. Her photography portfolio is still in progress but her collection of work can be seen on Flickr.
Website: www.flickr.com/photos/mangomargarita
Raymond Fudge
Raymond Fudge entered this world in the month and year of Prince Charles’s birth and Truman’s reelection. Life has taken him around the U.S. and Europe, but he has been hanging out in the Washington, D.C. metro area for the past 30 plus years. Like most folks there, he works for his uncle until he retires in about 2.5 years. He has been a photographer for over 40 years. He did the darkroom thing up until 2003, but now he is 100% digital. For Raymond, picture taking is a fun thing and he has no desire to pursue it as a profession.
Rebecca Haag
Rebecca Haag became the Executive Director of the AIDS Action Committee of Massachusetts in April of 2003. Haag served on the board of AIDS Action since 1996, both as treasurer, vice president and a member of the executive committee.
"I have always cherished my work for AIDS Action," says Haag. "We have a terrific board and a dedicated staff who are in this field because of the difference they can make for people with HIV and AIDS. Our biggest challenge is maintaining services in these difficult budgetary times. I intend to work closely with our public and private funding sources and with the leaders of other HIV/AIDS organization to ensure that there are adequate resources for these important services."
Here is some additional Information about the AIDS Action Committee. Founded in 1983, AIDS Action Committee of Massachusetts is a not-for-profit, community-based health organization whose mission is to stop the HIV/AIDS epidemic by preventing new infections and optimizing the health of those already infected. Through a cooperative and mutually supportive effort between over 70 staff and hundreds of volunteers, AIDS Action seeks to assist and constructively work with people of all cultures by providing services, education, advocacy and prevention.
AIDS Action accomplishes that mission by providing support services for people living with AIDS and HIV; educating the public and health professionals about how to prevent HIV transmission; and advocating for fair and effective AIDS policy at the city, state and federal levels.
AIDS Action provides free, confidential services to 2,500 men, women and children living with HIV/AIDS.
Website: http://www.aac.org
Richard Spencer
Richard Spencer is the managing editor of Taki's Magazine, the online magazine for independent conservatives. He lives in New York.
Website: http://www.takimag.com
Rob B
Rob is Senior Writer at Kenneth Cole Productions and writes for Kenneth Cole New York, Kenneth Cole Reaction, Unlisted, Tribeca, Gentle Souls, AWEARNESS, Kenneth Cole company stores and The Foundation for AIDS Research (amfAR). Rob began his copywriting career at Bartle Bogle Hegarty, and his advertising and marketing work has won numerous national and international awards. Consequently, he has lent a hand to many socially minded organizations and charities, in what he hopes is not a futile attempt to buy back his soul one word at a time. Rob currently resides in Brooklyn with his wife and dog.
Website: http://www.kennethcole.com
Rob Branch-Dasch
Rob Branch-Dasch, AKA Decomprose, has a keen appreciation for the arts and has been capturing his world photographically since pointing his first Instamatic as a child. He is a former radio host and his professional and personal lives allow him to interact with and document cultures around the world. He and his wife support various animal, environmental, and human rights causes and take an active interest in national and international issues.
Robert Genovese
Robert Genovese is the Vice President of Marketing and Media Director at Kenneth Cole Productions.
Robert started his Media career at Wieden + Kennedy, NY and was lucky enough to work on some of the strongest, most recognizable brands (Nike, ESPN, JetBlue) in the world. He credits that experience in acknowledging the critical nature of leveraging a brand’s heritage to be able to develop breakthrough integrated media solutions.
Robert’s team is extremely passionate about the creation of the Kenneth Cole Blog. In his view, the Blog technology will allow the Kenneth Cole New York brand to realize its full potential in breaking down taboos, promoting meaningful conversations and driving awareness of the issues that will affect future generations.
Robert is a native New Yorker and can’t even imagine living anywhere else. He is married to an amazing woman for 10+ years and has two beautiful children.
Specialty: Media, Marketing
Website: http://www.kennethcole.com
Robert J. Rosenthal
Robert Rosenthal is communications director for VolunteerMatch, the Web’s largest and most popular volunteer network with over 63,000 participating organizations. Individuals can find volunteer opportunities and nonprofits can post their needs at www.volunteermatch.org. He’s a regular presenter on topics relating to technology, the nonprofit sector, and media -- and a longtime volunteer who believes there's a cause for everyone. Now based in San Francisco, he is a native of Tucson, Arizona.
Specialty: Volunteering and service
Website: http://www.volunteermatch.org
Robert Kaleta
My name is Robert Kaleta. I was born in 1991 in Gdansk- Poland however three years ago I moved to the UK. If it wasn't for that move I probably wouldn't have discovered my passion for photography, as being in London-probably the demonstration capital of Europe- has exposed me to many different political views.
I'm in my final year of sixth form which is an equivalent to being a senior in the US high school. Next year I will be studying politics which I hope will allow me to expand my views even further and give me a solid foundation on which my career could be built.
Photography is something that I do in my free time however I'm constantly working on my skills and I hope to become a photojournalist with one of the large press agencies.
My photographs can be seen on my flickr and at robkaleta.wordpress.com.
Specialty: Photography
Website: http://robkaleta.wordpress.com/
Robert Whitlock
Robert Whitlock grew up in Minneapolis, Minnesota where he attended The Blake School. He moved to Olympia, Washington in 2002 where he attended The Evergreen State College. At Evergreen, he earned a B.A. in environmental studies. Bert currently is interested in social ethics, politics and the creation of a better world for all.
Specialty: Politics, Social Issues
Rochell Bonamy
I am nothing like a professional photographer. I just am fond of documenting events through photography. I have always used a point-and-shoot method, but I make sure to maximize it. My photographs reflect how I take each in event I experienced. Most of my images yearn to convey a deeper meaning since I believe that each of the events that I capture happen with a purpose. You can view some of my photography here.
Specialty: Photography
Ron Mwangaguhunga
Ron Mwangaguhunga is a freelance writer living in Brooklyn. He is the former Editor of FishbowlNY. He has written for New York Magazine, The Huffington Post, CBSNews.com and Paper magazine. He is currently the editor of The Corsair Blog.
Specialty: The place where Politics and Culture intersect.
Website: http://ronmwangaguhunga.blogspot.com
Sam Slovick
Published extensively in a variety of national and international publications including: Details, Vibe, Interview, Giant, Good, L.A. Weekly, L.A. Yoga Magazine, Whole Life Times, Neon, Nylon, The Face, The Advocate, Curve, Angelino and others, Sam Slovick initially made a splash as self-styled club kid with the critically acclaimed pop band ‘The Pedantiks’ (Elektra Asylum) in the 80’s in New York. A mainstay at CBGB’s, Danceteria and other coveted New York venues he’s shared the stage with everyone from Souxiee and the Banshees to The Beastie Boys. A native of Oshkosh, Wisconsin with no formal training, he was recently nominated for a Pulitzer Prize in journalism, and was a finalist in this years World Hunger Year/Harry Chapin & MAGGY awards for LA Weekly Skid Row series: Slovick received his education on the street and under the tutelage of established writers and artists including the likes of Andy Warhol. He appeared in numerous television shows and films including Jodi Foster’s ‘Home for the Holidays’, John Milius’s epic feature ‘Red Dawn’ and starred in the downtown art feature, “White and Lazy“ to name a few. An accidental journalist, his career began in the late 90’s when he interviewed friend Robert Downey Jr. for a Details Magazine cover story. His ability to access subjects at the street level has garnered wide acclaim. His work as a philanthropic producer includes: The Silver Lining/Silver Lake benefit series with Elton John, Sting, Beck, Aimee Mann, and The Red Hot Chili Peppers. His band “Louie Says” (RCA records) with Clark Stiles (The Good Listeners) features songs that have appeared in numerous films and TV shows. His forthcoming cd, “Free Loader Jamboree will be released on the Centerline Entertainment label in ’07. He has just directed a series of Skid Row documentaries for Good Magazine. He is currently working on a memoir, “Cellophane”.
Website: http://www.myspace.com/samslovick
Sanjeev Thakur
Sanjeev Thakur (b. Dec 1986) is a freelance photographer based in Manila, Philippines. He maintains a personal blog and regularly updates it as he walks the streets.
Website: http://ahappycamper.wordpress.com
Scott Harrison
Scott Harrison spent 10 years as a New York City party planner, promoting events for clients that included MTV, VH1, ABC TV, Cosmopolitan, ELLE, Universal Records, Island Records, Bacardi and Anheuser-Busch. In the fall of 2004, he left the business to serve a team of doctors and surgeons as a volunteer photojournalist onboard a hospital ship in Liberia.
Returning home to New York City a year later, he produced a large exhibition in Chelsea of more than 100 of his photographs and videos from Africa. The show gathered considerable media attention and raised more than $95,000 for medical procedures and freshwater well projects in West Africa.
Following another 6-month journey to West Africa, he returned to New York City to found the non-profit initiative charity: water. Turning his full attention to the global water crisis and the one billion in need of clean and safe water, he and a small team created moving exhibitions in galleries and outdoor parks. charity: water has also produced several awareness video pieces, the latest directed by Hotel Rwanda’s Terry George, and starring oscar-winner Jennifer Connelly.
In the 18 months since charity: water was launched, Scott and his team have raised $2.7M and have funded 481 water projects in 10 developing nations. Learn more about Charity Water here.
Website: http://www.charitywater.org/
Scott Spychalski
I am a Kansas City Missouri based freelance photographer. I specialize in music and concert photography. I would like to contribute to larger magazines and websites in the future and explore the opportunities in photojournalism as well as entertainment photography. Feel free to contact me for any photographic needs, anywhere anytime.
Specialty: Photography
Scott Stater
Scott Stater is a part-time, portrait photographer in Austin, TX. He got his first SLR shortly after his first daughter was born in July 2005. From that time he has self-taught himself everything he knows about photography and constantly strives to learn more.
Specialty: Photography
Website: http://scottstater.com
Sean Posey
Sean Posey is a documentary photographer and student at the Academy of Art University, in San Francisco. He uses his
photography to focus on social issues that he believes effect the very fabric of who we are as a people and a country. He spent the last couple of years documenting the homeless in San Francisco and those who are working to help them. He slept on the streets for a week to get a better glimpse at the story and to build trust. This photographic journey took him from the streets, to camps, shelters, and churches that serve those who live on the streets.
His work has also taken him back east to photograph the economic devastation and the resulting loss of steel jobs in Youngstown,Ohio.
Youngstown is the poster boy for the rust belt and the manufacturing centers of the Midwest. The loss of steel and manufacturing jobs has shattered communities and blighted cities across the Midwest, like Youngstown. You can view his project, "Youngstown: Descent into Darkness".
He also focuses on freelance work and assignments. This type of work can vary from portraits, photojournalism jobs, landscapes and commercial assignments. To him, photography is never work, it's a journey that he takes with my third eye, the camera. He feels fortunate to love what he does and to be able to use his photography to raise awareness about societal ills and concerns.
Specialty: Photography, Social Issues
Website: http://www.seanposey.com
Sharon Blynn
Sharon Blynn is an “actorvist”/writer, ovarian cancer survivor, and founder of Bald Is Beautiful (www.baldisbeautiful.org), a women’s wholeness/cancer awareness organization through which she does spokesperson/advocacy work and is dedicated to activating the media industry to expand and redefine notions of beauty and femininity for all women, empowering women to define that for themselves on their own terms.
Through Bald Is Beautiful, Sharon also promotes proactive — as opposed to reactive — health, and encourages people to nurture their minds, bodies, and spirits while they are healthy instead of waiting for a life-threatening illness to start living a holistic, healthy lifestyle. She is also passionate about generating awareness for ovarian cancer, specifically. There is currently no screening or early detection test for this “silent killer”, and the fatality rate is higher than the more “popular” forms of cancer.
Life motto: Always smile from the inside out!
Website: http://www.baldisbeautiful.org/
Simon Kolton
Born in France living half in Paris and Bangkok, I am 48 old. I work as photographer and graphic designer. I got my first camera when i was 13 years old, a instamatic Kodak.
In Photography my work is rather classic, I was always inspired by the work of photographer as Leonard Freed, Henri Cartier Bresson, Sebastiao Salgado, Marc Riboub for his work on China. What I like it is the contact of people, the work in the wide angle, I like living and feeling people whom I photograph. Show them in their environment natures. For 15 years I fell in love with south east Asia is and more particularly Thailand. For 2 years I started a photo work more in depth on this tentacular city Bangkok. I was always enticed by environment discriminated, one or several people fight to live, and keep their pride, In Bangkok's Street or shantytown, I met humanely extraordinary. I always try to show something positive in my picture, we see. Being of a positive nature, I tempt in my work and my photo to be the most possible positive.
You can see me here on my website and here on flickr.
Specialty: Photography
Website: http://www.doggyshow.com/bookphoto
Skylar Scot
Skylar Scot began taking photographs as a small child, and was given her first camera by her Grandmother when she was 11. She has never taken a photography class, but has dedicated a lot of time, energy, and money into photography. She would like to teach Jr. College or University level Politics someday, while also working as a part-time freelance photojournalist. She has a Bachelor of Arts (Politics) University of California Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz, California, an Associate of Arts - Liberal Arts and Social Sciences - Los Angeles Valley College. She is a writer and photographer for State and City Desk Correspondent for City on a Hill Press in Santa Cruz, California and has won First Place in the Taglit-Birthright Israel Photo Contest -
2003 to Present. Click here to see more of her work.
Sonny Caberwal
Sonny is a Sikh entrepreneur who was born and raised in North Carolina. He currently lives in San Francisco, where he helps startups in the Bay Area identify and execute business development and strategic growth opportunities. He graduated from Duke University in 2001, and Georgetown University Law Center in 2004. Prior to moving to the Bay Area, Sonny lived in Manhattan, where he was a practicing attorney before leaving to co-found Tavalon Tea, a premium tea brand.
Website: www.kennethcole.com
Stéphanie Amesse
Stéphanie Amesse is a writer and photographer based in Ottawa, Canada. Her most recent photos can be seen flickr, and she maintains a blog at seamesse.blogspot.com.
Specialty: Photography
Website: http://seamesse.blogspot.com/
Steve Wyatt
Steve Wyatt is Associate Creative Director at Kenneth Cole Productions and writes for:
Kenneth Cole New York; Kenneth Cole Reaction; Unlisted; Tribeca; Gentle Souls; AWEARNESS; Kenneth Cole company stores; The Foundation for AIDS Research (amfAR); and Help USA.
He’s also worked on creative work for:
The Sundance Institute; Brady Campaign; Two Ten Footwear Foundation; Mentoring USA; Literacy Chicago; New York City Department of Health; and New York Cares.
Steve started his copywriting career at Cheetham Bell in Manchester, England. He soon moved to London and worked for Conquest, a WPP company which later became Red Cell, and then HHCL Red Cell. He worked on a multitude of clients including Alfa Romeo, Singapore Airlines, and UMBRO, to name a few.
Steve is married to a fellow Brit and has a baby daughter (who is a genuine New Yorker and currently has more rights in the U.S. than her parents).
Website: www.kennethcole.com
Ted Soqui
Ted Soqui is a Los Angeles based photojournalist specializing in documenting politicians and news events over the last 20 twenty years. His photographic vision often makes him prefer to shoot in black and white. He believes it removes most of the distractions to show the stark personae of his subjects. Ted has covered many different events including the Katrina flood disaster, the California wild fires, Several Republican and Democratic conventions, and the LA Riots of 1992. His clients include the LA Weekly, Newsweek, Stern, and the New York Times Magazine.
Specialty: Photography
Website: http://tedsoqui.blogspot.com/
Theo Kogan
Prior to forming her band Theo and the Skyscrapers, Theo Kogan had a large following dating back to her days singing with the legendary all female rock band The Lunachicks. As an actress she has worked with Martin Scorcese, Jane Campion and Ben Stiller. She’s a favorite in numerous cult classics including High Times Potluck, Tadpole, Terror Firmer and the animated feature Live Freaky Die Freaky. Her television credits include acting as host of the Fuse show Pants Off, Dance Off, VH1’s ‘My Coolest Years’ ‘Law And Order SVU’,’ Third Watch’ and more. Her involvement in avant-garde theater includes work performed at New York’s Performance Space 122, Screen Test with director Rob Roth the Summer Play Festival and Big Art Group’s Cinema Fury series, which repeatedly takes her to Europe. As a model and muse, she's worked on the campaigns of Calvin Klein, Burberry, Kenneth Cole, Courvoisier, Rimmel and more. Her prolific fashion editorial and runway work includes the collections of David Dalrymple for Patricia Field, Betsey Johnson, Zaldy and Pierrot to name a few. With partner Allison Burns, Theo is launching a new lipgloss line calledArmour Beauty in 2008. She also writes a tough love advice column on. And for fun, she’s a DJ and Party Promoter for some of the hottest parties in New York. For more on Theo visit her myspace page.
Website: http://www.kennethcole.com
Toni Cupo
This is Toni Cupo’s first blog. She is an attorney but has ceased practicing since her young son was diagnosed with cancer in 2007. She is founder and trustee
of Alex’s Superhero Fund, a non-profit foundation created in memory of her son to provide financial assistance to local children with cancer or terminal illness. In addition to holding her own fundraisers, she currently assists other people and organizations in organizing fundraisers for her new foundation. She has also begun giving presentations to school children in attempts to raise awareness and compassion for other children diagnosed with cancer.
Website: www.superherofund.com
Tyler Cacek
Tyler Cacek started taking photos when he was 14, since then, he has won multiple local and national photography awards, including 1st place in color spot news photography at Columbia University's Gold Circle awards. Tyler is currently a staff photographer for Rock Bridge High School's student publication, The Rock, located in Columbia Missouri. Photography has taken Tyler to Kenya, Tanzania, the Netherlands, and across the United States. Tyler plans on attending a major photojournalism university after graduating in 2009. Tyler's photo blog can be viewed here.
Specialty: Photography
Umer Zafar
I am a 29 year old Graphic Designer / Motion Graphic Artist working in Wateen Multimedia, Lahore Pakistan. I have been in the design scene since past 5 years now. Photography is one of main passion and pursue it whenever i have some off time. More of my work can be seen at http://archiepunjabi.deviantart.com/ and at http://www.flickr.com/photos/umerzafar/.
Specialty: Photography, Pakistan
Veronica
Veronica is a professional feminist who directs an office for women majoring in science, technology, engineering and math. She also serves on the boards of the Chicago Abortion Fund, Women In Media & News, and the advocacy council for Women Employed. A partner for 15, wife for 9, and a mom for 5, Veronica blogs about the intersection of feminism and motherhood at her blog Viva la Feminista. While some mommy bloggers started as a response to post-partum depression, Veronica started blogging as a result of post-election (2000) depression.
Specialty: feminism, motherhood, education
Website: http://www.vivalafeminista.com
Wayne Moran
Wayne Moran is a happily married middle aged man, blessed with a fantastic family and a wonderful life. He used to shoot a few pictures way back in college but the business of life and starting a career brought that hobby to an end. Now with a little more time and a little more money he has become obsessively compulsive about the hobby again.
He feels he is an artist trapped in a software engineer’s body. He loves many forms of artistic expression but he absolutely loves this creative outlet of photography because he can see results that truly move people in a relatively short period of time. And he greatly enjoys participating in this large online photography community.
You can find some of his best work on his website.
Specialty: Photography
Website: http://www.waynephotoguy.com/
Zach Dwiel
Zach Dwiel found a programming book at the public library in elementary school and hasn't stopped programming since. He is interested in the semantic web, 'alternative' economies (e.g. freecycle, radiohead's donation model), open source everything and sustainability. He is currently being consumed by the following meme: how to make the most information, the most accessible, to the most people.
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