Personal Beginnings

I entered my first photography contest at age seven. The photo had no compositional or subject-matter value and was blurry, as in blurry “bad,” not blurry “good.” The only thing in sharp focus was my optimism—but more on that later.

In college, I majored in English and went on to work in Washington, D.C., as a writer and reporter. But my interest in photography, particulary documentary, narrative-driven photography, persisted. My dream: Publish a story in The New York Times Magazine.

I moved to New York City and assisted every editorial, fashion and fine-art photographer I could. I took a formative class with the reknowned photographer and teacher Sam Abell and then interned at the Polaroid 20x24 studio, frequented by other acclaimed artists such as Mary Ellen Mark, William Wegman and David Levinthal. There, I met my husband, as well as Chuck Close, who generously hired me to photograph him at work over several years, exposing me to the mind and process of one of the greatest artists of our time.

During that same period I became a contract photographer for a leading consulting firm, documenting development efforts in South America, Africa, Eastern Europe, Southeast Asia and the Middle East. 

I also shot my first wedding.

About that, I'll just say this: When the first wedding you ever shoot takes place in dense fog amidst the ruins of a 17th-century Spanish pueblo, you never look back.

Everything that mattered was there to be found. For a photographer, it was a coveted entry into an intimate world not my own. It may as well have been a New York Times Magazine assignment. Set against my own internal landscape of optimism, it was a perfect match.