DOCUMENTARY
Examples of my documentary photography projects, both published and personal, finished and ongoing.
Russia
I worked as a freelance photographer in Russia from 1992 to 2002.
I shot with black and white film for my earliest photography in the streets of St. Petersburg, Russia.
I got my first job with The St. Petersburg Times and later moved to Moscow where I worked with The Washington Post, The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, the Guardian, The Times of London, Helsingin Sanomat and The Moscow Times.
From a series about nightlife in Moscow, Russia for the magazine Maxim. I’ve always loved this type of street photography. Taking pictures in public places is always a challenge. I do my best to be discreet, using the smallest camera possible and only available light.
While on assignment for the New York Times, I took this picture of a steel mill worker. This image was not the one the editors chose for the story, buy many of my non-commissioned photos are my favorites.
While working as a staff photographer for the St. Petersburg Times, I photographed this ballerina backstage at the Mariinsky Theater in Saint Petersburg, Russia. I was very fortunate to be invited to photograph dancers during rehearsals at this renowned theater that was called the Kirov Ballet in the Soviet era.
When I arrived by train to Saint Petersburg, Russia I felt like I had stepped out of a time machine. The collapse of the Soviet Union had only happened a few years previously and the influence of western culture had not yet changed the way people dressed.
From 1991-2002, I chronicled Russia’s cultural, religious and political changes.
Young men on their bikes on a street under renovation in downtown St. Petersburg.
Boys climbing the walls between apartment buildings in downtown St. Petersburg.
A newly married couple photographed inside a car in Vitebsk, Belorussia. This was part of a series commissioned by the Gerald Piltzer Gallery in Paris to accompany an exhibit of Belorussian artist Marc Chagall.
Profiles
Spartacus Mitchell is a tree-climbing arborist in the Russian River town of Guerneville, CA. Part of an ongoing series chronicling the challenging and often dangerous job of tree workers in West Sonoma County.
Photographed in Monte Rio, CA.
Valaam
The Valaam monastery is located north of St. Petersburg on an island on Lake Ladoga. I was invited to live with the monks and photograph their lives in this remote place that is a destination for many pilgrims of the Orthodox faith.
Baptism at the Russian River
Members of the Peruvian evangelical church “Casa de Oracion Luz a las Naciones” based in San Francisco performed the ritual of baptism in the Russian River in Monte Rio, CA.
