I prefer to not shoot in studios when I set up shoots with rappers, as they’re often dark and smoky and very visually limiting. But again, I was happy to shoot anything at this point. (I should note: As unphotogenic as some studios can be, it is a really cool experience to be able to hear an artist lay a track live.)

So I played the game of how many different ways can I shoot the same room, as people came and went, and Young Thug ate, danced around, listened to his music, and finally, he went into a pitch black small room to record and I shot him through the glass.

Read about Young Thug in FADER here.

At our first meeting, Piper said the best part about having a sister is “giving my sister hugs and kisses.” Katie said the best part about having a sister is “kissin’ her and huggin’ her.”

I’ve truly enjoyed watching them age through these brief annual windows. They’ve grown to look and act less alike with each meeting.

Other than the portraits, I don’t set up any of the shots, which was eerie when editing because things I’d forgotten from previous shoots kept repeating year after year (the blowing of dandelion seeds, for example). Another curiosity I’ve noticed after pulling photos from the four shoots is that on the swings, Piper is on the left each year and Katie on the right, though that had nothing to do with me.

I think the next time we meet and as they get older (and less enthusiastic about the playground) I’ll be sure I get them in certain areas of the park as in previous shoots, if the patterns don’t repeat naturally.

As long as they don’t mind me chasing them around once a year, I intend to keep meeting them each spring.

Here are some eerily similar images of them from each year we’ve met:

And then here some more favorites from our most recent meeting.

From the story: “Today Darden — now the nation’s largest casual-dining company — is a path for many. The parent of Red Lobster, Olive Garden, LongHorn Steakhouse, Capital Grille, and others has 180,000 workers, making it the 27th-largest private employer in the U.S. and the second largest — behind FedEx — on Fortune’s Best Companies to Work For list.” (More here.)

I got to the restaurant at their least busy time of day–between lunch and dinner– and stuck around for an hour and took a handful of portraits and photos of Lisa while she worked with a new employee at a table. I asked if I could come back when more customers were dining (because this is such a high traffic restaurant) and she said that was fine. So I headed back for more and was glad I did, so I could add more documentary images to my edit for the client. I really appreciate Lisa letting me tag along while she worked.

Just as she was last time, Karin was very gracious with me.

This was actually the third shoot in a span of two weeks that was of the same people for different clients. Daily newspaper staff photographers have to deal with this reccurence often, as they’ll shoot the same event every year. It’s a good challenge to try to out-do your first shoot, if not a full of deja vu.

If you like crime writing, you ought to check out her bestselling books.

This is actually my second time in a handful of years taking his portrait.

I knew these images would be cut-out for lay-out, so background didn’t matter much, and I wound up finding a spot that made the cutting-out even easier–a green screen. I was only given 15 minutes with Dr. Frieden (as you can imagine, he is quite busy), but I ended up taking only about 6 minutes (which made him very happy) because I was ready when he arrived and knew he doesn’t like having his photo taken. Previous experience plus preparation paid off.

Read the “Download” on Dr. Frieden HERE.

Seriously, I love a challenge like this. I love trying to capture the sense of place in a new location. And the challenge of finding a solution for a request that can’t be met (or a subject be found).

The hunt for the people on our list wasn’t easy, people didn’t answer their phones or doors. But we ended up finding a handful and then a handful beyond our list.

Hale County might be in a visual person’s lexicon due to Walker Evans’ work on sharecroppers in Let Us Now Praise Famous Men. We struck up conversation with our waiter at one of the only restaurants in town and he told me about the book so the next day I headed to the town’s small library on main street and flipped through their copy of it.

This is a town that feels frozen in a time decades ago. It is seeing the beginnings of a revival on Main Street as abandoned shops are having the life breathed back into them by a few people. But, as more than one person told me, schools are still segregated (that is, the majority of white children go to private school). The restaurant so many people told us to check out had no black patrons in our time there. That’s not to say Greensboro is not a friendly place. Almost everyone we approached (save a group of people drinking in an abandoned lot) spoke to us and answered our questions.

The day after disability funds are deposited into people’s accounts, there is a long line in the hardware store where people can also pay bills. That’s a chance to actually SEE how many people disability has touched and how those funds support them.

I was walking out of the grocery store after taking a photo or two inside and a man in his car asked me if I’d take a photo of him and his son. I obliged, and asked for his address so I could send a print.

Then I told him what I was in town for and asked if he was on disability.

Yes.

His mother?

Yes.

His grandmother, too.

He was hurt working in a factory.

That story is prevalent in town.

It’s hard to not be suspicious if all these people need to be on disability, but when you meet the people who do, you get it.

We spent some time talking to and photographing one man who was in a car accident. He not only suffered a brain injury, but broken ribs, toes, vertebrae, hip, neck, and the list of injuries goes on.

Though, most people who go on disability, no matter their age, never go off. That means all those people are unemployed, yet they aren’t accounted for in unemployment numbers.

We met one woman who had recently gotten keys to the first place of her own in years. She’d be in an abusive relationship and then moved in with her sister and suffered a stroke, and then another stroke. She was told she wouldn’t be able to talk or walk again. And there she was in her empty apartment, sharing tears with us.

“I am so blessed to be here,” she said. “Thank you, Jesus, thank you, thank you, thank you.”

And disability is what will pay her rent.

Keep an eye on David’s blog to see his images from this collaborative shoot.

Listen to This American Life HERE.

See an infographic on it all HERE.

I photographed a lively warm-up (led by A.J. Johnson, a Spelman alum and celebrity fitness trainer) and then a 5k for The New York Times to illustrate this dramatic change at the school.

Read the story HERE.

As a sidenote, for quite a while I wasn’t shooting much for national newspapers for reasons I won’t go into, but I am so happy to be able to get to know Atlanta again through this type of shoot. I was shaking a leg myself at the warm-up and it made me so happy to be present and photographing in my own community again. No matter what direction photography takes me, newspapers are what led me to become the photographer I am today and I will always love this type of community-centric visual storytelling.

This type of portrait shoot for a client is common. You have limited time, you have no clue what you’re walking into, and the photo editor asks for a specific look having never seen the location.

(Just in the past week, editors have used the words “lively” and “geometric” and “stoic” in my portrait assignment descriptions. Also on three separate portrait shoots in the past week, one subject hated having her photo taken and kept making comments about it every time I lifted the camera, for another, I followed the subject’s assistant down a hall and she told me, “OK, he is very busy, so you have a couple seconds with him,” and I walked into another where an assault rifle was sitting on the couch in the room I was to photograph the man in.)

Sometimes it can be a little nerve-wracking when you walk in and can’t find what the editor requested or the , but an editorial portrait photographer’s job is to problem solve quickly and that coupled with meeting interesting new people is what makes editorial portrait photography enjoyable.

To read this story in the Times, click HERE.

We started off in a (very unphotogenic) warehouse where his art is stored, and then he dumpster dived (literally) for some pieces (the majority of his art is found objects) and then we headed over to The Goat Farm, an artist community, where some of his work is and he made a piece of art from all the items he found during our time together.

Lonnie told me he was sold for a pint of whiskey at a whorehouse when he was four-years-old.

Think about that for a minute.

He told me fascinating stories, described the intricacies of what the clothes hanger meant on one art piece and the carvings meant on another. At first glance some of his art might just look like junk, but he is very thoughtful about why he includes each piece. He also made up a song on the spot about me and the baseball he’d found moments before in a nearby dumpster and sang it while he played a small keyboard (I have a recording of it). LISTEN TO IT HERE (scroll to the bottom)

As a kid, I was only allowed to bring home what I could carry on our nightly wandering walks around the neighborhood. I had shelves of rocks and feathers and fallen leaves in my bedroom. Maybe that’s why I felt Lonnie and I were kindred spirits of sorts.

Lonnie recently released his first album, “Just Before Music.” You can buy it HERE.

I hope to bump into him or some of his art again.