Early Work
Every summer my family drove from Southern California to the Eastern Sierra Nevada Mountains just outside of Yosemite National Park. At night we would lie on the shores of Mono Lake and watch the stars slowly come out until the entire Milky Way was visible above us. It was the highlight of my year. Those skies made me fall in love with science and space.
But I took a detour first and spent years working in the television industry before eventually quitting to become a freelance documentary photographer. It wasn’t until I quit that job that I re-discovered my love of the natural world. Across both careers, though, storytelling has been the constant.
Most Exciting Part of Your Work
The most exciting part of my work is that it lets me follow every passion and explore worlds I would never otherwise have access to. I’ve spent three weeks documenting astronaut training underwater, a year training for a two-week mission simulating life on Mars, and years researching the history of queer astronauts. I’ve stood on launchpads and photographed rockets leaving the Earth.
The work never gets old. I feel so lucky to learn from the people and communities I document. Scientists and astronauts operate in a world that still feels surreal to me, and I get to witness it and tell those stories.
Most Demanding Part of Your Work
Working as a queer person across both documentary photography and the scientific community is challenging. There have been projects where people refused to work with me because I’m openly gay. My most visible project, The Gay Space Agency, which documents the history of queer astronauts, was a deliberate choice to be out, visible and open to conversations around queerness.
A different kind of challenge came with my recent project, The World’s Biggest Analog, where I lived inside a Mars simulation for two weeks. I wasn’t just documenting this story but I was also a part of it. Having to photograph myself and be a part of the narrative was harder than I expected, but that experience also clarified something. My crewmates and I were incredibly open and honest with each other. In such a short amount of time, it felt like we knew more about each other than some of our friends and family do. Building that trust and understanding was essential to the mission’s success.
Additionally, the reality of being freelance also has its challenges. The instability is constant and it is so important to have a supportive community around you. My friends and family have been my biggest cheerleaders and having them inspires me to keep telling stories.
What Being an Explorer Means to You
Even before I had the official title, most of my family considered me to be some kind of explorer. I’ve always been drawn to the most surreal corners of life and our planet, and I am constantly curious and constantly observing.
Being a part of the National Geographic Explorer community is one of the greatest gifts of my career. I get to call filmmakers, astrophysicists, geologists, underwater cinematographers, cave scientists and grizzly bear experts my friends. The National Geographic Society has given me a platform to share my work and raise awareness around space science and astronautics in a way I never could have imagined.
Explorer Work Showcase
Before becoming a photographer, I was a photography producer at NBCUniversal, working on everything from The Rachel Maddow Show to The Real Housewives of New York. I was proud of that work, but I ultimately wanted to tell different kinds of stories.
The first project I worked on after leaving that role was The Gay Space Agency, a five-year investigative research and photography project about the history of queer astronauts. It was entirely uncharted territory and I had never done a project or research on this scale before! About 90% of the work was archival research, including uncovering the heterosexuality tests that NASA required all of their Mercury, Gemini and Apollo astronaut candidates to take, and the remaining 10% was photography.
The project was inspired by a quote from Dr. Sally Ride, the first American woman in space who is now recognized as the first openly queer astronaut, who said, “You can’t be what you can’t see.” I wanted to create a project where queer people could see themselves in space, where the sky is no longer the limit.
So, You Want To Be a Documentary Photographer
Follow your passion! If something excites you, then chances are it will be exciting to other people too! And have fun doing it! Be genuinely invested in the stories you are telling and treat everyone around you with respect.
You don’t need an expensive camera to start. Your phone can even be enough. And then experiment, experiment, experiment! Learn the rules and then break them. Find the stories that you are passionate about and then those will lead to more.
Photography can have a high cost barrier to entry, but finding your voice as a storyteller doesn’t need to cost much to begin with. Find photographers whose work inspires you. Reach out to people that you want to work with or want to learn from. Go to a library or bookstore and look at photobooks. Start posting your images on a professional Instagram and build out your portfolio to have a professional website. And just keep going!!
Get Involved
You never know if you don’t try! Go out there and take photos. For space, start with photographing what you have access to! Long exposures of the night sky are a great place to begin. I’ve also found that the more I understand something the more fun it is to photograph. I’ll do a fair amount of research before photographing any subject.
Here are some helpful links.
Photographers (and fellow Explorers!) who inspire me:
To learn more about my work:
