2024 Davy Award & Telly Award Winner
2024 Davy Award & Telly Award Winner
I am the little guy with the big ideas & a little rock, able to win gold & silver for directing two
commercials for Sandals Royal Curaçao and Sandals St Vincent is an honor
What I do
The real question is, "What don’t I do?"
I began my career as an editorial and advertising photographer, capturing everyone from celebrities to everyday people, and working with outlets like The New York Times and campaigns for Citibank. This experience naturally led me to transition into producing and directing.
Throughout my career, my work has been project-driven, transforming concepts into publications, media campaigns, TV series, and media advocacy initiatives.
What it is like to work with me?
One of my producers once gave me the perfect gift: a dish towel with a sassy quote. While I may be the “secret ingredient,” it truly takes a larger group of people to bring every aspect of a project to life. As cliché as it sounds, teamwork really does make the dream work, and I’m only as good as my team.
Who I am
Raised in the beach town of Hampton Bays, NY, I have spent over 25 years telling stories, beginning my journey as an editorial and advertising photographer. Pitching photography stories to magazines allowed me to explore my interest in Americana subcultures and communities outside the socially accepted norm.
My first major break came when I walked into The New York Times Magazine offices with a story about the underappreciated waterboy of a small-town football team. This piece ran in the section “What They Were Thinking,” a section I loved and contributed to for many years.
“Photography has given me the license to enter worlds not accessible to many people. It is a privilege I do not take for granted. It has enabled me to discover and show people the richness of everyday life.”
Throughout my career, I have photographed families struggling with homelessness, female athletes in alternative sports—from Luchadoras to roller derby—celebrities, and global advertising campaigns. This path naturally led me from photography to producing, directing commercial campaigns, and ultimately becoming the executive producer and co-creator of the Netflix docuseries Merpeople.
Merpeople started as a follow-up book project exploring subcultures, with my first monograph, Scars and Stripes: The Culture of Modern Roller Derby, published by Schiffer Books. However, I quickly realized that Merpeople was meant to be a documentary. Partnering with my roller derby comrade, Rolland Ballester (producer of Halston), & Scout Productions we dove into the vibrant world of merfolk, which shared many characteristics with the roller derby community.
I was featured in the book 25 Under 25: Up and Coming American Photographers (cover and interior), published in 2003 by Powerhouse, with a foreword by my mentor, director and photographer Lauren Greenfield. Images from my book Scars and Stripes are part of the Smithsonian National Museum of American History's Sport History Collections.
I played roller derby for over ten years, and since “retiring,” I’ve returned to punishing my knees and plantar fascia by playing basketball with a women’s league in the Rockaways every summer. Like many of my book and film projects, I dive into learning new skills to immerse myself in each world.
