Last year I wrote here about how excited I get when I convince a client to agree to a more contemporary look and style for their corporate headshots. Recently, a client wanted to go back to basics. This is the result. Simple. Classic.
Menu of the Day
Jarrett Adams: EXONERATED
I recently had the opportunity to meet and interview one of the most extraordinary people I have met in a very long time. I have heard hundreds of stories of men who had been wrongly accused, convicted and sentenced for crimes that they vehemently denied committing. Jarrett Adams is one of a precious few to successfully prove that he was unjustly punished and eventually released.
Back on September 5, 1998, he and some friends drove a couple of hours away from the Chicago area to a party on the campus of the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater. A female student later reported that she had been sexually assaulted and identified Jarrett and his friends as the culprits. He was 17 years old at the time and was sentenced to a 28-year prison sentence. From the onset, he denied having committed the rape.
After almost 10 years in prison, and with the assistance of the Wisconsin Innocence Project, Jarrett was finally released. For many this would be a soul-crushing experience that would fill one with lots of bitterness and anger. If Jarrett harbors such feelings, it is barely detectable.
While there is no pending suit against the State of Wisconsin for his wrongful conviction and incarceration, he says “I am fighting with the state to change compensation laws to compensate me” and “was never given a dime or any services by the state despite having all charges against me dismissed.”
Jarrett channeled his energy into completing college and last year graduated from Loyola University School of Law in Chicago. He just finished a Judicial Fellowship with the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals, the same court that overturned his conviction. Now living in New York City, he starts work as an attorney for the New York Innocence Project next week.
In February Jarrett got married to an attorney with a multinational media organization.
For more information about Jarrett and his incredible journey, please visit these links:
http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/jarrett-adams-unlikely-path-prison-lawyer
Stephanie and Drew Celebrate Their Love
It was a wet, rainy and cloudy day and we had to scrap our plans to shoot at Lincoln Memorial, but nothing could dampen the energy and spirit of this special day with this beautiful couple and their family and friends.
America's Vets Helping Vets For Life
TangleTwig Farm, Purcellville, Virginia
Allison
Allison R. Kokkoros, Chief Executive Officer, Carlos Rosario International Public Charter School
Bishop McNamara High School Fine Arts Department
Sankofa Night 2016 presentation of "MO, The Deliverer"
Monica and Kay
I was honored to capture Monica and Kay's special day. Honestly, I was not their first choice. They were referred to me by another client after at least 2 other photographers declined to serve them because of their objections to same-sex marriage.
Paul Ryan, Speaker of the House of Representatives
Paul Ryan, Speaker of the United States House of Representatives meets with constituents in his Capitol Hill office, Washington, D.C. (Rodney Choice/Choice Photography/www.choicephotography.com)
Drive Smart: No Distractions, No Excuses
Mr. Anthony R. Foxx, United States Secretary of Transportation with Claire Offenberger, 2016 Grand Prize Winner of Drive Smart: Teen Digital Short Contest, April 14, 2016, United States Department of Transportation, Washington, D.C (Rodney Choice/Choice Photography/www.choicephotography.com)
Alice
Alice is a native of Cameroon. She is a nurse living in Silver Spring, Maryland. Here she shows photo of her 20 year old daughter, Clara, a pre-med student at University of Maryland.
Asa. 11 years old. My 2nd shooter today at George Washington University.
Bryan. Rock Hill, South Carolina
Goodbye, LA
Kevyn D. Orr for Secured Lender Magazine
Cover and feature photography for Secured Lender Magazine of Kevyn D. Orr, Partner at Jones Day, who during his time as Emergency City Manager of Detroit, Michigan, successfully spearheaded the city's emergence from bankruptcy.
Edith
Edith is 90 years young. She was born in New Jersey and attended Howard University, where she became a member of the Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority and graduated in 1946. Her husband, a minister with the A.M.E. Church passed away in 1989. She has 3 three children, the oldest of which is 65 years old. She still lives alone, in the same house that she and her husband purchased back in 1954. She is one of the most dignified people I have ever met. She looks you directly in the eyes when speaking and has perfect, clear diction. As much as she enjoys her independence, she admits, with the urging of her children, that she may soon need some in-home assistance.
Teen Moms
I recently met the director of a local, not-for-profit agency that provides health care, social services and educational opportunities to one of the most at-risk populations in our society--unwed teenage mothers. I was immediately interested in her work and eventually asked if I could come in one day and take portraits of the girls.
During my conversations with the director in preparation for the shoot, I learned something about the young women that she serves. Some of these girls--as young as 13 years old-- became pregnant as a result of a short-term relationship with a neighborhood boy close to their same age and engaged in unprotected sexual activity far too soon to comprehend the long term emotional, social, and psychological consequences of becoming parents without education, job skills, career prospects, housing or the substantial financial resources that it takes to raise children.
The director also shared stories that confirmed some of my worst and darkest fears. Many of the girls are victims of rape by adult male predators, in their 30's and 40's, who in many cases have families and children of their own. She described scenarios where these girls are literally stalked over the course of time going to and from school, at bus stops and subway stations, where these men learn their potential victim's routine, slowly befriends the young girl, gains her trust and eventually takes advantage of her youth and naivete'.
During my 2 hours at the facility, which does have the limited capacity to house those in most dire need, I did witness at three instances where immediate crisis intervention was needed. Keep in mind that most of these girls are from some of the most traditionally under served, low-income, high crime areas. Some already have substance abuse issues, both during pregnancy and parenting. By the way, no one I met was over 17 years old.
I found the girls to be very upbeat, and for the most part, very eager to pose for the camera in the makeshift portable studio that I set up; After all, regardless of circumstance, very few teenage girls do not want to be photographed professionally.
This project was at once satisfying and heart-breaking. Satisfying to have the young girls smile for the camera, especially those that had their boyfriends with them; and yet so heart-breaking with the knowledge that at a such a tender age, they have this awesome responsibility to figure out how to be good mothers to children when they are yet children themselves.