Features / Stories Person of the Year Hermon Joyner
Hermon Joyner
Hermon Joyner is a writer and photographer based in Portland, Ore. To view his work and read his blog posts on various subjects, visit hermonjoyner.com
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Rick Loomis: Unforgotten Casualties Unpublished
Pulitzer Prize-winning photojournalist Rick Loomis always remembers to put people first when telling his visual stories.
"I might die.”
That was the thought running through the head of Rick Loomis, photojournalist with The Los Angeles Times, while he was embedded with a company of U.S. Marines during the pivotal Battle of Fallujah in Iraq on April 26, 2004.
The day started out as a search for insurgents, but it quickly became a fight for their lives as scores of armed militiamen massed around them, nearly surrounding the house they were in. The insurgents used everything at their disposal to level the building and kill the Marines – machine guns, mortars and rocket-propelled grenades. Loomis had never been in a more dangerous...
IN THE LOUPE: Rick Loomis Unpublished
Home: Long Beach, Calif., following what he calls a “three-year stint of homelessness.”
Interests: When he’s not shooting, Loomis says he also enjoys snowboarding, camping, scuba diving, rock climbing, mountain biking and “the company of wonderdog Tikka.”
Pet Peeve: Sometimes people talk about photography instead of doing it. “Don’t talk about it, just do it,” Loomis says. “Go out and do it.”
Main Influences: Dave LaBelle, photo instructor at Western Kentucky University; Michael Williamson of The Washington Post; Gail Fisher, former photo editor at The Los Angeles Times, now at National Geographic; and Alex Webb. Also Sebastião Salgado: “I walked through an exhibit of his when I was in college and I cried before I got to the end,” Loomis says.
Website: loomisphotography.com
Erik Almas: Unlimited Horizons Unpublished
With a passion for travel, Erik Almas expands the boundaries of the typical studio photographer, often including sweeping landscape elements in his commercial images.
It's December, and Erik Almas is a long way from home. For most of his life, Almas called Norway home; now San Francisco claims that honor, but at this moment, Almas is learning to scuba dive in Hawai'i for an underwater shoot. His voice is giddy with excitement. "I'm living my dream," he says. "This is amazing."
When talking with Almas, the word "amazing" comes up a lot. His career is...
IN THE LOUPE: Chris Rainier Unpublished
Home and studio: Telluride, Colo., and upstate New York.
Clients: National Geographic Publications, Time, Life, The New York Times, Smithsonian, The New Yorker, the International Red Cross, Amnesty International, the United Nations.
Personal Projects: He has two book projects in the works, one that deals with capturing the meaning of the word "sacred" and the other on ancient Asia. Visit chrisrainier.com for details.
Advice for aspiring travel photographers: "You have to be driven by passion. You have to be driven by a love of telling the story. And if that's not there, something's missing.
Website:chrisrainier.com
Chris Rainier: Giving Voice to the Worlds Cultures Unpublished
The mission of the Enduring Voices Project is to document endangered languages around the globe and work to prevent the extinction of those languages. According to a sobering National Geographic statistic, almost 80 percent of the world's population speaks only 1 percent of its languages. The corollary is that only a handful of people are left who speak some of the several thousand other languages. When those people are gone, the language becomes extinct – forever...
Chris Rainier: Documenting the Spirit Unpublished
Chris Rainier was born to travel. With a father who worked in the oil industry, Chris was in constant motion as a child, living, at various times, on four different continents. Growing up in so many different parts of the world has given him the ability to feel at home no matter where he finds himself.
"I feel very comfortable getting on a plane. I have a very high tolerance for travel," Rainier says. "I spend a significant amount of time each year on the road, because there's so much to see and there's so little time to understand this dynamic, changing world."...
IN THE LOUPE: Mark Laita Unpublished
Studio locations: “I have a studio in Los Angeles as well as New York,” Laita says. “I’m back and forth so often that sometimes I forget which city I’m in.”
Representation: Fahey/Klein Gallery, Los Angeles. Visit marklaita.com
Books: “Created Equal” (2010). Another is scheduled to be published by the end of 2011...
Mark Laita: Beauty—Plain and Simple Unpublished
In an age of digital wizardry and pixel manipulation, studio photographer Mark Laita still makes precise commercial images with the “old school” methods of perfect lighting and an unerring eye.
In an age of digital wizardry and pixel manipulation, studio photographer Mark Laita still makes precise commercial images with the “old school” methods of perfect lighting and an unerring eye.
Los Angeles-based still-life photographer Mark Laita is, oddly enough, significantly influenced by tennis champ John McEnroe. In addition to believing that McEnroe could have won any and every match he played with any kind of racket, or even a garden rake — “Art is not about the tools,” Laita says, “but about what you do with them” — he credits McEnroe with an idea that has guided Laita’s own personal and professional life.
IN THE LOUPE: Daniel Beltrá Unpublished
Home: Seattle
Books: “Rainforests: Lifebelt for an Endangered Planet.” Working on an upcoming monograph.
Recent awards: The Prince’s Rainforests Project Award (2009), ILCP Photographer of the Month (February 2010), ABC News Person of the Week (November 2009), Global Vision Award from the Pictures of the Year International Competition (2008), World Press Photo award-winning images (2006, 2007).
Preferred equipment: Canon 5D Mark II (“Smaller cameras are nice,” Beltrá says). Lenses: 24-70mm f/2.8 L, 500mm f/4 L and 24mm f/2.8 TSE. Mac computers. Think Tank roller bags...
Daniel Beltrá: A Meaningful Life Unpublished
The landscapes of Spanish-born photographer Daniel Beltrá help convey the urgent need for environmental conservation in the world’s most ecologically sensitive regions. If you talk to someone as deeply enmeshed in environmental conservation issues as Seattle-based photographer Daniel Beltrá and ask something like “Does global warming exist?”, you might expect an angry, exasperated response. But you’d probably be surprised...
