Who am I?

Professional

A lot has happened during my 18 years in Los Angeles.

I worked in the movie industry for a while. I went to USC and got a master’s degree in journalism. I ran social for a video game startup. And then a good government nonprofit.

Soon, I decided I wanted to make content rather than shepherd it online, so I sunk every dime I had into a decent camera and some gear and went out on my own.

After a year, I had just enough in my portfolio to convince Mayor Garcetti’s communications shop to hire me as their Deputy Digital Director, with a focus on visual content.

In April of 2016, the most intensely rewarding three year period of my career thus far began. Wherever the mayor went, I was probably there waiting with a camera. If you saw a video on any of his social channels between April 2016 and December 2018, I shot it and edited it. If you were a friend, you never saw me.

But I had a front row seat every single day to see a man I quickly grew to admire and respect do his job of leading this city. By the time I decided it was time to go back out on my own (and catch up on sleep), I would be able to call Mayor Garcetti a friend, along with many, many members of his incredible staff.

The sights and memories are too many to recount, but what I left with as my most prized possession was a true sense of purpose and the confidence that I was a professional at my chosen craft.

Personal

I was born an Air Force BRAT here in the US, but soon after moved to Cairo as a child of the defense industry. Nine years later I graduated high school at the pyramids and left for Duke University with a love for Egypt and its people that is forever.

But Los Angeles, is my home and my my muse, the city that shaped me, and the city that I love. I saw more of it – and met more of its beautiful and varied residents –  than I ever thought possible in my three years working for Mayor Garcetti.

I also fell deeply in love with the LA skyline as a subject. It looms iconically from so many vantage points as the lone, monolithic central cluster of skyscrapers for miles.

True to form, the skyline is a celebrity in its own right, creating a game of widespread paparazzi among the city’s photographers, all trying to capture the city from the one angle not yet found.

Doing this type of work in this city for its people is more than a dream or a passion. It’s what’s is in my soul.