Teaching

In my classes, we use documentary as a means to more completely understand the full complexity of a current social and policy issue. In 2010 and 2011, we focused our lenses and audio recorders on individuals affected by homelessness (working in partnership with Housing for New Hope); in 2012, on children with health issues related to obesity (working with youth enrolled in Duke’s Healthy Lifestyles program); and in 2013, we will focus on patients with chronic health problems (working with people enrolled in the Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction program at the Center for Integrative Medicine).

It is one thing to read statistics about the causes of a complex issue such as pediatric obesity; it is entirely another to gain the trust of and connect with a person who has lived those statistics.

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Building a Neighborhood: The Oakwood Project

Oakwood is one of Raleigh, North Carolina’s oldest neighborhoods and was the first neighborhood in the state of North Carolina to receive “historic” designation. Over its 140 year history, Oakwood has undergone tremendous change. …

Documenting Medicine

In 2010, Pediatrician and Photographer John Moses and I launched a documentary mentorship for Duke physician residents nearing the end of their training. Residents are given the skills, equipment, mentoring and time to explore a medical issue, question or story using documentary methods. We offer mentoring in audio, photography, web and writing. At the conclusion of the mentorship, residents share their work with colleagues and medical students.

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Work with Children

I’ve completed a number of multimedia pieces for local schools, organizations and non-profits over the years, but I especially enjoy working with children. As Chinese philosopher Mencius said, “The great man is he who does not lose his child’s-heart.”

Children, when asked those big, meaty, essential questions, tell it to you straight. The images above are from a series I did with a group of children, when they were 6, and then again five years later. The question: “If you had one wish for the world, your family or yourself, what would it be?” I wanted to explore how our dreams change over time.

Women in Limbo

LIMBO: LME: 1. A region supposed in some beliefs to exist on the border of Hell; 2. Prison, confinement; 3. A state of inaction or inattention pending some future event.

In 2002, while contemplating a second child and an international move, I became interested in life’s crossroads, those messy periods in people’s lives when they are living — uncomfortably — between two conflicting places or identities. These periods have the potential to reveal us in new ways and, very often, to change us. For this project, I sent out a call for female subjects via email. From the replies, for reasons of story, availability and proximity, I chose seven. I went to each person’s home and briefly interviewed them. We then jointly picked a location in their home and props that seemed representative of this period.