Photographing the American Dreamers

As part of The Atlantic’s “American Dreams: Visions of a successful life in the U.S. and abroad” special report, I asked readers to share their photos with the hashtag #AtlanticAmericanDream. Over the course of the summer, The Atlantic’s social media accounts engaged with readers’ images, creating a live discourse about the elusive dream. I then commissioned EchoSight to mash select images together to highlight how American cultures intersect and contradict one another, and edited a short essay by each of the photographers to accompany the montages. The project was covered by Christa Olson at Reading The Pictures.

(EchoSight / The Atlantic)

Americans at Work

Inspired by the Farm Security Administration’s imagery of the Great Depression, I commissioned original photographic essays across the country exploring what the workplace looks like today. In collaboration with The Atlantic‘s photo channel editor Alan Taylor, I crafted a call for pitches, drawing on my network of photography professionals to gather more than 200 ideas, reviewed applicants, negotiated contracts, secured releases and access for the photographers, and edited the final essays that were rolled out on a weekly basis.

(Cassandra Zampini)

Inside Jobs

For this interactive project, I produced illustrations of 103 working Americans over the course of six months. With sourced portraits from interviewees, ranging from CEOs to ice cream scoopers, I hired a freelance illustrator, directed the visual style, and coordinated with writers, developers, and top editors for the execution. The illustrations were made into animated gifs for distribution on social media. It lead Digg the day it was published and was covered by numerous outlets, including AdWeek.