My professional career really began when I was hired by legendary filmmakers Albert and David Maysles in New York City. There I began to learn the craft of documentary from start to finish. The Maysles brothers believed that the filmmaker should be like a fly on the wall, letting the action unfold in front of the camera without interference. For them, the best stories were character-driven, with folks telling their own story without a narrator. I ended up traveling the world with the Maysles producing documentaries, commercials and industrial films.
I turned to a very different style of storytelling when I was hired by National Geographic. After producing and directing several films for National Geographic Explorer I was named Executive Producer. I went on to serve as Executive Producer of The National Geographic Specials on PBS and finally as Vice-President of Programming and Production. Over ten years the programs I supervised received some 150 awards for excellence including Peabody Awards, a Dupont-Columbia Journalism Award, and over three dozen Emmys, eight of which I was awarded as Executive Producer.
In the late 1990s it was time for me to go out on my own, establishing Working Dog Productions just north of NYC. For the next fifteen years our team produced dozens of series and specials for networks including HBO, PBS, A&E, National Geographic, Animal Planet, The History Channel, The Food Network and others. Our program genres encompassed investigative journalism, natural history, biography, true crime and cooking.
Since moving to Chapel Hill several years ago I’ve come full circle, returning to still work with an emphasis on documentary projects and street photography. I love the simplicity of working alone, with just my camera and the people I meet along the way. Rather than trying to draw out their stories as I did as a filmmaker, I aim to capture a moment in time and let their image give them voice.