While in Sofia, Bulgaria last month, I had the phenomenal luck to run into a gathering of hundreds of folk dancers from around the country gathered outside the National Palace of Culture (NDK) one morning. The participants were dressed in costumes from different regions around Bulgaria and were performing at NDK that night for the International Day of Dance. They were taking some promotional group photos that morning, including some with a drone.
For Bloomberg, I photographed a large rally of Uber and Lyft rideshare drivers as they rallied for labor rights in Lynn and Saugus, Massachusetts. The drivers gathered to demand the ride-hailing platform reinstate workers “unfairly deactivated” and voice support for legislation that would give drivers for the companies the ability to unionize, access to a base pay rate and protections such as unemployment insurance.
I’ve added a new story to the photojournalism section of this website. The story follows Gund Kwok, the United States’ first and only all-Asian-women lion dance troupe as they prepare for 2023 Lunar New Year celebrations around Boston. The group is now in its 25th year and led by the 65-year-old Cheng Imm Tan, who started the group as a way to empower Asian women to show their creativity, power, and strength in an art form that has historically been open only to men.
For the New York Times, I spent an a little time in the W. H. Bagshaw’s factory in Nashua, New Hampshire, a beautiful facility that’s more than a century old. The company specializes in small machined metal and wire pieces for the aerospace and medical sectors, but which has also included phonograph needles over the years.
The story is about how high turnover in manufacturing and other sectors has led to a decrease in productivity due to the time it takes to retrain new hires.
“The Embrace,” a new two-story sculpture celebrating the legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr., and his wife Coretta Scott King, who met in Boston, was unveiled on Jan. 13, 2023, in Boston Common, America’s first public park. It’s the first new piece of art added to the Common in decades. The sculpture’s abstract form–which has drawn some criticism–is drawn from a photo of when the couple embraced after learning MLK had won the 1964 Nobel Peace Prize.
While the sculpture’s website said, “Come on down to Boston Common on Friday January 13 to the outdoor unveiling and stand with us,” the actual unveiling ceremony was only open to ticket-holders. There were large screens set up outside the ceremony so the general public could view the proceedings, but many outside the fence were frustrated without a way to glimpse the new sculpture with their own eyes until they pulled down the green fabric on the fence obscuring their view.