Photographed by Bruce Gilden at the 2024 Republican National Convention!!!
September 30, 2024

screenshot from Vanity Fair (19 July 2024) – Scenes From Donald Trump’s Republican Revival – photos by Bruce Gilden / Magnum Photos

In a very unexpected turn of events, I’ve ended up in Vanity Fair, photographed by the legendary Magnum photographer Bruce Gilden for a portfolio of coverage of the 2024 Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. It was one of the absolute highlights of covering the RNC for me. This was the last night of the convention and the biggest speeches were about to start. I didn’t get dinner that night but had a couple of snack bars in my battery pouch, so I ate a little while waiting for Hulk Hogan to take the stage when Gilden, whom I’d seen around throughout the week, glided in front of me and the woman on the right and quickly took a picture. And then he was gone.

After his flash popped, she turned to me and said, “That was weird.” She didn’t know what had just happened, but I did. I said, “That was one of the most famous living photographers. I hope I’m in the picture!” After spending a week working with my own flash (and working on my piece on the balloon drop), it was fun to get a little taste of my own medicine. I always love watching other photographers work, and to get such a personal experience of how one of the legends of the field does his thing, and then to improbably end up in the final edit, was a just a perfect gift at the end of an arduous week.

And just for good measure, here below is my photo of Gilden taking the lead image of the Vanity Fair portfolio, a scene I just happened upon earlier in the week.

Now I can add “as seen in Vanity Fair” to my bio…

Magnum photographer Bruce Gilden (center, with hat and vest) photographs attendees praying outside the arena on Day 4 of the 2024 Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA, on Thu., July 18, 2024.

Magnum photographer Bruce Gilden at work on assignment for Vanity Fair at the 2024 Republican National Convention – photo by M. Scott Brauer

New story: One hundred thousand balloons
September 1, 2024

Balloons fall from the ceiling in the balloon drop at the end of the night after former president Donald Trump formally accepted his nomination as the Republican party candidate at the 2024 Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA, on Thu., July 18, 2024.
Volunteers inflate balloons in the Fiserv Forum for next week's 2024 Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA, on Thu., July 11, 2024. After inflating, the balloons are thrown into a large fabric funnel that feeds the balloons into net bags that hold the balloons until the drop on the last day of the convention. The volunteers are a mixture of event decoration professionals that are personal friends of Treb Heining, who has organized the balloon drops at the last 9 RNCs, and local high school students (and recent graduates) who are serving as city ambassadors during the convention. Treb Heining developed the funnel filling system for the first convention during which he oversaw the balloon drop, the 1988 Republican National Convention. The balloon inflation crew filled over 100,000 balloons for the drop on the final night of the convention.
Treb Heining, CEO of Glasshouse Balloon, has been in charge of the balloon drop at the past 9 Republican National Conventions and many DNCs. He is seen here with large stylized balloons that have been inflated but not yet mounted in the rafters of the Fiserv Forum where they will be dropped from the ceiling during the final night of the 2024 Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA, seen on Thu., July 11, 2024. Heining started in the balloon industry as a walking balloon salesman at Disneyland in his native Anaheim, California, and now supplies balloons for many Disney properties around the world. He is the inventor of the Balloon Arch and has designed large event experiences including balloon releases at Super Bowls and Olympics opening ceremonies and, for more than 30 years, the annual New Years Eve confetti drop in New York's Times Square.
Volunteers refill a large net bag with spilled balloons on the convention floor before it will be lifted to the ceiling in the Fiserv Forum for the balloon drop on the last day of next week's 2024 Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA, on Fri., July 12, 2024. Members of the balloon inflation team work with union riggers to lift and secure the net bags filled with the balloons in the ceiling of the arena.

I’ve added a new story to my website, and it’s a subject I’ve been trying to cover for nearly 8 years! And for the first time, I’ve used a little video and animated gifs.

For Bloomberg Businessweek, I photographed how exactly 100,000 balloons are dropped on the final night of American political conventions.

The balloon drops at almost every Republican National Convention and Democratic National Convention in the last four decades have been the work of Treb Heining, a man who has a claim to creating the entire balloon decorating industry.

Treb led a crew of balloon professionals and local volunteers as they inflated and tied, by hand over the course of three days, approximately 100,000 balloons to be mounted in the ceiling and dropped on the final night of the 2024 Republican National Convention in Milwaukee.

Big thanks to Jane Yeomans and Aeriel Brown for taking my pitch (twice!) and helping make this project a reality.

Here’s the story: One hundred thousand balloons.

Included in Crosscut and De Los (LA Times) Best Photos of 2023
January 15, 2024

Crosscut's 2023 Photos of the Year

People dress up in inflatable Tyrannosaurus Rex dinosaur costumes to take part in the so-called T-Rex World Championship Races at Emerald Downs racetrack in Auburn, Washington, USA, on Sun., Aug. 20, 2023. The racetrack holds a variety of themed events to draw in audiences and entertain the crowds between races at the track.

Two of my photos from a story about the use of federal pandemic relief money being used at the Emerald Downs horserace track in Auburn, WA, were included in Crosscut’s 2023 Photos of the Year. You can see other photos from the assignment here. Thanks to Genna for the original assignment and for including me among all the other great work last year at Crosscut!

The best De Los photos of 2023

One of my photos, of Los Hernandez’s asparagus and pepperjack tamales, was selected for the Los Angeles Times’ Best De Los Photos of 2023. De Los is a special section at the LA Times focusing on the Latino experience in the United States. You can see other photos of the assignment, about food in the Yakima Valley, in the recent work section of my website. Thanks to Rachel, Raul, and the rest of the LAT and De Los photo teams for the assignment and including me in the year-end list!

Now based in Seattle, Washington
July 17, 2023

After twelve years in Boston, my family and I have moved back to Seattle. We last lived there almost twenty years ago and have been wanting to return for a long time. With our five-year-old about to start kindergarten, we decided that now was the time to move closer to family and old friends, and back to a region of the US we hold close to our hearts. 

My daughter and I spent June 2023 driving slowly across the country with stops to visit friends, family, and roadside attractions. 

We’re now settling into our new house in Seattle and I’m especially keen to explore with fresh eyes a region I’ve known all my life.

↑ Seattle Center, July 2023

Image SELECTED for American-Photography 39 book
May 21, 2023

People gather outside the Boston Public Library in Copley Square to protest the Supreme Court's decision today in Dobbs v. Jackson, which overturns the constitutional right to abortion in the United States established in Roe v. Wade (1978), in Boston, Massachusetts, on Fri., June 24, 2022. A few different protest groups gathered in different parts of downtown and eventually converged in Copley Square.

One of my photos, of a group of protesters gather in Boston after the fall of Roe v. Wade has been SELECTED for inclusion in the American Photography 39 book. It’s always an honor to have work recognized in the book, and I’ve been lucky to be awarded by American Photography for the past 8 years (My work has previously been recognized by the organization in American Photography 38, 37, 36, 35, 34, 33, 32, and 30.)

The jury, who selected 443 images to represent the best pictures of 2022, included Maïa Booker, The Wall Street Journal; David Cooper, Freelance Photo Editor; Maura Friedman, National Geographic; Lauryn Hill, WIRED; Amy Kellner, The New York Times Magazine; Robert Miller, The Washington Post; Laura Oliverio, CNN; Amy Silverman, Airbnb; Allyson Torrisi, People; Karen Williams, Freelance Photo Director and Producer; Andrea Wise, ProPublica; and Cengiz Yar, Rest of World.

In Bulgaria April 19 to 30, 2023
April 19, 2023

Lecturers at the MadePro.bg conference April 21-23, 2023.

I’m very excited to be returning to Bulgaria this week to participate in the MadePro.bg photo conference in Pomorie and then travel to Sofia to exhibit work from the Baltics and talk with local photojournalists. 

I last visited Bulgaria in 2016 to exhibit my work on the 2016 election with BG Press Photo and had such a wonderful time. I’m looking forward to reconnecting with the photo community there. 


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