Honk! Festival – Somerville and Cambridge, Massachusetts
October 10, 2012

 Members of Church Marching Band of Santa Rosa, California, perform in Harvard Square in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA, during the HONK! Festival. The HONK! Festival is an annual gathering of activist street marching bands that involves performances, a parade between Davis Square in Somerville and Harvard Square in Cambridge, and an academic symposium about street music.
Bands and performers march from Davis Square in Somerville to Harvard Square in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA, during the HONK! Festival. The HONK! Festival is an annual gathering of activist street marching bands that involves performances, a parade between Davis Square in Somerville and Harvard Square in Cambridge, and an academic symposium about street music.
Bands and performers march from Davis Square in Somerville to Harvard Square in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA, during the HONK! Festival. The HONK! Festival is an annual gathering of activist street marching bands that involves performances, a parade between Davis Square in Somerville and Harvard Square in Cambridge, and an academic symposium about street music.
Bands and performers march from Davis Square in Somerville to Harvard Square in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA, during the HONK! Festival. The HONK! Festival is an annual gathering of activist street marching bands that involves performances, a parade between Davis Square in Somerville and Harvard Square in Cambridge, and an academic symposium about street music.
Spectators and bands gather in Davis Square for the start of the HONK! Festival in Somerville, Massachusetts, USA. The HONK! Festival is an annual gathering of activist street marching bands that involves performances, a parade between Davis Square in Somerville and Harvard Square in Cambridge, and an academic symposium about street music.
Members of Brass Liberation Orchestra of Oakland, California, perform in Harvard Square in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA, during the HONK! Festival. The HONK! Festival is an annual gathering of activist street marching bands that involves performances, a parade between Davis Square in Somerville and Harvard Square in Cambridge, and an academic symposium about street music.
Bands and performers march from Davis Square in Somerville to Harvard Square in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA, during the HONK! Festival. The HONK! Festival is an annual gathering of activist street marching bands that involves performances, a parade between Davis Square in Somerville and Harvard Square in Cambridge, and an academic symposium about street music.
Bands and performers march from Davis Square in Somerville to Harvard Square in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA, during the HONK! Festival. The HONK! Festival is an annual gathering of activist street marching bands that involves performances, a parade between Davis Square in Somerville and Harvard Square in Cambridge, and an academic symposium about street music.
Bands and performers march from Davis Square in Somerville to Harvard Square in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA, during the HONK! Festival. The HONK! Festival is an annual gathering of activist street marching bands that involves performances, a parade between Davis Square in Somerville and Harvard Square in Cambridge, and an academic symposium about street music.
Bands and performers march from Davis Square in Somerville to Harvard Square in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA, during the HONK! Festival. The HONK! Festival is an annual gathering of activist street marching bands that involves performances, a parade between Davis Square in Somerville and Harvard Square in Cambridge, and an academic symposium about street music.
Spectators and bands gather in Davis Square for the start of the HONK! Festival in Somerville, Massachusetts, USA. The HONK! Festival is an annual gathering of activist street marching bands that involves performances, a parade between Davis Square in Somerville and Harvard Square in Cambridge, and an academic symposium about street music.
Members of Brass Liberation Orchestra of Oakland, California, perform in Harvard Square in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA, during the HONK! Festival. The HONK! Festival is an annual gathering of activist street marching bands that involves performances, a parade between Davis Square in Somerville and Harvard Square in Cambridge, and an academic symposium about street music.
Spectators and bands gather in Davis Square for the start of the HONK! Festival in Somerville, Massachusetts, USA. The HONK! Festival is an annual gathering of activist street marching bands that involves performances, a parade between Davis Square in Somerville and Harvard Square in Cambridge, and an academic symposium about street music.
Members of Brass Liberation Orchestra of Oakland, California, perform in Harvard Square in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA, during the HONK! Festival. The HONK! Festival is an annual gathering of activist street marching bands that involves performances, a parade between Davis Square in Somerville and Harvard Square in Cambridge, and an academic symposium about street music.
Spectators and bands gather in Davis Square for the start of the HONK! Festival in Somerville, Massachusetts, USA. The HONK! Festival is an annual gathering of activist street marching bands that involves performances, a parade between Davis Square in Somerville and Harvard Square in Cambridge, and an academic symposium about street music.
The Honk! Festival is an annual gathering of street musicians and activists in Somerville and Cambridge, Massachusetts. Marching bands from around the country paraded through the cities and performed in Davis Square and Harvard Square.

Profile of MIT’s Department of Mechanical Engineering
October 5, 2012

 PhD student Josh Leighton gathers up equipment after testing an underwater communications and navigation system with autonomous kayaks in the Charles River at the MIT Sailing Pavilion at MIT in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA.
Students build snowball throwing machines in the Pappalardo Laboratories for the 2.009 Product Engineering Processes course in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at MIT in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA.
Grad student Kelsey Stoerzinger uses a laser microscope in the Electrochemical Energy Lab in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at MIT in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA.
Students build snowball throwing machines in the Pappalardo Laboratories for the 2.009 Product Engineering Processes course in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at MIT in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA.
Students work during a lab class in the 2.12 Introduction to Robotics course at MIT in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. Students were working on control systems for a robot that would run along a course and detect magnets underneath the course as a simulation for mine detection.
A view of the robotic cheetah in the Biomimetic Robotics Laboratory in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at MIT in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA.
Students build snowball throwing machines in the Pappalardo Laboratories for the 2.009 Product Engineering Processes course in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at MIT in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA.
Students build snowball throwing machines in the Pappalardo Laboratories for the 2.009 Product Engineering Processes course in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at MIT in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA.
Dr. Sangbae Kim, Esther and Harold E. Edgerton Assistant Professor, is the director of the Biomimetic Robotics Laboratory in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at MIT in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. The lab has developed a robotic cheetah
Students compete with snowball throwing machines in Killian Court after building them for the 2.009 Product Engineering Processes course in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at MIT in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA.
Visitors look at displays in the Hart Nautical Gallery at MIT in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. The gallery was started by the Department of Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering, later renamed to the Department of Ocean Engineering, a section of the Department of Mechanical Engineering.
Postdoc Reza Kavian positions a chemical tank in the Electrochemical Energy Lab at MIT in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA.
A view of the robotic cheetah in the Biomimetic Robotics Laboratory in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at MIT in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA.
Grad student Kelsey Stoerzinger (right) and postdoc Alexys Grimaud talk in the Electrochemical Energy Lab in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at MIT in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA.
A detail view of workspaces in the Biomimetic Robotics Laboratory in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at MIT in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. The lab has built a robotic cheetah.
Kamal Youcef-Toumi (green shirt), professor of Mechanical Engineering, helps students during a lab class in the 2.12 Introduction to Robotics course at MIT in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. Students were working on control systems for a robot that would run along a course and detect magnets underneath the course as a simulation for mine detection.
Students listen to Professor David Wallace introduce a lab exercise in 10-250 for the 2.009 Product Engineering Processes course at MIT in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA.
As part of a series of profiles of MIT departments, I photographed classes, labs, and activities around the Department of Mechanical Engineering.

Profile of MIT’s Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics
September 30, 2012

 A researcher demonstrates a 3d-printed and thermoformed space helmet in the Man Vehicle Lab at MIT in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA.
AeroAstro master’s student Bobby Klein prepares an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) for flight in the Aerospace Controls Lab at MIT in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. The lab develops control systems for the vehicles.
AeroAstro master’s student Natalya Brikner works under a hood to mount an ion emitter on a 3-axis stage for use in a vacuum chamber in the Space Propulsion Lab at MIT in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA.
Images of astronauts, space, rockets, and airplanes hang in the graduate student offices in the Aerospace Controls Lab at MIT in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA.
AeroAstro master’s student Carla Perez-Martinez work in in the Space Propulsion Lab at MIT in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA.
A model displays prototype spacesuit underwear in the Man Vehicle Lab at MIT in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA.
People work on a project in an AeroAstro lab at MIT in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA.
Stickers and cartoons decorate an office door in Building 37 at MIT in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA.
Model airplanes hang from on the wall above a desk in the Aerospace Controls Lab at MIT in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA.
AeroAstro PhD student Justin Kaderka lays in a centrifuge while master’s student Chris Trigg prepares the simulation in the Man Vehicle Lab at MIT in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. The centrifuge simulates a gravity environment and is used in research looking into ways to counteract the physical problems caused on human bodies in low-gravity environments such as in space.
A 1:11 scale electric ducted fan stands in the Wright Brothers Wind Tunnel at MIT in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA.
AeroAstro freshman Jimmy Rojas works to electrochemically sharpen pieces of tungsten for use in thrusters in the Space Propulsion Lab at MIT in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA.
Visiting student in the AeroAstro Department Dan Grieneisen works in his office space in the Aerospace Controls Lab at MIT in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. The lab develops control systems for unmanned aerial vehicles.
Model airplanes hang from the ceiling in the Aerospace Controls Lab at MIT in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA.
A view of desk clutter in the Gas Turbine Laboratory at MIT in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA.
Senior Technical Instructor Richard Perdichizzi prepares a rocket engine for demonstration in the Gerhard Neumann Hangar at MIT in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA.
AeroAstro grad student Ana Diaz operates a robotics work station simulation the space station’s telerobotic arm in the Man Vehicle Lab at MIT in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA.
Grad students Nina Siu (right) and Michael Lieu place a 1:11 scale electric ducted fan in the Wright Brothers Wind Tunnel at MIT in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA.
Students listen to a presentation from the Laboratory for Aviation and the Environment while eating pizza at MIT in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA.
Discarded lab gloves lay in a trash can in the Space Propulsion Lab at MIT in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA.
As part of a series of department profiles at MIT, I photographed classes and labs in the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics at the school.

Crowds at the Sept. 11 Memorial
September 18, 2012
People walk along the streets of lower Manhattan near the site of Ground Zero and the September 11 Memorial in New York, New York, USA.
People walk along the streets of lower Manhattan near the site of Ground Zero and the September 11 Memorial in New York, New York, USA.
I had a bit of free time on September 11, 2012, during a short trip to New York for client visits and Photoshelter's Luminance festival so I went down to the Sept. 11 Memorial site to see how Ground Zero had changed since I last saw it in 2006. There were substantially more tourists, and the "Freedom Tower" is now more than just an architect's idea.

To the Everglades and back
May 16, 2012

 Alligators lounge in the sun in the Shark Valley area of Everglades National Park in Florida, USA.
A statue of an astronaut stands above the entrance to the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, USA.
A bookseller stands in his shop at the Pecan Park RV Resort flea market in northern Jacksonville, Florida.
A woman carries a teddy bear to her car outside a thrift store in Jacksonville, Florida.
People gather on the beach in Palm Valley, Florida, USA, near Jacksonville Beach.
A bird stands silhouetted against Blue Cypress Lake at dawn in Blue Cypress Conservation Area in Indian River, Florida.
An alligator lays in shallow water eating small fish in the Shark Valley area of Everglades National Park in Florida, USA.
Orca-shaped stuffed animals lay on mattresses for sale at the Pecan Park RV Resort flea market in northern Jacksonville, Florida.
People walk along the beach in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. Some use small shovels on the end of sticks to pick up shells and other things found in the sand.
An alligator swims at dawn in Blue Cypress Conservation Area in Indian River, Florida.
Beach towels hang for sale in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.
People walk along the beach in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.
People walk along the beach in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.
Statues of elephants stand outside Papa Joe’s Fireworks in Hardeeville, South Carolina.
A man fishes off the boardwalk in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.
Alligators lounge in the sun in the Shark Valley area of Everglades National Park in Florida, USA.
Mannequins display wigs for sale at a flea market outside Jacksonville, South Carolina.
A man fishes off the boardwalk in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.
French fries lay discarded on the ground in Virginia.
People eat at a Jamaican restaurant in Jacksonville, Florida.
People shop at the Pecan Park RV Resort flea market in northern Jacksonville, Florida.
A roadside memorial stands outside a souvenir store in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.
A dirt road stretches to the horizon in the Everglades National Park in Florida.
A little while ago, I drove down to the Everglades and back on a lark. Camping along the way, explored flea markets, local food joints, and beaches in the winter warmth of the southern USA.

Recent portraits for MIT News
April 5, 2012

 Dr. Anant Agarwal, photographed in the Stata Center at MIT, is the director of MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory and a professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. Professor Agarwal is also the instructor of 6.002x, the first course offered in the school’s online learning initiative MITx. The course covers engineering in the context of circuit design and abstraction and helps students transition from physics to electrical engineering and computer science.
Dr. Emery Brown, Professor of Computational Neuroscience and Health Sciences and Technology at MIT and Warren M. Zapol Professor of Anaesthesia at Harvard Medical School, is seen here in an operating room at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, Mass., on Feb. 2, 2012.
Dr. Andreas Mershin, professor in MIT’s Biological Engineering Department, sits in his office at MIT in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. Mershin’s current research focuses on photosynthetic photovoltaic power systems. “We would like to be able to grow solar power,” says Mershin, “Nighttime access to light is the best way out of poverty.”
Dr. Andreas Velten, Postdoctoral Associate in Dr. Ramesh Raskar’s Media Lab Camera Culture group, sets up equipment in a lab at MIT in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. Velten and Raskar’s group has developed a camera that records at 1 trillion frames per second, which allows, for example, the recording of pulses of light moving through a liquid.
Dr. Scott Stern is the Sloan School of Management Distinguished Professor of Technological Innovation, Entrepreneurship and Strategic Management, photographed in the Martin (1958) Trust Center for MIT Entrepreneurship at MIT in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA, on Feb. 7, 2012.
Professor Daniela Rus and PhD student Kyle Gilpin of the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab at MIT have developed “smart pebbles” a rapid prototyping system involving small robots that can assemble themselves into tools after being given basic instructions. The two are photographed in their office and lab at CSAIL at MIT in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA.
Dr. Alexei Borodin is a professor in the Department of Mathematics at MIT in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. Borodin’s research focuses on representation theory and probability.
Professors Robert S. Langer (right) and Michael J. Cima speak in the Cima Lab at the Koch Institute at MIT in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. Langer and Cima work together in biotechnology and have developed a new implantable medical device which allows repeated wireless drug delivery in lieu of injections.
Reflected in a small solar cell, Dr. Jeffrey C. Grossman, a newly-tenured professor in the Materials Science and Engineering Department, poses for a picture in his lab at MIT in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. Grossman’s recent work focuses on three dimensional photovoltaics which are designed to optimize the efficiency of solar energy collection.
Overlaid by a projection of his Visual Dictionary, Antonio Torralba, a tenured associate professor in MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL), poses for a portrait in the Stata Center at MIT in Cambridge, MA, USA. Torralba’s research focuses on artificial intelligence systems involving computer vision. One of Torralba’s current projects is a “Visual Dictionary,” a map of thousands of images that correspond to 50,000 English nouns and uses a computer system to arrange visually and semantically similar images.
Dr. Anant Agarwal, photographed in the Stata Center at MIT, is the director of MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory and a professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. Professor Agarwal is also the instructor of 6.002x, the first course offered in the school’s online learning initiative MITx. The course covers engineering in the context of circuit design and abstraction and helps students transition from physics to electrical engineering and computer science.
MIT News has become one of my favorite new clients. The assignments are usually very similar: please take a portrait of this researcher (whose research is probably on a computer or microscopic). Each assignment poses a substantial challenge, not least because the subjects are very busy people at the top of their respective fields. My record for one of these shoots is about 3 minutes, including handshake and setup; if I wasn't able to already, I've learned to work very quickly when necessary. You can see how a few of these pictures were used on the MIT homepage in the tearsheets section of this website and see a few more portraits in my archive.

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