It’s impossible for twenty images to distill what happened in any year, but especially this one. We’ve experienced tragedy and revolution, chaos and quiet often all in the span of a single day.
While this year has certainly been challenging, I have felt immense personal growth as a photographer and business owner. In 2020 I worked for commercial clients and daily papers. I shot more rolls of film than in any other year. I had the time and the creative inspiration to shoot and edit important bodies of personal work.
I have so much to be grateful for.
I’m incredibly grateful for everyone who chose to hang one of my images on their wall this year, the photo editors, creative directors, and producers who have taken virtual meetings and hired me, and for the people who have graciously allowed me to capture their stories.
I’m proud of the diversity of work that I created this year. And while the various projects I was a part of have varying looks and feels, I felt my photographic voice grow stronger than ever. Ultimately, my work is about telling stories. I find it so exciting to see my commercial work, journalism work, and personal work take on an increasingly similar style.
I look forward to sharing what 2021 has in store. But for the time being, I want to reflect on the monumental year that 2020 has been. Take your time going through the twenty images that I chose to represent this year. You can click on the images to enlarge them.
McDonald’s on Airport Blvd in Austin, Texas.
Jillian Whitlow
Wendy Guerrero
James Dumapit
Joshua Nkansah-Adjei
These images were a part of a zine I made to say thank you to my friends and former coworkers at Suerte, an amazing restaurant in Austin.
Take a look a the full zine here. I’m looking forward to printing more work in 2021 and have some exciting book projects in the works.
Flint Beamon, co-owner of Barkin’ Creek in Austin. [Shot for Indeed]
Indeed approached me to create a visual case study of a business that uses their platform for hiring. Barkin’ Creek was a perfect partner because of their multifaceted business model and engaged owners. Check out the rest of the images here.
I was thrilled to be able to apply my photojournalistic approach to my commercial work this year.
Jenna Harkins and Ruben Staszewski
My brother Ruben, his girlfriend Jenna, and I collaborated to create a body of fashion photography work that served as an exploration of memory and my connection with San Francisco. The full body of work can be seen here.
My dad, Abrasha Staszewski’s studio.
Montsho Jarreau Thoth, an artist and friend, during a fall photo shoot in Austin.
Jeff was laid off from his job because of COVID-19. Having grown up in San Francisco, he had always seen people fishing from this pier and throughout the Bay Area. He decided to buy some fishing gear and give it a shot. The first time he caught and cooked crab, it wasn’t very good. But he tried it again and described that meal as “some of the best food I’ve ever had.” Now he fishes almost everyday and has even started selling crab for about $5 a pound.
Angela Tsai, a Geometry and Chinese language teacher at Vandegrift High School in Austin, Texas, teaches from behind a homemade protective barrier made from shower curtains she purchased at Walmart. [Shot for The Austin-American Statesman]
Greg Gibson at his home in Round Rock, Texas. Gibson contracted COVID-19 in September 2020. On October 20th, after his initial recovery, he fainted and hit his head during a coughing fit while at work. He was forced to spend thee days in the ICU as a result of brain bleeding. [Shot for USA Today]
Michael Che at his omakase style sushi bar run out of his food truck Tsuke Honten in North Austin. He will be opening Tsuke Edomae, a brick and mortar space in March, 2021. [Shot for Austin360]
Following the murder of George Floyd at the hands of police officers in Minneapolis, protests erupted across the country. A man raises his arms in protest outside the Texas Capitol in Austin.
Photographing the protests in Austin that took place following the murder of George Floyd allowed me to connect with the city that has become my home. Shooting for myself as opposed to for a publication allowed me to showcase the protests the way I was experiencing them instead of thinking about how a publication would want them represented.
On June 7th, in his opening address to an audience of thousands at Huston-Tillotson University in East Austin, Chas Moore (not pictured) the Executive Director and Founder of the Austin Justice Coalition made it clear that the protest taking place was about much more than fighting against police brutality—it was a protest against police brutality, gentrification, and white privilege as well as a rally for black joy, black health, and black wealth.
Katie Naranjo (left), Field Chair for the Travis County Democratic Party Coordinated Field Team, and Liz McLeod, Coordinated Campaign Manager for TCDP, participate in live-streamed interviews throughout the night as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic during the TCDP Election Day watch party in Austin, Texas. [Shot for The Texas Tribune]
Camille Tealer (left), a Travis County Democratic Party Field Team member, and Danielle Stoller, Precinct Chair for the TCDP, watch CNN’s election night coverage during the TCDP Election Day watch party in Austin, Texas. The watch party, normally attended by the Democratic Party candidates and their guests, was a much more sparse affair with temperature checks, masks, and social distancing implemented. [Shot for The Texas Tribune]
Nik Patrizi, whose restaurant Vic and Al’s was slated to open in mid-March as COVID-19 swept across the country, hands out free gumbo in the Cherrywood neighborhood of Austin.
Vic and Al’s gumbo-mobile was a surprise that I needed to learn more about. Read the full story I shot and wrote here.