My Office Today
My Office Today
I started my career in windowless offices at DDB Needham in Chicago. I was grateful for the job, but I had a dream I could not shake. I wanted work to mean being out in the world. Exploring. Meeting people. Paying attention. Crafting photographs. I wanted my office to have a view.
Two years later, I found myself outside Beijing at the Great Wall of China on assignment. As the day drifted toward dusk, the crowds thinned. In the distance, I saw a solitary man sweeping. The Wall goes on and on. It is never really finished. The work is probably thankless. Still, he swept with pride.
I felt the contrast instantly. My work was all about discovery. New places. New people. New creative problems to solve. His “office,” I imagined, was the same task, step after step, day after day. While I photographed him from afar, something shifted in me. I felt the pride we shared and the difference between us. I get to choose my path. I get to explore, create, and share what I see. That agency is a gift, and I won’t waste it. That’s when I coined the mantra I’ve carried ever since.
THIS is my office today.
On my epic adventure, the mantra becomes literal. Every day I’ll have a new office. A diner booth. A sidewalk. A workshop. A field at dusk. A kitchen table. A factory floor. A small-town Main Street. A big city Boulevard. Not as a gimmick. As a choice.
Because I’ve never seen work as just a job. I see it as a privilege. A calling.
My life’s work is to show up, listen well, and make photographs that honor real lives. To meet people where they are. To stay curious about what we share, even when we see things differently. To look for uncommon beauty, common ground, and what still unites us.
So when I say, “THIS is my office today,” what I’m really saying is: hell yes, I’m here. Tuned in. Paying attention. Grateful to be doing the work I’m meant to do.
