I credit my older brother with my fascination for photography. I still remember being in elementary school and watching him develop prints in his makeshift basement darkroom. Witnessing the magic of those moments as the image appeared under the haze of a redlight has stayed with me all these years.

As a young adult, I turned my fascination with photography into a hobby. While working as an elementary school teacher on the Lower East Side of New York, I would bring my camera to school every day and document the lives of my kids. Eventually, photography took over my life and I started freelancing as a photojournalist. I worked for the New York Times, the Philadelphia Inquirer, Rolling Stone and eventually the Los Angeles Times as their East Coast photographer. I left New York with great trepidation in 1980 to join the staff of the Los Angeles Times. My “new” hometown never ceases to surprise me and though I only planned to stay one year, I am still discovering the city 29 years later.

I traveled the world for the Los Angeles Times, covering everything from the Cannes Film Festival to poverty in Appalachia and the war in El Salvador. I was on the campaign bus with Jesse Jackson in 1988 and in Washington when Ronald Reagan was shot.

I worked at the Times for 27 years, photographing, writing and photo editing feature sections. I left the paper in 2007 and resumed my career as a freelance photographer and writer.

I live in Silverlake with my husband, also a journalist, my two teenage daughters, three cats and our dog Bre.