This workshop explores the photo essay as a voice for telling stories of people and their personal conditions. Students work on a documentary project throughout the week, applying Dominic Chavez’ photographic career began at age 19 at The Denver Post where he freely explored his craft, interweaving creative vision, personal documentary and photojournalism. At the age of 25, The Boston Globe brought him East, where he worked until the summer of 2008.
Since 1991, Dominic has covered a wide range of domestic and international issues. He has reported from the front lines of Iraq to the war-torn streets of Angola, and the effects of the ongoing drug war in Colombia.
Presently, Dominic focuses on his true passion: bringing awareness on domestic and global health issues through his personal work. From 1999-2009 he has documented the height of the AIDS epidemic in Africa, also producing two books, one about the impact of the epidemic in Nigeria in 2006 and a second about AIDS Treatment in Africa in 2009, both in tandem with Harvard School of Public Health. His latest project was on drug-resistant tuberculosis with the World Health Organization in 2009.
Dominic has been recognized with many awards, and two most notable include the Kaiser Family Foundations’ Media Fellowship Award 2007-2008 and First Place in the Pictures of the Year International Competition, for his work during the Iraq War in 2004.
His photographs speak most eloquently of his passion and his vision, capturing the most vulnerable moments of humanity.
Dominic lives in Chelsea, Massachusetts, with his loving wife and a small collection of bonsai trees.
