Mattrothphoto

Well if the isn’t a blast, I don’t know what is! This was the 25th year the hosted this whacky competition and I got to photograph it for ! Thanks for the assignment and also putting together a really cool multimedia piece. And wrote the piece.
Also …let me know if you spot the pug ;)

Y’all!!! I got another assignment from on Sunday! I made a portrait of Karim Amin at the Gwynn Oak Islamic Community in Baltimore for a story about Ramadan in the age of COVID. Last year Ramadan intersected with quarantining. “It hurt not to be around everybody [last spring], but we did a lot of dope things,” said Karim. And now I’m paraphrasing from Michelle Boorstein’s article, Communal Zoom prayers, reading Ramadan books to youngsters, a car parade for Eid al-Fitr, the last day or Ramadan.

Karim is super cool. Check out his sweet jacket and those gold and white Air Jordans! And he’s stoked about Ramadan. He told me he was sick a few years ago, and couldn’t participate in all the Ramadan activities. Rather than focusing on the suffering associated with fasting, he realized he really missed his community. He was super aware of the “serious Muslim” image often seen when media covers Ramadan. Heh... of course, the photo that ran is pretty serious looking. I do think he looks great, though.

Near the end of our shoot, we got to know each other a bit better, and we loosened up. And I asked him to show me how excited he was for Ramadan to start. Aaaaaand, I think you’ll see how stoked he is in the last photo.

What a treat for me to meet Karim!

GUYS! Look who I got to meet! ...back in 2018. was suuuuch a nice guy. He was campaigning for NY Rep. Antonio Delgado and he was refreshingly stoked to be at the rally. I was photographing for ’s direct mail consultant.

Ugh. That man really knows how to wear a suit. And then there’s my beard. 😕

This page will most likely be a catcher’s mitt for my Instagram page:

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