I started shooting around 1997 -- after nearly twenty years as a reporter working in print, public radio and a bit of television. I was having a crisis of confidence in words at the time. They'd failed me during a critical period in my personal life and I'd pretty much lost my faith in something I'd always counted on as a way to share, persuade, convince, reveal. At the same time, almost by chance, I found photography. I felt I'd discovered a language filled with both meaning and ambiguity -- a form of communication that washed away the failings of words.

Over time, I began writing again, but photography is still the language I love best. Currently I'm working on two photo documentary projects -- "Aftermath: Bosnia's Long Road to Peace," and "I Misteri: The Easter Processions of Sicily" -- and am in the planning stages of another one, closer to home, in rural California.

I was born in Detroit, Michigan, to Midwestern parents who shaped my values. I grew up in California and the West, which shaped me even more. I moved to the East Coast to work for the Christian Science Monitor in 1977. I was a staff writer there for about ten years, and also a founding reporter of Monitor Radio, the Monitor's now-defunct public radio program.

As a reporter, my concentration was in social issues and cultural critiquing. I traveled around the world. I won a lot of awards. I'm most proud of a series I did with another reporter and photographer called "Children in Darkness: the exploitation of innocence."

It was about the exploitation of children in the developing world. We did it in 1987, back before anyone was writing about child prostitution, child labor and child soldiers. My work on that series landed me a spot in a book called "Women on Deadline." I was selected as one of the top ten female reporters in the U.S., for my international reporting.

I've been a freelancer since 1990. I'm still driven by social justice issues, and have reported on a range of subjects, from the torture and assassination of street children by death squads in Guatemala to grass-roots efforts in America to bridge the "digital divide." My writing has appeared in several publications, including the New York Times Magazine, Fast Company, Rolling Stone and the Boston Globe Magazine. I also sit in as a guest host for the national public radio program, To The Point, from KCRW in Santa Monica, CA. These days, all of that work goes towards funding my photo documentary projects.

I live in Los Angeles, where I am happily owned by three cats, Harry, Lewis and Lloyd.