"‘Something Is Going to Explode’: When Coronavirus Strikes a Prison" for The New York Times Magazine

In Oakdale, Louisiana, the Federal Correctional Complex houses some 2,000 inmates and employs close to 500 staff members in two low-security prisons. The last time I worked there was during the government shutdown last year, when many of the prison staff saw their paychecks vanish overnight — it’s the unfortunate lifeblood for a town of fewer than 8,000 people. Now, the prisons at Oakdale are experiencing an alarming coronavirus outbreak.

"By the third week of April, seven Oakdale inmates had died. At least 100 inmates and staff members had been infected, with more than 20 hospitalized, as confusion, fear and anger gripped the interconnected community of inmates, officials, workers, family members and loved ones."

I photographed a few of the people - the mayor, the union president, and a prison employee - that writer Janet Reitman interviewed for a terrifying oral history of the first fatal outbreak of COVID-19 in the federal prison system, which published in The New York Times Magazine last week.

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‘Something Is Going to Explode’: When Coronavirus Strikes a Prison

An oral history of the first fatal outbreak in the federal prison system, in Oakdale, La.

Essential Workers During the Coronavirus Pandemic for The Washington Post

I spent a day with New Orleans sanitation workers as they collected garbage during the coronavirus shutdown for a Washington Post feature on essential workers around the globe:

“Working in the Wake of Coronavirus”

Wendell Pierce for Esquire UK

I photographed actor Wendell Pierce at home in the Pontchartain Park neighborhood of New Orleans for a feature in Esquire UK. Pierce stars in a stage production of Waiting for Godot this fall in London.

Why Fatal Police Shootings Rarely Lead to Convictions for BUZZFEED News

"The fatal police shooting of Ricky Ball in October 2015 convulsed the city of Columbus, Mississippi. Residents marched. Some businesses, fearing a race riot because a white cop had killed a black man, closed on protest day. A city council member accused the department of planting a gun beside Ball’s body. The police chief resigned. The district attorney called in state authorities to handle the case.

Finally, in September 2016, a grand jury indicted the officer, Canyon Boykin, on manslaughter charges. Boykin’s case still hasn’t gone to trial, but if the recent past is anything to go by, he’s likely to make it through without punishment — and even walk away from the case ahead, handed money for his troubles. That’s because shortly after he shot 25-year-old Ball as Ball ran away following a traffic stop, Boykin sued the city for racial discrimination, claiming he’d been unfairly fired for being a white cop who’d killed a black person. Just before his discrimination lawsuit was to go to trial last year, the city settled with Boykin for an undisclosed amount.

“That’s what really made me realize how much is stacked against us,” said Ricky’s cousin, Ernesto Ball, who is 46. “That’s the moment I began to think that maybe these cops can really get away with whatever.”

I photographed a surviving family member, a community organizer, the path that Ricky took while running from the police, and an eyewitness to his subsequent death for Buzzfeed.

Buzzfeed News: "Maybe These Cops Can Really Get Away With Whatever."

Community Organizing in Jackson, MS in YES! Magazine

I'm happy to have a few pictures that I originally made on assignment for VICE Magazine now illustrate the cover story of YES! Magazine's summer issue. My day with the Umoja family in Jackson, Mississippi was super inspiring and it's great to learn how their work has progressed since we met a couple years ago. For more pictures from the original VICE story on black community organizing in Jackson, see FREE THE LAND. 

You can find the YES! Magazine story here: After Centuries of Housing Racism, a Southern City Gets Innovative