Honolulu-based photographer Elyse Butler Mallams shares photos of the MAMo 2012 Wearable Arts Fashion Show.

Behind the scenes of the catwalk at the MAMo 2012 Wearable Arts Fashion Show for Maoli Arts Month at the Hawaii Theatre photographed for Hana Hou! Magazine.

See more photos on Elyse’s blog.

C.S. Muncy is a freelance photojournalist based out of New York City with a client list that includes The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Newsday, The New York Daily News and The Village Voice. As a freelancer, he’s covered such subjects as the BP Oil Spill, the fight for same-sex civil rights, the takeover of the state capitol in Madison, Wisconsin and Occupy Wall Street. A graduate of the Defense Information School, he enlisted in the United States Air Force in 2002 and is currently a photographer with the New York Air National Guard.

The simulator was roughly the same size and shape as a small commuter jet, with two rows of seats in the cabin and a full set of controls for the throttle, batteries and lights inside the cockpit. Despite the generous seats, though, the environment is hardly first class. The bare-metal walls were covered in soot, and the hard steel seats lined the windowless interior. As part of a traveling training system provided by Kellogg Community College, the “Aircraft Rescue and Firefighting (ARFF)” mobile trainer is designed to burn, letting military and civilian firefighters practice in a controlled environment for a variety of scenarios, including fuel spills, engine fires, interior cabin fires and passenger rescue.

It’s a bit unnerving when activated. Tanks of propane spring to life, and can easily burn exposed skin if you get too close. Then there are the screams. Running on a loop, there’s a recording of passengers screaming and crying while the fire’s active and until you remove the rescue dummies from the cabin. The dummies themselves are a little unnerving; the same size and weight as grown adults, along with an infant sized dummy. Firefighters training in the simulator have to pull all the victims free before their session ends.

In preparation, I had been loaned an Air Force firefighter suit, looking to all the world like a walking baked potato. This included a pair of knee-high rubber boots, heavy, foil-covered pants and jacket, a protective cloth balaclava, helmet, air-tank and mask and gloves. While shooting inside the aircraft, you had to more or less paw and scratch at your camera if you needed to change any settings, as the gloves were far too thick for any kind of detailed adjustments. Likewise, while shooting with the mask on you had to occasionally guesstimate your shot, as the plastic faceplate prevents you from accurately seeing through the viewfinder. Not that it really mattered inside; the smoke was so thick that it was all but impossible to see more than a few inches in front of you.

Shooting outside wasn’t necessarily any easier. With four teams of firefighters working their hoses from different angles, you were going to get wet. Not just wet, you were going to get blasted with water. It was incredibly difficult keeping my lens clear of spots, and my D3 had to be constantly patted dry. Thank god for weather sealing.

Covering this was a great learning experience; I was able to follow the various teams up to and inside the aircraft. I was also allowed to shoot from inside the simulator as it burned in an attempt to shoot the firefighters entering. And while there’s a huge difference between shooting a burning building and aircraft, I believe that what I learned here will help me immeasurably when covering fires in the city.

Check out what C.S. Muncy packed to cover this firefighter training here.

Detroit-based photographer Tim Fuller photographed a book signing at the Detroit Institute of Arts.

I was recently able to photograph a book signing at the Detroit Institute of Arts (DIA). Authors Rayya Elias and Elizabeth Gilbert, who is the #1 New York Times Bestselling author of Eat, Pray, Love, were there. The two were signing their books as well as promoting the release of Elias’ book.

One of the amazing things about my job is everyday of work is at a “new office”. I find myself working in new places, meeting new people, and being able to travel. I primarily do a lot of sports photography so I gratefully accepted a new challenge. It was a great privilege and blessing to be able to work at the gorgeous DIA. I hope I will have the opportunity to work there again and want to say that Rayya was great to work with and best of luck to her!

See more photos on Tim’s blog.

Atlanta-based photographer David Walter Banks spent a couple of days in Daytona Beach as part of his ongoing project on Florida.

I rolled into town near dusk and made my way to the KOA where I would spend the next couple nights camping in my little tent amongst the roar of motorcycle engines propelling bike week revelers.  Within moments of my arrival, a biker camped next to me made his way over to laugh at my curious attempt to fit an air mattress into my tiny orange backpacking tent.  Shortly after my triumph over spatial reasoning, I was sharing whiskey next to a fire with my newfound friend.  Fortunately my new comrades steered me away from Main Street, and advised that I make my way to a biker compound outside of town called the Cabbage Patch Bar.  I decided to trust my new friends and my gut, and threw my plans to the wind.  One of my favorite parts of this photographic life that never ceases to amaze me is the relationships and bonds we form along the way, both the ones that last and those that are more fleeting.  I was speaking to a class of college students at SCAD recently, and they asked how to find something to shoot for an essay based more on a place.  My wife, Kendrick, and I answered that you do as much research as you can, make contacts, schedule your trip, and then plan to throw all those plans out the window once you get there and allow those you meet to lead you.  We always have to prepare, but so often serendipity is our best friend.

Continue reading and see more photos on David’s blog.

Virginia Beach-based photographer Rich-Joseph Facun shot a story about a family who owns a farm and lives a sustainable lifestyle.

If the convenience of daily life as we know it today ceased to exist, if we were forced to return to our hunter/gatherer roots, how many of us would fall to the theory of Darwinism?

For Maureen and Kevin Anderson it’s a non-issue for them and their eight children. In the rural enclave known as Pungo, just on the outskirts of suburban Virginia Beach, VA the Anderson family are living a sustainable lifestyle. With a 30 acre parcel of land , the Hearthside Farm nurtures a “lifestyle that revolves around self-sustainability, organic agriculture and the homespun.”

Continue reading and see more photos on Rich-Joseph’s blog.

Photographer Alex Potter is working on a story about the Somali community in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Since the start of the war in Somalia, thousands of refugees have settled into bordering and western nations, part of the ever-growing Somali diaspora.

One of these largest communities is in Minneapolis, Minnesota. This mid-sized city of 400,000 in the Midwest is home to an estimated 40,000 Somalis. It has been over twenty years since the first refugees arrived. Many were children at the time, now grown into a new generation of young adults, faced with the task of balancing tradition with transformation, heritage and a new identity.

The community has faced many struggles: recruitment of young men to al Shabab, gang violence, and prejudice of a mid-sized city in the Midwest. Yet through it all, the youth have thrived, and the community is revitalized. They are mentors, artists, poets, and community leaders. Though their stories are different, their message is clear and united – Hanoolaato (Long Live) Somalia.

See more photos on Alex’s website.

Atlanta-based photographer Kendrick Brinson photographed rapper Young Thug for FADER.

When I finally walked into the Atlanta studio to photograph Young Thug, I was so relieved that I didn’t care what I took photos of. This was after more than a week of countless phone calls and texts (his phone went straight to voicemail, so we were reaching out to other people). It was a couple days after the shoot had been cancelled, rescheduled and cancelled again. After the deadline from the editor was extended again, I tried once more to call him and sure enough he answered and said to come over to the studio.

Continue reading and see more photos on Kendrick’s blog.

Virginia Beach-based photographer Rich-Joseph Facun shot a graduation ceremony at Regent University for The Virginian-Pilot.

Dreams and aspirations clothed in black cap and gowns lined the brick and mortar sidewalks categorically anticipating the next chapter of life. An elated Wendy Davis shared a hug and moment of prayer with her friend Mary Taylor. Throughout Davis’ senior year at Regent her patience, passion and perseverance had overcome cancer, multiple surgeries, the passing of a close family member and the challenges of caring for her child with special needs.

All the while, a slow, damp drizzle blanketed the campus of Regent University as several hundred graduates patiently awaited the climax of four years in academia. For some, like Kenyan David Oginde, many more years and sacrifices had been devoted to his pursuit of scholarly excellence. Oginde, alongside his counterparts, would be accepting his PHD in Organizational Leadership.

Continue reading and see more photos on Rich-Joseph’s blog.

Atlanta-based photographer David Walter Banks shares photos of spring breakers in Panama City Beach, Florida.

The first stop of my recent trip to work on my new project, ‘Florida: Eden Isle’, took me to the sunny shores of Panama City Beach where I spent a day hanging out with drunken revelers celebrating the not-so-timeless tradition of Spring Break.  It was scary to think that not so many years ago as a high school junior and senior that this was me, and rather odd to see how little the place had changed.  When you think about the annual migration south as something more than just a given, the whole phenomena is actually pretty spectacularly weird.  It is here that the figurative masks are put on by co-eds as they conduct themselves in a way they would never see fit back at home or school or wherever they hail from.  These masks may not be as obvious as the upcoming MegaCon convention images I’ll share, but if you look a little closer into those bloodshot spring breaker eyes, you can see that the neon bikini-clad alter ego of this once wholesome youth is fully in control.  The mask is on.

Continue reading and see more photos on David’s blog.

Now a self-described “lawyer in recovery,” Atlanta-based Jeff Guyer spent fourteen years in courtrooms representing all walks of life before deciding in 2002 that it was time to start photographing them instead. A graduate of Wayne State University (B.A. in journalism, 1986) and Emory University School of Law, Jeff has been able to take his life-long love of photography and tap back into his creative side on a professional level. Spending most of his time photographing weddings, portraits, food, special events, and sports, Jeff also launched his photography class for kids, “Digital Photo Challenges,” two years ago. When not photographing for his clients or teaching what he knows to a new generation of photographers, Jeff– still an avid film shooter– can usually be found somewhere on the streets of Atlanta, chasing light and telling a story…or just hanging out with Max, his 11-year-old son/hero.

A house in Detroit burned to the ground in the wee small hours of the morning on Friday, and the police suspect arson.

Ordinarily, neither of these circumstances would raise much of an eyebrow in the Motor City– perhaps one of (if not the) hardest-hit city in recent economic times. What made this fire different, though, was that the house it destroyed was not one of the unfortunately thousands of abandoned or broken-down homes that make up such a large part of the city’s decaying landscape. It was, rather, the “Obstruction of Justice” house– part of artist Tyree Guyton’s Heidelberg Project. Started in 1986, the outdoor art project turned a run-down residential street on the city’s east side into an ever-evolving art installation. Originally one part political protest, one part artistic expression, and one part cleaning up the neighborhood, Heidelberg Street became an eclectically polka-dotted, brightly painted enclave that started attracting the good kind of attention, rather than driving it away.

Arson, unfortunately, was not the only catastrophe to befall the project over the years. Two former mayors– Coleman Young in 1991 and Dennis Archer in 1999– ordered the demolition of three houses each, supposedly because of the stumbling blocks the project posed to urban planning. To say that the mayors’ efforts would have been better directed elsewhere is an understatement.

The Heidelberg Project has since received national and international attention, and has been the subject of several books and documentaries., including an MTV special and Heidelberg’s own children’s book published in 2011. Guyton continues lecturing and offering workshops, both at Heidelberg and across the country. As in any major city, where social, political, and economic factors often force the arts to take a back seat to other concerns, the Heidelberg Project continues to face its share of hurdles and challenges. The fact that intentional destruction is one of those challenges, however, is disturbing. Kudos to Guyton, however, who is looking for the positive. Quoted in a “Huffington Post” article following the fire, Guyton says, “I guess you need to rise above the hate.”

On one my visits back to Detroit two summers ago, I had a chance to spend some time wandering through Heidelberg with a small group of photographers. Taking our time as we walked among the decorated houses, transformed objects, and reclaimed real estate, we often found ourselves at times experiencing the art, rather than just observing and recording it. Taking photos in reflections one moment, or images of a fellow photographer coaxing music from a painted piano the next.

Art installations tend to have a certain ebb and flow. We’re not talking about a framed canvas hanging on a wall indoors behind a velvet rope. We’re talking about something alive and tangible. Something organic. Something resilient.

Something like Motown.

I hope they catch the guy. And sentence him to a lifetime of art therapy…among other things.