Tim Gruber and Jenn Ackerman use both photography and video to tell stories for editorial and commercial clients. 
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Coming Soon! Every year we'll be publishing at least two magazines of our work. Look for our first issue soon.
We are excited to be back in Vegas for the second year documenting behind-the-scenes at Miss USA for the month of May. As the official documentary team, we will be shooting both video and stills and producing short films on the women as they prepare for the 16-day quest for the crown.
The Last Days of W by Alec Soth can now be seen on Alec’s website.
Being a Minnesota native myself I’ve always been a fan of Alec’s work so it’s nice to see this online. You can buy a print copy of the self-published project at Little Brown Mushroom.
On the project Alec says:
During these last days of the administration, what is the point of protest, satire or any other sort of rabble-rousing? In assembling this collection of pictures I’ve made over the last eight years, I’m not really trying to accomplish much at all. But as President Bush once said, ‘One of the great things about books is, sometimes there are some fantastic pictures.
Oddly enough I drive by this pawn shop everyday now that I live in Dallas. Photo by Alec Soth.
I often find interesting links on photojournalismlinks.com and this one struck a chord in me as I am sure it does with any photojournalist – photographers talking about food they have had in the field.
I have definitely had my share of interesting foods while photographing but one time in Africa the family asked me to cook for them. I had been photographing this family for a couple of days and they asked me to join them for dinner one night not knowing I would be the cook.
After remembering this, I went back to my photos from that time and found these that one of their children had taken of me cooking their traditional dishes.
I recently posted images from my time in Zambia on my website. Check them out here.
For those in Tennessee, Trapped will be screened in Johnson City tomorrow evening, Nov. 15 at 6:30p.m.
Here is the blurb from their site:
Trapped: Mental Illness in America’s Prisons
7 min (USA) – Directed by Jenn AckermanMs. Ackerman, a photographer by training, produces her very first documentary on the important, often overlooked issue of the mentally ill in America’s prisons. Given access to a mental health unit of the Kentucky prison system, the result is a visually spectacular, haunting, and informative movie.
Chasing A Dream
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I am one step closer to the goal I set out for myself when I first picked up a camera – to have a book published by the of age 35.
I received word the other day that I am a finalist for the the Center of Documentary Studies First Book Prize. While I may not win, I am just excited as in the next couple of weeks, one of my dreams has the possibility of becoming a reality.
Newspapers throughout the country are focusing their efforts on telling the stories of Americans during these difficult times. The Washington Post is adding daily to its series – Hard Times.
Every time I see a project on today’s economic struggles, I am reminded that as photographers we have an opportunity to not only take photos but to be historians.
This summer was the first time I saw myself as a historian more so than a photographer. The way our society deals and treats mental illness will change in the next 30 years just as it has in the last 30 years. We look at photos from 1950 of mental hospitals and cringe and wonder how we could have treated people that way.
I always thought of a historian as someone who photographed a war or a significant event but in reality, as photojournalists we document history.
On the heels of the announcement of his latest project on TB, Nachtwey was a guest editor on YouTube.
Nachtwey has selected compelling examples from other YouTube users that exhibit the power of film to relate a story and spread the word.
To my surprise, my slideshow on HIV in rural America was one of the videos selected.
These YouTube users — by turning their cameras on subjects like the conflict in Africa, the human rights violations in Myanmar, and the HIV crisis in rural America — are following Nachtwey’s lead and, ultimately, are changing the world through the force of their efforts and film-making expertise.
The project completed in Spring 2007 was my first multimedia project. HIV/AIDS has been a subject I focus a lot of my efforts on and the stories of four people with HIV in rural Ohio started my series in the US.
TRAPPED will be screened in New York this weekend on Oct. 4 at the Reel Venus Film Festival at Anthology Film Archives, 32 2nd Avenue, NYC. Here is a little writeup on the film.
There is a great lineup including The Sandwich Generation by Julie Winokur and Tata’s Angel by Brenda Kenneally & Laura Lo Forti. My film will be screened on Sat. at 7pm. Click here for the schedule.
Monday I spoke at the National Security Conference to officers and wardens around the country about mental illness in prison and what it was like to film the project. It was a little intimidating as I was speaking to a room of experts but I am hoping I brought a different perspective.
It was great — it is interesting watching your film with people who have never seen it and to respond to questions from nonphotographers. Two officers from the Kentucky State Reformatory sat in on my presentation and gave their perspective as to what it was like to have a photographer in that unit all summer.
We filmed the presentation and hope to have a portion of that online soon.
Thank you all for listening and for your great feedback. Please email me if you have any other questions.