Over the past 30 years, photography has changed more than it did in the previous 100. Digital photography and smartphones allow many of us to take thousands of images in a given year — and to see even more. So how does Seven Days get readers to pay attention to a picture?
Simple: We have really, really great photographers.
The late Matthew Thorsen was one of the best. Seven Days’ only full-time staff photographer, he was with the paper from the beginning until his death in 2019, defining its style with his arty, edgy images. His creative approach to taking photos — embracing all kinds of technology, settings and poses, often with gallery-worthy results — has served as an inspiration to all the photographers who contribute their vision to Seven Days on a regular basis. Here are a few whose images have kept you looking over our three decades.
Luke Awtry
lukeawtryphotography.com
If you are part of the Vermont music scene, chances are Luke Awtry has taken your picture. “One of my favorite things is live music, and getting a photo pass is basically the best seat — the best of every seat — in the house,” he said. Even though it can be hard to get a good shot (“Things are moving fast; things are dark; things are chaotic,” as Awtry put it), he spent his first two years of professional-level photography shooting live music almost exclusively. “That’s home to me,” he said.
Awtry, 45, of Burlington, has photographed and written more than 100 “Eye on the Scene” spotlights for Seven Days — experiential mini-essays on what it’s like to be at those shows. But his assignments are not limited to music. He shoots everything from culture to news, including Derek Brouwer’s recent cover story about Burlington’s homeless encampments. Awtry is also the official photographer for the South End Art Hop, which takes place this weekend; look for a collaborative photo project on display outside his studio at 4 Howard Street.
The arts, Awtry said, are his passion. One of his favorite Seven Days assignments was Chelsea Edgar’s 2023 cover story on Bread and Puppet Theater (see page 44). While exploring barns full of puppets, he said, he came across luggage and road cases with labels on them from all over the world — objects that told the troupe’s story. “I really, really love the things that make the production work, that make the art come to life,” he said.
Jeb Wallace-Brodeur
@jebphoto on Instagram
Central Vermont photojournalist Jeb Wallace-Brodeur, 59, often seems to be everywhere all at once. On a recent weekend, he shot the Shepherd’s Hearth vendors at Capital City Farmers Market in Montpelier, the No Kings protest at the Statehouse and portraits of cancer survivors in nearby Hubbard Park. “It was a busy day,” he said.
Wallace-Brodeur’s work often takes him to the Statehouse, where he guessed that he’s taken photos every week for at least 30 years. It’s a challenging space that demands creativity. “I know every nook and cranny of the building,” he said, but the lighting is bad and there’s not much action. “For shooting people, it’s just not a terribly interesting place.” Nonetheless, he has captured compelling portraits there, such as for Hannah Bassett’s recent cover story about rookie reps.
Wallace-Brodeur excels at picturing people. The assignments that stand out, he said, are ones where “I get to know the subject pretty well and really enjoy being with them.” That was the case for cover stories on podcaster Erica Heilman, sign maker Sparky Potter and Lt. Gov. John Rodgers.
For Joe Sexton’s story on Enough Ministries in Barre, Wallace-Brodeur made five or six trips to meet the congregants. He always starts by talking to his subjects. “If I show interest in who they are and what they’re doing, they tend to chill out and trust that I’m going to put them in a good spot,” he said. He can sometimes get chatty on a shoot, he said jokingly, before he realizes, “Oh, I guess I should take some pictures now.”
Bear Cieri
bearcieri.com
Bear Cieri, 50, of Shelburne, has been shooting for Seven Days since 2018, covering everything from news to food to home tours. He admitted that, while many of the specific assignments bleed together in his memory, “I love doing it, and I love being a part of the community.”
Cieri’s practice straddles photojournalism and fine art. His community spirit is on full view in some of his larger personal projects, such as an ongoing series on Barre that he began in 2013. Those black-and-white photos combine portraits with event photography, images of quarries and still lifes of everyday objects to offer viewers a larger, not strictly narrative vision of the city, a style Cieri describes as “post-documentary.”
One of his favorite assignments was shooting “Carbon Quandary,” Kevin McCallum’s 2019 cover story on biomass fuel. While the subject might not sound like the most photogenic, Cieri said, “I’m really intrigued by the ingenuity needed to create the industrial infrastructure that keeps our society running.” Plus, he enjoyed getting a private, behind-the-scenes tour. The opportunities for interesting shots, he said, were everywhere.
“Whenever anyone asks me what my favorite photo is,” Cieri said, “it’s always the next one.”
Daria Bishop
dariabishop.com
Daria Bishop, 58, of Burlington, never aspired to be a food photographer. But since her first Seven Days assignment, shooting the Daily Planet in Burlington for “We’re Still Open,” a 2019 survey of long-lived Vermont restaurants, she has pictured many meals.
She enjoys those assignments, she said, and getting to know Vermont restaurateurs. She’s shot some of them multiple times as they’ve started new projects. “When I meet them again, it’s like connecting with a friend,” she said.
Asked about a favorite assignment, Bishop pointed to a nonfood story: Colin Flanders’ 2023 profile of Gene Richards, owner of Johnson Woolen Mills. “I got full creative license to do what I liked,” she said, “and I thought, Wouldn’t it be a hoot if we wrapped him all up in all his woolens?”
Bishop said she appreciates Seven Days’ deep dives, such as 2022’s “Locked Out” series on the housing crisis, for which she photographed mobile home parks. “It was just really eye-opening,” she said. She tries to capture each subject as authentically as possible.
Even with food photography, she said, she’s always thinking about how much heart and soul goes into a restaurant. “I see the humanity behind the food,” she added.
Caleb Kenna
calebkenna.com
Of all the alternative newsweeklies, Seven Days probably pictures the most cows. With his portraits and aerial photos, Caleb Kenna offers a fresh and unexpected perspective on Vermont’s rural landscape and how we interact with it.
Kenna, 55, of Middlebury, started working for Seven Days as a rookie: “I did some really early assignments in the late ’90s in black-and-white film, if you can believe it,” he said. “I was such a new, unexperienced photographer that I didn’t even know how to use flash.” But he stuck with it and adapted to photography’s changing technologies.
In 2017, he started using a drone — “a fantastic addition to the camera bag,” he said, “because I could explore perspectives.” Many of his drone images appear almost abstract. In one, a snow-covered field of tires creates a ghostly geometry over the landscape; in another, an orchard casts dramatic blue diagonal shadows. In 2020, the New York Times published 17 of Kenna’s photos; in 2022, they were collected in a book, Art From Above Vermont.
Still, what Kenna most enjoys is portraiture. “There’s something so classic and simple about approaching someone, talking to them, making a connection in a really short amount of time,” he said, “using the environment and the light and the gestures.”
For a 2015 cover story on Vermont’s game wardens, Kenna recalled going out on Lake Champlain at sunrise; the photo shows the fog rising just above the water. Another favorite image, he said, from 2019, is of Geraldo Velasco, a migrant farmworker at Vorsteveld Farm in Panton (see page 40). “One of the great things about assignments isthat you get to meet all kinds of cool people,” Kenna said. “You never know where that’s going to lead.”
Oliver Parini
oliverparini.com
Oliver Parini, 39, grew up in Weybridge, where he lives today. He started shooting for Seven Days when he moved back to Vermont in 2010 after college and a stint of travel photography in Asia. As a photojournalist, he gets to see things that “everyday people don’t always get to know about,” he said. “That’s part of the thrill for me.”
That was the case, he said, when he shot Melissa Pasanen’s 2022 story on chef turned fly-fishing guide Jamie Eisenberg. “I’m also a fly-fisher,” Parini said, “and she showed me some of her secret spots near her house — she ended up catching some beautiful fish, too.”
Another favorite assignment was a 2016 cover story on musician Jer Coons. Parini said one of the perks of the job is meeting fascinating people who “maybe are not always famous per se but have really interesting stories.”
Like many freelancers, Parini said he increasingly books weddings, commercial shoots and marketing images for nonprofits. “The industry is changing quickly,” he said, with fewer outlets for photojournalism. But he still thinks it’s great work, and it’s important to him to cover essential news. “I’ve always loved shooting for Seven Days,” he said. “It’s just really a fun vibe.”
The original print version of this article was headlined “Behind the Lens | Seven Days’ most frequent photographers reflect on their favorite assignments”
This article appears in 30th Birthday Issue.
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