I grew up on the hard streets of Des Moines, Iowa before dropping out of beauty school. Nothing could be further from the truth but if that makes you smile, I can keep going.
I dabbled in art and design before catching the ravaging photo bug. I liked it so much I went ahead and finished with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Photography in 1995 from the Kansas City Art Institute. While attending school, I freelanced for The Kansas City Star, The Associated Press and several advertising agencies.
Since then I’ve been published in Time Magazine, Sports Illustrated, USA Today and The New York Times just to name some of my parent’s favorites. My assignments have taken me from war zones to “Pet of the Week;” even within weeks of each other. With experiences like these, it can keep a guy like me pretty humble and never thinking he’s bigger than the moment. That is unless it’s a really great photo.
After working nearly 15 years as a staff photographer at The Kansas City Star, I'm now a freelance photographer and filmmaker based Kansas City, MO. This is where I enjoy photographing people with far more interesting stories than those I could ever make up.
I'm surrounded with my loving wife Nancy, our children Jesse and Emma with our French Bulldog, Vinnie Barbarino