AP 36: American Photography Annual

Wired: The Internet Giant That Went Too Far

I am honored to share that The Internet Giant Who Went Too Far for Wired has been named one of the year’s best by the American Photography 36 Annual for editorial photography.

Published in the July / August 2019 issue, I photographed Michael Lacey and Jim Larkin as they await trial for owning the online classified giant Backpage.com. Backpage was the red-light district of the internet or the Google of commercial sex ads, and for this both men face life in prison. As they await trial they are under country arrest and cannot travel.

Photographically I wanted to portray Lacey and Larkin in a way that spoke to their decades of defiance, possible incarceration, the shadowy space in which Backpage operated, and their physical and psychological imprisonment as they are confined to their homes and Maricopa County. In hindsight, these works take on new meaning as we have been participating in our own levels of compliance and isolation.Article by Christine Biedermann and assigned by Beth Holzer and Anna Alexander.

Congratulations to all the winners and thank you to this year’s judges:Aeriel Brown, Photo Director, Bloomberg BusinessweekLaura Geiser, Freelance Photo Producer and EditorTara Guertin, Director of Photography AFARMolly Roberts, Independent Photography Editor, Visual Storyteller and CuratorJolie Ruben, Culture Photo Editor, The New York TimesDavid Sleight, Design Director, ProPublica