I'm a Peabody Award–winning journalist based in Richmond, Virginia. During my 30-year career I have photographed conflict, politics, activism, daily life, and more around the world and in my own backyard. My strength is capturing life candidly, clearly, and creatively.
I strive to tell stories in pictures about people and situations that might not otherwise be told, with integrity, professionalism, independence, passion, and compassion.
My photos have appeared in the New York Times, Buzzfeed, Narrative.ly; my writing in Smithsonian Magazine, the New York Times, and the Nation; and audio on Reveal.
My documentary, Full Disclosure, which appeared in 2011 on The Documentary Channel, along with several magazine articles and photo exhibitions, grew out of three media embeds in Iraq with U.S. Marines. In 2019, along with my collaborator, Seth Wessler, I received a Peabody for Reveal radio story "Monumental Lies.”
Before going freelance in 2002, I was a CNN correspondent. Prior to that, I was Beijing bureau chief for US News & World Report, during which time I photographed for many of my articles.
Currently, I'm currently working on Make the Ground Talk with my wife, Erin Hollaway Palmer, a documentary that evokes life in a historic black community that was uprooted during World War II to build a naval base, now a top-secret U.S. military installation. Another long-term project, photography of Virginia's neglected African American cemeteries, grew out of the documentary.
Please contact me to discuss assignments, licensing, print purchases, and lectures.
Operators are standing by.
bxpnyc@fastmail.com
RECENTLY PUBLISHED WORK
“COVID-19 Changes Funeral Traditions.” Richmond Free Press, April 2, 2020.
“Accountability needed over owner of historic African American cemeteries.” Richmond Free Press, March 6, 2020.
“Largest Slave Revolt in U.S. History Lives on in Reenactment.” PBS NewsHour Weekend, November 24, 1019.
“15 Powerful Stories of Segregation in America.” Buzzfeed, September 17, 2019.
"Surviving the Journey.” Richmond Free Press, August 30, 2019.
“The Costs of the Confederacy.” Smithsonian Magazine/Type Investigations, December 2018.
“Monumental Lies.” Reveal/Center for Investigative Reporting, December 2018.
“Demanding Justice for Shahidul Alam.” Aperture, August 9, 2018.
“For the Forgotten African-American Dead.” New York Times, January 7, 2017.
“My Inspiring Year Uncovering Forgotten African-American Graves.” Narrative.ly, August 31, 2016.
“These Volunteers Have Been Cleaning Up Abandoned Black Cemeteries.” Buzzfeed, July 9, 2016.
“Why Does This Old Cemetery Matter?” Reading the Pictures, May 10, 2016.
“Race Trips.” Colorlines. Seven-part series, with Erin Hollaway Palmer, July 8 to August 3, 2015.