So, I get to have a lot of fun working on Citizen magazine. And one of the most exciting things I do is send photographers to exotic and crazy places. Gaylon Wampler is one of my go-to guys. You don’t get a second chance to take these shots, and they have to tell the story and be compelling and fit the space, and look professional. And when I send Gaylon, I don’t have to worry about any of those things. I know he’s going to bring back gold. Here’s his story:
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I’m a Colorado-based commercial and editorial photographer with a background in newspaper photojournalism.
I began my career working for a small weekly paper in Carrolton, TX and worked my way up through the Amarillo Globe, the Associated Press, the Houston Post and the Denver Post. I switched careers from newspapers to magazines, Christian publishing and relief work in 1996 and more recently, started specializing in non-profit Christian photojournalism and commercial oil and gas work world wide.
For me, it’s the perfect blend as I am able to shoot the non-profit assignments for less and count on the industrial work for the majority of my income.
While I shoot a wide variety of assignments, it is the work with a cause that I love the most. To go out and tell a story with my images in order to inform and influence readers is the work that I believe God has called me to. Most recently, I was assigned to photograph the results of the inter-tribal conflict in Kenya for a missions based organization, and that work helped bring much needed food, shelter and other needs to the people displaced by that human tragedy.
Here are a few links to some of my work:
Kenya: http://gallery.me.com/g.wampler#100420
AIDS: http://gallery.me.com/g.wampler#100431
Burkina Faso: http://gallery.mac.com/g.wampler#100140
Various Portfolio: http://gallery.me.com/g.wampler#100358
My goals are the same whether it be my art, my industrial work or my photojournalism: Show the reader something they haven’t seen before, change the way they look at a subject and to continue to work with the gifts that I have been blessed with.
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Gaylon has literally been to almost a third of the world, and has logged 409,757 miles on his trips. Perhaps the most memorable trip for Citizen was Uganda. Officials in Uganda seemed to be having success lowering AIDS rates in their country through abstinence messages. It’s a story you probably won’t read in the local paper. And it was quite an experience. But the photo I love the most from our adventures together is a shot of a prisoner coming out of the water after being baptized. The water is surrounding him, glistening and wrapping and shimmering. It feels like a moment in eternity. It’s brilliant. Like I said, he always brings the story home.
I love to talk to Gaylon about what he’s seen and experienced, because he has such passion for people. Sometimes it’s heartbreaking. Sometimes it’s joyous. But it always feels like we’re doing something important, and co-laboring in the storytelling of these issues. Thanks, Gaylon, for all of your great work, long layovers, funky hotel stays, and hours away from your lovely wife. It’s good work that you do. You tell the world a story in a split second, and it leaves a lasting impression.
