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Paula Gren, Chief Executive Optimist
Mark Winer, Chief Executive Optimist
Hilary Weekes, Associate Chief Executive Optimist
ph: 978-352-4147
What did your 18 year old self see you becoming?
An engineer, who traveled the world and takes a year off to be a professional ice skater.
What was one of the most interesting projects you worked on?
Photographing fatherhood for Dad Time, around the US and in China and Iceland, was incredibly challenging and rewarding. It reinvigorated my love of travel and curiosity about other cultures.
Can you remember the first time you got paid to take a photograph?
I worked at the Daily Northwestern my first year of college and I think at the end of the year we got like $25 or something so it was a surprise bonus stipend. Also a laughably small amount but we weren’t doing it for the money.
If you weren’t a photographer, what would you do?
A serial entrepreneur, or an economist.
When you need it, what inspires you?
Travel is always inspirational – getting out of my normal routine and environment helps me see things in new ways. Real life, often times my own, can be the most inspiring.
How do you get your news?
All sorts of feeds online plus NPR, NYT, and sometimes social media.
What do you know now, you wish you’d known when you first started out?
Everyone says ‘Shoot what you love,’ but no one tells you how to discover what you love.
What might surprise people about you?
I started college as a chemical engineering major. When I started taking pictures I made a deal with myself that if I still liked it in one year I would switch career paths.
What were you like as a 10 year old?
A true Pisces. Lost in dreams.
When was the last time you watched the sun rise?
I’m an early bird so I see it almost every day.
What is your dream assignment?
Photographing a project that enacts social change or brings an issue to light.
What celebrity (actor, writer, musician) would you most want to have dinner with?
Tie between Julia Louis-Dreyfus and John Oliver.
What reality show would you invent?
Forty-year-old mom.
What are the top 2 things on your bucket list?
Seeing my kids grow up and follow their paths is definitely something I hope to do. And learning ballroom dancing.