On the job, wading “in the high-elevation Yellowstone Prong that runs quick and clear under alternating pockets of sunlight and shade from river birches and rhododendron through national forest land, just off the Blue Ridge Parkway.” Photo and text by Karen Chávez.
About me
I have been a photojournalist with the Asheville Citizen Times in the USA Today Network since 2016.
Before moving to the Blue Ridge Mountains, I was a photographer with the Sandusky Register newspaper in northern Ohio for 5 years, a photography guide with Rustic Pathways in Australia, the videographer and editor of the Life in the Dog House web series, and a rafting photographer on the Colorado River in Kremmling, Colorado.
My photographs have appeared in EdSurge, Mother Jones, The New York Times, and The Washington Post, among others.
I am a member of the NPPA.
Education
Ohio University
Bachelor of Science in Visual Communication with a specialization in Film, 2011
Awards
North Carolina Press Association, Best Video, 2nd place, 2018
Associated Press Society of Ohio, Best Sports Photo, 1st place, 2016
Lake Erie Arts and Film Festival, Best Documentary Short, 1st place, 2015
Associated Press Society of Ohio, Best News Photo, 2nd place, 2014
Associated Press Society of Ohio, Best Sports Photo, 3rd place, 2014
Ohio Prep Sports Writers Association, Portrait, 1st place, 2014
Ohio Prep Sports Writers Association, Game Action, 2nd place, 2014
Ohio Prep Sports Writers Association, Game Action, 3rd place, 2014
Associated Press Society of Ohio, Best Photo Essay, 1st place, 2013
Associated Press Society of Ohio, Best Sports Photo, 2nd place, 2013
Associated Press Society of Ohio, Best Photographer, 2nd place, 2013
Associated Press Society of Ohio, Best Use of Multimedia, 2nd place, 2012
Associated Press Society of Ohio, Best Online Photojournalist, 2nd place, 2011
Associated Press Society of Ohio, Best Photo Essay Team Member, 2009
Atlanta Photojournalism Seminar, Pictorial Category, 3rd place, 2008