Biography

Phillip served over a decade in the U.S. Army. He enlisted in 2010 in the artillery corps where he served on a combat deployment to Afghanistan. He was accepted into the Reserve Officer Training Corps program in 2013 and earned his commission as a signal corps officer and Bachelor of Arts in film production and documentary filmmaking at Eastern Washington University in Cheney, WA .

He moved to the national capital region and served as the operations officer at the 55th Signal Company (Combat Camera) at Fort George G. Meade, Maryland in 2017. He served as the documentation team leader in support of Operation Inherent Resolve in Iraq, Syria, and Kuwait where his team’s work was published frequently in Stars & Stripes, The Washington Post, Business Insider, and international media outlets and produced videos exclusively for the Armed Forces Network.

Phillip currently lives in Washington, D.C. where he works with volunteer and non-profit organizations throughout the national capital region as a documentary photographer.

Phillip’s work has been published by the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage, Reuters, NPR, The Washington Post, Science News, and other publications.

Statement of Ethics

Research: I strive to be prepared and ask informed questions. I seek answers to underreported stories and ensure factual work before publishing. I employ the journalistic process and interview people that are most affected.

Perspective: I recognize that I am not free of personal bias. I will cover stories as holistically as possible and present them once I have addressed any questions of credibility. I will familiarize myself with others’ work and ensure that what I publish is my own and benefits the conversation.

Consent: I will speak with the people in my photographs and be upfront about my intentions. I will portray people in a genuine light and do the work to present them truthfully. I will respect their requests and their right to dignified identification and anonymity alike.

Accountability: I am accountable for covering stories in the way that I present them. I strive to question the impacts of my photographs and I understand that as a photographer, I hold a position of power that should not be taken lightly. When in doubt, I will seek the counsel of credible professionals in the relevant industry for guidance before publishing.

Greater Good: Representation matters and my photographs should reflect a sense of human rights for all regardless of ethnicity, sexual orientation, class, gender, age, and other structures that could be used to divide. I will consider instances when the privacy of those I collaborate with should take precedence over potential exploitation by taking the photograph at all.