A Documentary Lens

I have worked in several veins as a photographer—documentary, street, photojournalism, behind-the-scenes, promotional portraits, and events. Capturing the right moment, for me, is to reveal both emotion and underlying story. For this reason, I gravitate towards documentary—not simply as a style, but core to who I am, what I see, and the intuition that brings me to create a photograph in the first place.

Photography

After scrapping together a B.A. from a hodgepodge of history, sociology, and American Studies classes, I started learning how to take photographs and found quick success. I had faced struggles in different areas of my life, but this was not one. At least it was not a struggle in the usual meaning of the word.

Below is one of five images published in DoubleTake magazine to accompany an article by Stephen Hendricks on the Texas singer-songwriter Robert Earl Keen, Jr.

Several years later, I returned to school. Below is an image from my Photojournalism Master of Art's Report for the University of Texas at Austin. These two World War II combat veterans are seen talking with fellow members before a meeting at Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) 6974 in Burnet, TX. You can download the M.A. report Veteran's Odyssey: Combat trauma and the long road to treatment (report from VFW Post 6974) here from UT Austin's library repository, Texas Scholar Works.

Find more photo projects here.

Photo copyright Mike Bicknell, all rights reserved.

Video

Below is a video from my archives: Rebuilding Blackland: A Small Community's Story in Austin, TX.

Find more video projects here.

Contact

I am based in Portland, Oregon and am available to travel for the right project. Reach me through my not-on-brand Instagram or my more respectable LinkedIn account. Or write me a letter at mike [at] mikebicknell [dot] com.

Mike Bicknell preparing for a headshot session.