Josh Rushing for The Alcalde

Rushing_01 Rushing_02The University of Texas has a cool alumni magazine and they reached out to me last year to shoot a particularly interesting alumnus of theirs.  Josh Rushing was a public affairs officer in the U.S. Marine Corps when he was featured in the documentary Control Room about Al Jazeera during the U.S. invasion of Iraq.  He eventually left the Marines to become a journalist and is now an international correspondent for Al Jazeera English.  He is the co-host of their show Fault Lines and is a super cool photo subject.  First of all, the camera liked him.  A lot.  That always makes my job easier, but what made the shoot extra special is that he devoted his entire day to the shoot and we ran all over DC playing with concepts and backgrounds.  We started at the Al Jazeera English studios and moved on the Newseum, and then Georgetown to check out a hookah bar.  Over the course of the afternoon, the photoshoot evolved from stiff formality to a more fluid conversation to the point where we were trading international correspondent fashion tips and placing bets on who would win the election.  I lost and I still owe Josh that drink.  Anyway, it had been a very long time since I’d met someone so passionate about real journalism and speaking truth to power.  Makes me a bit angry to think about what passes for news on the primary domestic cable news networks nowadays. Rushing_03 Rushing_04 Rushing_05 Rushing_06 Rushing_07 Rushing_08