Chapter One
Amy began her career as a Photojournalist hardly knowing how to take picture. It all began when working for a Department of Defense Contractor (who will go unnamed, eh hem...) in the Balkans during the NATO Peacekeeping mission in 1998. "Are you creative?" was the only interview question she was asked, by a new Project Manager who had been told by his predecessor that "Amy is really good to have around, but no one knows quite knew what to do with her." When Amy answered, "Very!", not having any idea what he was getting at, she was handed a first generation Sony digital camera and a contract. It was quite a dinosaur (the camera, and contract) that took large floppy disks which held about 12 images. She was also given a Walkie Talkie and directions to listen to the radio chatter and go travel around the war torn country and NATO bases photographing anything impressive happening that would earn the company billions of dollars. This job didn't rate high enough for a company vehicle or security -- even though her photos were used to justify a multi-million dollar "award fee", so she would hitch rides with the medics and quality control guys and her friend Tami who drove a dump truck. Her secret boyfriend at the time was a career Special Forces operative, and he taught her how to make a data base, Power Point presentations and generally how to stay alive with chin up. She served as the company's "Documentarian" in both Kosovo and Macedonia for about five months, documenting the corporate efforts and the " Start-Up" of the US Military operations. She was the only civilian photographer who had unlimited access to photographing activities on US Military installations at the time. She also spent alot of time visiting mines, hospitals, garbage dumps, markets, cafes and even Russian military outpost, where she was forbidden to take photos. Before the end of the day, she had a dozen Russian intelligence officers posing for her. But we won't talk about that! It would be another 18 years later until she picked up a camera to take anything but nature photos for her own enjoyment. In 2018 she began her professional career as a photojournalist.... Chapter Two: To Be Continued!
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