Through the camera, I’ve witnessed grief, resilience, ritual, justice and injustice, beauty, and grace – and tried to capture it, one frame at a time.

Along the way, I’ve filmed presidents and entertainers, yoga masters and tribal elders. I’ve followed anthropologists unearthing tombs in Sudan, and a biologist tracing the spiny shrub believed to have been used for the Crown of Thorns.

And I sat beside a sick child sitting at the edge of the Gulf of Mexico – a boy quietly dying from exposure to the oil spill’s toxic cleanup. He didn’t live to see the film’s premier at Sundance.

The finished films have received many honors over the years including Emmys and Oscars.

I was never just after beautiful images. I wanted beauty that meant something – images that carried emotional weight and echoed the story underneath. As I got better at doing that, others noticed – and kept asking me back, drawn more to something they felt more than they could explain.