Brian Cassella

Brian Cassella joined the Tampa office of the St. Petersburg Times  as a staff photographer in 2006. A native of Baltimore, Maryland, he graduated in 2005 from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. After beginning his career at The Daily Tar Heel, he interned at The Seattle Times, the Hartford Courant  and the Cape Argus  in Cape Town, South Africa. Awards include recognition by the Best of Photojournalism, the Atlanta Photojournalism Seminar, the Society of News Design, the Southern Short Course, the North Carolina Press Photographers Assocation, the Hearst Foundation, the Society of Professional Journalists and College Photographer of the Year. In 2007, his work was featured in the Emerging Artists Showcase at the Festival of the Photograph.

About the Photograph:

This photograph was taken in June 2004 while I was an intern at The  Seattle Times.  I spent several days a homeless tent community in suburban Seattle and while I was there I met Tony and Laura Stull. They had recently hitchhiked from Florida to Seattle because they  were out of money and heard there were co-ed shelters in Seattle. Around the same time I met them, a nearby church heard that the  couple planned to marry and offered to host their wedding. The church community donated their building, clothes, time and services to throw  the event several weeks later.  Over a couple of months, I visited  with Tony and Laura while they went through their daily routines and  chores, leading up to their wedding day.

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