Utata Staff

Editor, TECHtata, Ryan Brenizer

Ryan Brenizer may be one of the first of a new breed—a professional photographer who owes his career entirely to Flickr. Ryan's background was in the written word: as a student he was editor-in-chief of The Ram, Fordham University's journal of record, and he used that experience to work his way through upstate media, becoming
Editor-in-Chief of the Lake Placid News less than a year after his college graduation.

As Editor of a small newspaper, Ryan found that he had to do everything at different times, from writing to graphic design to, of course, photography. He took to it quickly, winning a statewide award for photojournalistic coverage of then-U.S. president Bill Clinton and the First Family, but decided to pursue his interest in the media and education, taking a job in New York City as Communications Coordinator at Teachers College, Columbia University.

There, again, a camera was placed in his hands as a small staff necessitated a jack-of-all-trades mentality, and it was here that he encountered Flickr. The vitality and positive energy of the community had a snowball effect on Ryan's interest in photography, until, it seemed, he could think of little else. Accordingly, his role at Teachers College has become more and more one of school photographer, and he also has started a freelance business.

As part of his nascent professional career, Ryan's photos have been featured in The New York Times, Time Out New York, the Kansas City Star, an advertisement featured in the New Yorker, City Hall, multiple local newspapers, several books (including Catherine Jamieson's Digital Portrait Photography and Lighting), and Gothamist.com, among others. His work was also recently featured in a solo gallery show at Cold Springs Harbor, with photography featuring Nobel Prize winner James Watson, among others.

He's also a big camera geek.