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| Biography Larry Armstrong is a Los Angeles-based photographer and consulting project manager who has directed photographic teams in award-winning coverage of some of the most dramatic events in recent world history. Working with a variety of technology and media platforms, he maximizes human, artistic, and technical production on tight news deadlines and within budgetary constraints. A multilingual executive and consultant, he has worked in four languages on three continents. As director of photography for the Los Angeles Times for nearly a decade, he developed strategies that led the Times through a period of significant technological, political, and financial change. He assembled and managed staff and freelance teams that covered the Gulf War, the Fall of the Iron Curtain, eight U.S. political conventions, American military incursions into Haiti and Panama, civil war in Bosnia, historic elections in South Africa, and breaking news stories where the challenges ranged deadline disaster coverage to finding fresh ways to shoot a seemingly endless OJ Simpson trial. His photographers were counted on to win awards distinguishing themselves and the paper itself for dramatic coverage with diverse human faces. During his ten years as Director of Photography, Armstrong's staff shared an unprecedented five Pulitzer Prizes for coverage of events and features ranging from a daylong bank shootout to earthquakes, riots, and Los Angeles' ongoing street war with drugs. As a young photographer, he freelanced for national and international publications. At the Los Angeles Times, he traveled extensively, often working in hostile foreign environments. He assembled riveting photo essays from warfronts in El Salvador and famines in Africa, captured the anguish of poverty and unrest in Mexico and Northern Ireland, and got under the skin of politicians on the campaign trail and immigrants as they settled into new American ghettos. Moving from foreign locales to Hollywood locations, he also caught striking images of celebrities at work and play in Sundance and Cannes, at home and in the studio. Before being promoted to photo editor, his work was twice nominated for a Pulitzer Prize by the Los Angeles Times. As a consultant, Armstrong supports client staffs on special projects that require executive as well as professional skills. He also develops and conducts workshops, retreats, and cross-media training programs that enable teams to work together efficiently and cost-effectively. A strong believer in conceptual integration, he helped pioneer popular brain stormings session at The Times that brought writers, line editors and photographers together to develop story ideas and solve problems. As a professional photographer, he works in television and online as well as in classic still photography. Armstrong is a popular guest lecturer, editor of five photography books, and co-producer of independent multimedia and video projects. He has served on a variety of boards and professional committees, including the Eddie Adams Photo Workshop, and the Joop Swart Masterclass selection committee of World Press Photo. He is familiar with virtually every camera platform, but currently prefers a Canon system and Leica for 35mm work, a Hasselblad for larger formats, and a Dyna Lite system for location shoots. He increasingly works in television and broadband and uses a Sony PD150DV cam for video shoots. Clients have ranged from Argentina's Clarin newspaper to the Mona Davis Music and Film Production Company of Los Angeles. A licensed private pilot, Armstrong also plays the guitar, holds a third-degree black belt in Aikido and Muso Shinden Ryu Iaido, and fly fishes in streams from New Zealand to Montana. A painter as well as a photographer, his art has been exhibited in Los Angeles and New York. |