louiserafkin.com

The New York Times is a major American daily newspaper whose political and documentary photography has long shaped how U.S. presidents are seen by the public. Stephen Crowley is a Washington DC-based photographer whose published work appears in that tradition, and his portfolio site, Stephen Crowley Portfolios, presents both his New York Times assignments and his independent art and documentary projects. If you want to understand how a newspaper photographer's daily political coverage relates to personal creative work, his site is a useful case study because it separates the two.

The New York Times as a news organization

The New York Times is a daily newspaper with national and international reporting, including sustained coverage of the U.S. presidency and Washington politics. Its political photography documents presidents, campaigns, and the daily routines of power, and those images circulate widely beyond the paper itself.

For a photographer, working on that coverage means:

• Following political figures across terms and administrations
• Producing images on deadline for news and feature stories
• Building a long-term visual record of presidencies

Stephen Crowley's role and subjects

Stephen Crowley is described on his site as a Washington DC-based photographer. His portfolio keywords list presidents across several administrations: Ronald Reagan, George H. W. Bush, Bill Clinton, Barack Obama, and Donald Trump, alongside the New York Times itself.

That range matters. A Washington photographer who covers multiple presidents accumulates a body of work that is both journalistic and historical. The same person may photograph a president for the paper one week and pursue a personal series the next.

What he covers

• Published work: New York Times assignments, including presidential and political coverage
• Personal projects: Art and documentary work, such as the series presented on the site
• Tone: The site's keywords include humor, politics, and satire, which signals that not all of the work is straight news photography

Published work vs. personal projects on the site

The portfolio distinguishes between these categories, which is the key to reading it correctly.

One example of a personal project listed on the site is The Life Aeronautic with President Trump, described with an apology to Wes Anderson — a signal that this is a stylized, authored piece rather than a news assignment. If I Were Your King appears as another titled project, with an abridged version and a guest book.

How to tell an NYT assignment from independent work

• Check the section. Items under published work are the professional assignments; titled series with a distinct visual concept are usually personal.
• Look at the framing. News photography aims to document; personal series often carry an explicit stylistic reference or conceit.
• Use the keywords as a guide. Terms like humor and satire point to authored projects, while the New York Times and presidential names point to the reporting context.

Where to view the work

The site's navigation includes Published Work, About The Artists, Contact, and a Guest Book, along with individual project pages. Start with the published work section to see the New York Times-related photography, then move to the titled projects to see how the same photographer works outside daily news. The About section gives context on the artists behind the site, and the Contact page is the route for inquiries.

An automotive writer produces factual, editorially independent coverage of cars and the car industry: news, road tests, features, interviews, technical explainers and books. The job is not the same as writing car adverts, brand copy or sponsored posts. The core of the craft is finding things out, checking them, and explaining them clearly to a reader who wants to understand vehicles rather than be sold one.

Where automotive writing appears

Motoring journalism is a broad field, and the format shapes the work more than the subject does.

• News: launches, industry results, regulation, recalls, motorsport. Short, fast, deadline-driven, often built from press releases plus a phone call or two.
• Road tests and first drives: structured assessments of a specific car, usually against rivals and often against the manufacturer's claims.
• Features: longer pieces with a theme — why a particular engine layout died out, how a design trend spread, what a factory visit reveals about production methods.
• Interviews: conversations with engineers, designers, executives, racers or collectors, written up as profile or Q&A.
• Technical explainers: how a differential, a heat pump or a homologation rule actually works, aimed at a general but curious reader.
• Books: histories of marques or models, biographies, reference works. These demand sustained research over months rather than days.
• Reviews of products around cars: tyres, tools, dash cams, books, games.

A single writer may do several of these in one week, which is why the job rewards versatility more than a single specialism.

What separates journalism from PR and enthusiast blogging

This distinction matters, because it is the thing readers and editors actually pay for.

Journalists often rely on manufacturer access — press fleets, launch events, embargoed information — while remaining free to criticise. That tension is normal and is managed through editorial standards rather than avoided. If a piece is sponsored, advertorial or affiliate-driven, a reputable outlet labels it.

The core skills, and how they are built

Research and verification

You need to be able to read a press release and spot what it does not say. Compare claimed figures with independently measured ones. Check a specification against a previous model year. Keep notes and sources so a claim can be defended later.

Interviewing

Most useful information comes from people, not documents. Good questions are specific and open: not "is the new car good?" but "which compromise in the platform was hardest to sign off, and why?" Learn to listen for the answer you did not expect, and to ask a follow-up rather than moving to the next prepared question.

Driving and observation

Road testing is a skill in itself: consistent routes, comparable conditions, attention to ride, refinement, visibility, control layout and real-world fuel or energy use. You do not need to be a racing driver, but you do need to notice and describe differences precisely.

Technical explanation

The hardest part of the job is making complex engineering intelligible without distorting it. Practise by explaining a system to someone with no engineering background, then checking your explanation against a technical source.

Writing to length and deadline

A 250-word news story and a 3,000-word feature are different crafts. Learn to cut without losing the argument, and to file on time. Missed deadlines end commissions faster than imperfect prose.

Specialist knowledge

Industry knowledge is built by sustained reading: trade press, annual reports, regulation consultations, technical papers, museum and archive collections, and conversations with people who work in the sector. It is maintained, not acquired once.

Realistic starting points

There is no single entry route, and no route guarantees paid work. What follows are practical steps that develop the two things editors look for: demonstrable writing ability and demonstrable subject knowledge.

1. Write regularly and publish somewhere. A personal site, a student publication, a club newsletter or a local outlet all count. Consistency matters more than prestige at this stage.
2. Pick a narrow beat and go deep. Electric commercial vehicles, pre-war coachbuilding, motorsport regulations, used-car market data — depth is easier to demonstrate than general enthusiasm.
3. Build a small portfolio of three to five varied clips. Ideally one news item, one review or test, and one feature or interview.
4. Pitch to outlets that publish work like yours. Read the publication first, match its tone and length, and pitch a specific idea with an angle rather than offering to "write about cars".
5. Consider structured study. Journalism courses teach interviewing, media law, ethics and editing; automotive or engineering study builds subject depth. Neither replaces a portfolio.
6. Take adjacent work deliberately. Technical writing, sub-editing, research, motoring club communications and event reporting all build transferable skills, provided you keep your own independent writing going.

Practical and ethical notes

• Disclose conflicts. Free travel, loan cars, hospitality and gifts should be declared according to your outlet's policy. Undisclosed benefits undermine the work.
• Do not present PR copy as journalism. If a manufacturer supplies text or images, treat them as source material and verify.
• Expect irregular income. Freelance motoring writing is typically commission-based and cyclical, with launches and plate changes shaping the calendar. Rates and terms vary widely and should be agreed in writing before work begins.
• Keep records. Notes, recordings (with consent), source contacts and drafts protect you if a claim is challenged.
• Correct errors promptly and visibly. It is a mark of professionalism, not weakness.

A short example of how a piece comes together

Hypothetical illustration: a writer is asked for 1,200 words on a new family SUV. They read the press pack and note the claimed efficiency figure. They check the previous generation's figure and the official test standard used. On the launch drive they record real-world consumption on a set route. They interview the programme's chassis engineer about a ride compromise. They compare the car with two rivals using published data and their own notes. The resulting piece reports the claim, the measured result, the engineer's reasoning and the comparison — and says plainly where the car falls short. That structure, not the subject matter, is the job.

The short answer

An automotive writer turns information about cars into accurate, readable, independent copy. The work is research, interviewing, testing, explaining and writing to deadline, across news, features, reviews and books. It differs from PR and blogging chiefly in loyalty to the reader and willingness to verify and criticise. Entry is through a portfolio and a beat, not a single qualification, and the standards that sustain it are editorial, not promotional.

Louise Rafkin is a journalist and author based in the Oakland and San Francisco area, best known for her New York Times contributions — including the Vows column and "Unhitched," a column about divorce — and for her memoir Other People's Dirt, which was translated into several languages and is now available as an e-book. If you're trying to place her name, find a specific column, or decide whether her work is worth following, her own site (louiserafkin.com) is the most direct starting point.

What she writes

Rafkin's work spans memoir, long-form journalism, columns, and video profiles. Her site describes her beat simply: "I have big curiosity about most things." That curiosity shows up as first-person reporting and observation rather than a single narrow specialty.

Her site also links to pieces at Salon and elsewhere, including "Let your Dying Dog Sleep" (Salon) and "Don't Get a Tattoo!" (NYT), plus reported stories such as "Secondhand Tech in Fiji" and a profile of Kowana Banks in video form.

How she got started

Rafkin has kept notebooks since she was eight, after reading Harriet the Spy — still, per her site, her favorite book. She credits that book with pushing her toward journalism and, eventually, a "slew of books." That origin story explains the through-line in her work: close observation of ordinary people and situations, treated as material worth recording.

Where to find her work

The site's portfolio section is organized around clickable items — photos and links that lead to the "back stories" behind each piece. Practical entry points:

• Portfolio page — the main index of her articles, columns, and video work.
• "Unhitched" and Vows — search these titles at The New York Times, since the columns live there rather than on her own site.
• E-book edition of Other People's Dirt — for the memoir, look for the e-book rather than a print copy.
• Video profiles — at least one linked item, the Kowana Banks profile, is video rather than text.

What to expect if you follow her

Her range is wide — divorce, tattoos, dying pets, secondhand electronics in Fiji, portraits of local figures — so the common thread is voice and curiosity, not subject matter. If you're looking for a single-topic specialist, she isn't one; if you want a reporter who turns everyday observation into narrative, her portfolio is the place to sample that range before deciding what to read first.

Other People's Dirt is a memoir by Louise Rafkin, an American journalist and author. According to her official site, louiserafkin.com, the book was translated into several languages and is now available as an e-book. It is a standalone memoir, not a column, website, or series — so if you encountered the title while browsing Rafkin's journalism, this is the book it refers to.

What the Book Is

Rafkin describes Other People's Dirt plainly as "a memoir" in the portfolio section of her site. That single label is the most concrete detail the source material provides about the book's form. The site does not summarize its contents, so anything beyond "memoir by Louise Rafkin" would be speculation rather than something the source supports.

What the page does establish:

• It is a book-length work, distinct from her columns and articles.
• It reached an international audience through translation into multiple languages.
• It has been reissued in digital form as an e-book.

Who Louise Rafkin Is

Knowing the author helps place the memoir. Rafkin's site describes a writing life that started early: she has kept notebooks since age eight, after reading Harriet the Spy, which she calls her still-favorite book. That early habit, she writes, prompted her to become a journalist and to write "a slew of books."

Her journalism credits include:

• The New York Times, where she often writes the Vows column.
• "Unhitched," a column about divorce she launched at the New York Times.
• Salon, with a piece titled "Let your Dying Dog Sleep."
• Other work including "Don't Get a Tattoo!" and "Clams For Nixon: Childhood in SoCal."

Her site's tagline — "Curiosity makes good stories" — frames the through-line in her work, and the memoir sits within that same curiosity-driven body of writing.

How It Differs From Her Other Work

It's easy to confuse Other People's Dirt with Rafkin's journalism, since her site lists them side by side. The distinction:

The columns are ongoing journalism; the memoir is a separate, book-length personal work.

Where to Find It and Related Reading

The starting point is the portfolio section of louiserafkin.com, where the memoir is listed alongside her other books and articles. The site also links out to selected pieces and profiles — including a video profile of Kowana Banks, a piece on Randall Kline, and "Secondhand Tech in Fiji" — which give a sense of the reporting range behind the memoir.

If you want to read Other People's Dirt itself, the site's own note that it "is now an e-book" is the clearest signal about current availability; the page does not list a price, retailer, or login requirement, so check an e-book store or library service for access terms.