About the Contributor

Leonardo Mendez was born in Cuba and resides in New York City. Primarily a documentary photojournalist, he is also an entertainment and commercial photographer. His work has been published in both commercial and news media outlets such as CNN, BBC, and The Gothamist, and covers a wide-range of international and national assignments. Most recently, Leo covered the Japan Tsunami (camaraobscura.com) and the Mississippi Floods (CNN). His documentary photographs of the Howl Festival in New York City earned him a feature story with the NYTimes blog in 2011.

His style is developed from a wide range of journalistic and artistic photography experience.    Leo is a strong advocate of basic composition and framing, and believes simplicity in composition tells the best stories.