User:Jimlavrakas/sandbox

James (Jim) Lavrakas
Jim Lavrakas (born September 11, 1952 in Lowell, MA) is a retired staff photographer and photo editor of the Anchorage (AK) Daily News.

Jim Lavrakas learned photography from his father "Babe", a chemistry professor at the former Lowell Technological Institute, now UMass/Lowell. At age 12, Lavrakas' father showed him the magic of the photographic darkroom and Lavrakas began a hobby that would become his vocation. Living in the nearby dairy farm community of Dunstable, by age 14 he was selling photographs as a "stringer" to the local newspaper, the Lowell Sun.

In 1967 Lavrakas spent the year in Ealing, England with his family while his father was on sabbatical leave there. It was there that Lavrakas expanded his knowledge of darkroom technique when he interned for the London fashion photographer Tony Boase. After his return from England he discovered that his fellow junior year classmates at Groton/Dunstable Regional High School had already coalesced in social groups and he was an outsider.

Taking photographs at baseball games, as the yearbook photographer, and at school events, he became the documentarian of his class and he discovered that this role opened doors to being part of the groups.

As a professional photographer that revelation allowed him to further his career.