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In the early 1980s, while a staff photographer for United Press International (UPI) in Washington, D.C., Jim Hubbard began documenting the lives of the homeless.  Over time, he found that whenever he took pictures of the families the children wanted to hold and look through his camera.  It was this innocent curiosity and enthusiasm that inspired Hubbard to establish a program that would enable the homeless children to learn photographic skills and document their world. 

In 1989, Jim Hubbard created Shooting Back, an organization dedicated to empowering children at risk by teaching them photography.  The name was coined from a spontaneous comment by one of the young participants in the program: when asked why he was photographing his own world, the homeless child responded,

"I'm shooting back."

 
About the Founder: A photojournalist since the mid-1960s, Jim Hubbard has been a staff photographer for The Detroit News and UPI and has also contributed to The Washington Post, The New York Times, Newsweek, and Life magazine among others.  Hubbard's ten-year chronicle of the nation's homeless was published in a book titled American Refugees, and a series of pictures from the book was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize in 1986.  Hubbard holds master's degrees in Divinity and Third World Development.  Currently, he is Artistic Director of Venice Arts: In Neighborhoods, a nonprofit organization that partners experienced artists with low-income youth. For more information, visit Venice Arts or contact Jim Hubbard. Click here to visit Jim's Photography site.

contact jim hubbard jim@shootingback.org