Before joining the Waco Bridge, Justin Hamel spent the previous six years living in El Paso, Texas, as a freelance photojournalist covering migration along the U.S.-Mexico border and the energy industry in the West Texas Permian Basin. As an avid outdoors enthusiast, his photos show the increasing militarization of the populated borderlands as well as the remote and wild regions with minimal human impact. His photos always seek to humanize the effects of industry and government policy. Hamel’s introduction to the journalism industry began in the sixth grade in Galion, Ohio, and later in Montoursville, Pennsylvania, where he started delivering papers from his bike. He later went on to earn a degree in Documentary Photography from the New England School of Photography in Boston, Massachusetts.
Beat: Multimedia Community visual journalist
The Waco Bridge’s multimedia community journalist is a creative storyteller dedicated to serving the Bridge’s mission of community engagement and empowerment. Through photography, video, text, social media, and other methods, the Waco-based community reporter tells the stories of people, organizations, and initiatives making an impact in Waco. This reporter also collaborates with the Bridge’s other journalists to cover issues that matter most to their community.