Project Lives

In 2010, Jonathan brought his experience to seeing for ourselves, joining the founder, George Carrero, as a nonprofit storyteller.

He took the lead on the books Project Lives and A Whole New Way and directed the PBA films and My Climate Future.

Following George's passing in 2025, Jonathan has carried the organization's mission forward His remarkable next chapter is still unfolding, guided by the belief that at the heart of the work, people deserve the opportunity to shape how their own lives and communities are understood.

Welcome to Beauty Industry

You don't want to have three hairs on the head.

It just amazes me how, how it plays into this whole realm of things.

So with Project Lives.

Yeah.

So I was there, you know, as the last person standing and a non-photographer.

And I was wondering myself, hey, have I, you know, bitten off the boy that I could chew? But when I sat down with these folks, these high school kids in Lewiston, I had, you know, copies of our public housing book, Project Lives, and our criminal justice book, In a Whole New Way, I handed them out and the kids looked them over and they said, we got this.

You don't have to worry about training us.

Because photography has, and this is fortuitously, photography has changed so much in the last generation.

And just to continue the story of our project, you mentioned the documentary.

The Criminal Justice Project did lead to gallery exhibits all over New York City, just like the Housing Project program did.

And by 2020, I was supposed to, you know, I as the nonprofit storyteller was supposed to be writing a book about this effort, just like I had written Project Lives about the housing project program.

But then the pandemic struck, but a global supply chain is to a screeching halt, which meant the publishing industry was crippled.