David Gonzalez (journalist)

His coverage has ranged from the Oklahoma city bombing and Haiti’s humanitarian crises, to chronicling how the Bronx emerged from years of official neglect, to in-depth reports on how Latino immigration is shaping the United States.

[2] At Cardinal Hayes, an English teacher named Bill Kerrigan and Father Jeremiah Monahan were strong and early influences in Gonzalez's development as a writer.

[3] From 1995 to 1999, Gonzalez wrote the Times "About New York" column, identifying and illuminating citywide issues through intimate snapshots of the lives of ordinary New Yorkers, in "prose that was often powerfully affecting.

[6] Until 2011, Gonzalez wrote numerous lengthy narrative pieces on such topics as the children of undocumented immigrants and the role of the arts in community life.

For example, along Charlotte Street – which U.S. presidents Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton had used for political photo ops – Gonzalez noted that "an artist wrote BROKEN PROMISES on the same buildings that served as stage sets for politicians to troll for votes.

[11] At "Side Street" he writes and shoots a bi-weekly photo and essay that explores people and places in out-of-the-way corners of New York City.

[2] For "Lens Blog" he writes, assigns and edits daily features and slide shows for an online showcase of visual journalism with 850,000 monthly visitors.

In addition to teaching photography to public schoolchildren, Gonzalez took photos of street fairs, block parties, abandoned and burned buildings, and had exhibitions in libraries, bank lobbies, and many other forums.

The January 19 opening was an overwhelming success with a crowd that included musician Afrika Bombaataa, actress Annabelle Sciorra, the artists of Tats Cru, and former Bronx Borough President Fernando Ferrer.

In a career at the Times which spans three decades, Gonzalez has become recognized for the range and depth of his work – including reports on terrorism in Latin America,[14] the aftermath of civil war in El Salvador,[15] deficiencies in the U.S. census,[16] the health crisis amongst Nicaraguan sugar cane workers,[17] arson and devastation in the South Bronx,[10] and the photography of Jack Delano[18][19] and Walker Evans.

[3] In 2008, he received the Distinguished Writing Award from the American Society of Newspaper Editors for "House Afire," his three-part series on the life of a struggling Pentecostal storefront church.