Sharon Cavanagh

Sharon Cavanagh is a photographer, an educator and a drone pilot.

As an educator, she has developed and is instructing the first photography, drone and business programs at Learning for Life Charter and Chartwell schools. Her teaching experience includes several years at the Art Center College of Design, Stanford, UC Berkeley, UCLA and the New York Film Academy in Los Angeles,

As a freelance photojournalist, Sharon photographed the Los Angeles Fire Department based at Station 57 in South LA for five years. She documented life-threatening incidents over same 24-hour shifts that the firemen and women worked.

Other long-term projects included travelling to Peru, Vietnam, Dominican Republic and Jamaica working for a non-profit group of spinal surgeons who performed spinal surgeries on teenagers with severe spinal deformities. As a photojournalist for a local newspaper, Sharon traveled to Papua New Guinea where she documented efforts to improve the lives of a local tribe who lived in a small hill-top village located seven hours west of the capital. The tribe thought she was a witch with her long red hair although subsequently she was almost sold as a wife until they discovered she couldn’t cook!

Sharon’s current project is documenting a group of retired air force servicemen who meticulously work on restoring an assortment of military planes and helicopters that were flown during WW2, Korea, Vietnam and the Gulf wars. Once completed, these aircraft are towed to Castle Air Museum in Atwater California for display.