Ryan Gierach has been writing about LGBTQ, public health and race issues for nearly two decades. His work in those fields came from a lifelong interest and a late-blooming academic career in history.

After writing two histories, one of his hometown, Cedarburg, Wisconsin and his chosen home, West Hollywood, California, Mr. Gierach began the first hyperlocal Internet start-up newspaper, WeHo News - the very same week that Ariana Huffington opened shop with her national news start-up paper, the Huffington Post.

Since then, 2005, Mr. Gierach has carved out a niche as a must read writer for anyone interested in historiographic news analysis surrounding social justice issues.

His photography has explored place, the beautiful and the mundane of California, with an emphasis on the peculiar POV, especially through his "inside-outside" series of images.