 Upon returning from Woodstock, he quickly found work freelancing for the "New York Daily News" and the "New York Post" where he remained a full-time photographer until the late 1990s.Around 1999, Coughlin made the transition from 35mm film to Digital Single Lens Reflex cameras, one of the first independent photojournalists to do so, and began freelancing for "The New York Times".In 2002, he was honored for his visual contributions to "The New York Times" Pulitzer Prize–winning series