In Focus: February's Newsletter
In this issue: documenting life in Black communities, a new book commemorating an "artist and a warrior," and much more.
Hello. It is Friday, February 26, 2021.
Welcome to the February issue of “In Focus” –– a newsletter bringing you photojournalism and photography-adjacent resources, news, and opportunities straight to your inbox. This edition of the “In Focus” newsletter is written and edited by Brian Munoz.
This newsletter accompanies the Fellow Photogs group on Facebook. If you’d like to join our community, just click on the group link above. Do you like what you see here? If so, you can subscribe to the newsletter below and get it straight to your inbox.
News in a flash
Here you will find tidbits of photo news and other things that came across our feeds we found interesting. Is there something we should be paying attention to or featuring? Please reach out at fellowphotogs@gmail.com.
Black America: NPR has a great feature on Dawoud Bey, an incredible photographer who has documented “people, places and the history of Black Americans, from Harlem to Louisiana.” Growing up in Queens, Bey tells NPR’s Morning Edition that growing up he didn’t see people like him on the walls of a museum until he was a teen.
"I like to think of myself as a white box artist who makes work about non-white box things," he says. "I like to bring those things into spaces where folks don't necessarily think that's what they will encounter or they're not used to encountering certain kinds of works about certain kinds of subjects within the context of the museum."
Dawoud Bey: An American Project will be on view at Atlanta's High Museum of Art until March 14, After that, it's onto the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York in April.Photograph by Michael M. Santiago
Food Deserts: Speaking of great projects, Buzzfeed’s Pia Peterson featured a project by Michael Santiago, who is now a staff photographer with Getty Images. The project follows the positive impact a supermarket had when opening in a food desert, and at large, attempting to change the narrative that “people in Black communities don’t care about their communities.”
Santiago photographed the project over the span of two years as part of his master’s degree program at Syracuse University in upstate New York. He said he could’ve made more “stereotypical images” of the community, but did the project the way he did because “for people to truly understand that Black lives matter, they have to see images of Black lives actually mattering.”Remembering David: “Pictures on the Radio,” a new book which features images by David Gilkey, has been recently released in a collaboration with Chip Somodevilla, Quil Lawrence, and Gilkey’s mother, Alyda. The late photographer worked as a staff photographer for NPR when he was tragically ambushed and killed by the Taliban in June 2016.
Gilkey was a celebrated photographer who brought “vivid life to big and small stories with global impact” and was known as an “artist and a warrior.” The book “memorializes both his work and David himself, through memory-filled essays from several of his former NPR colleagues,” reports Scott Simon in an interview with Alyda about her late son.
Gameboy snaps: Ken Fager, a photographer and self-described “unicorn wrangler” from Wisconsin, rigged up a GameBoy Camera to EF mount for a Tamron 28-270 lens. The results are pretty spectacular and will bring back a wave of nostalgia from your youth.
Crosby conundrum: The Pittsburgh Penguins recently celebrated captain Sidney Crosby’s 1000th game. Photojournalists quickly chimed in about what a captioning conundrum it would be for those not familiar with the individual players. Luckily, it seems like this was just for warm-ups.
These historical round barns gracing the southern edge of the University of Illinois were built between 1907 and 1913. The barns were built by the Agricultural Experiment Station to popularize this style of barn, which is ideal for housing livestock and was more wind resistant on the open prairie. (Photo by Fred Zwicky.)
Big prints: L.E. Baskow, a staff photographer at the Las Vegas Review-Journal, recently asked about good ways to enlarge photos that otherwise have small file sizes. Some recommendations that arose are ON1 Resize ($70) and Gigapixel AI, which was used by Fred Zwicky, senior photographer at the University of Illinois, to upscale the above image to be printed 97-feet-wide.
NPPA Board shift: Congratulations to the newly elected board members for the National Press Photographers Association. Katie Schoolov will serve as president, Kyle Grantham will serve as vice-president, and CPA Katie Diseroad will serve as treasurer.
Contest celebration: Another big congratulation to the following people whose work was recently recognized by various contests. You can see the full results of the Pictures of the Year International contest, the Indiana News Photographers Association and the Boston Press Photographers Association at their respective links. (To note: contests don’t define you and/or your worth! Keep on chugging and telling important stories.)
Gabrielle Lurie (2020 POYi Local Photographer of the Year)
Ezra Shaw (2020 POYi Sports Photographer of the Year)
Marlena Sloss (2020 Indiana News Photographer of the Year)
Denny Simmons (2020 Indiana Sports Photographer of the Year)
Rebecca Slezak (2020 Indiana College Photographer of the Year)
Jessica Rinaldi (2020 BNPA Photographer of the Year)
Featured Jobs and Internships
Photo Editing Intern, NPR (INT) | Remote | (Apps due Feb 26 at 5 P.M. EST)
Visual Journalist, The Keene Sentinel (FT) | Keene, N.H.
Visual Journalist, The Idaho Statesman (FT) | Boise, ID - $45-$50K
Live Content Creator, Major League Baseball (SNL) | Various Markets
Multimedia Editor, The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette (FT) | Little Rock, Ark.
Photography Editor, The 19th News | Remote (FT), $70K | (Apps due March 12)
Health/Science Photo Editor, The Wall Street Journal (FT) | New York, NY
Photography Licensing Editor, The Washington Post (FT) | Washington D.C.
Find more jobs and internship opportunities on the Photography/Multimedia Internships and Jobs group, Jamie’s List, or at Fellow Photogs.
Other Opportunities and Resources
The 2021 CatchLight Fellowship, which provides a $30,000 award to visual storytellers, is accepting applicants. The fellowship “serves as an incubator — a place for innovative leaders in the visual storytelling field to receive financial support, unlock individual potential, grow, and leverage partnerships.” Apps are due on Sunday, February 28, 2021, at 11:59 PM PST and can be submitted here.
Eddie Adams Workshop XXXIV is taking applications from any college student or visual storyteller with less than 5 years of professional experience for this year’s workshop. There is no tuition for the program itself if selected. As of now, the workshop is slated to be held virtually due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
Fellow Photogs is looking for a diverse group of volunteers to provide insight as we develop further group guidelines to keep everything running smoothly. We are also looking for individuals to help with this newsletter –– anything from contributing a special section each month to helping compile information. Please email fellowphotogs@gmail.com if you are interested in participating.
Good Reads
If you like this newsletter, check out these newsletters, communities, and other reading material that our members are diving into:
The Objective: a bi-weekly newsletter “covering the steps forward and backward newsrooms have taken to make journalism a more equitable field.”
Inheritance: A project by The Atlantic detailing American history, Black life, and the resilience of memory. The project seeks to highlight Black history and life in the greater collective of our nation’s fruition.
Potential History: Unlearning Imperialism: “In this theoretical tour-de-force, renowned scholar Ariella Aïsha Azoulay calls on us to recognize the imperial foundations of knowledge and to refuse its strictures and its many violences”
The Body Keeps the Score: A book by Dr. Bessel van der Kolk about how trauma manifests in our bodies and souls.
The Republic of Pirates: The untold story of a heroic band of Caribbean pirates whose defiance of imperial rule inspired revolt in colonial outposts across the world.
Change Your Mind: Michael Pollan chronicles the long and storied history of psychedelic drugs, from their turbulent 1960s heyday to the resulting countermovement and backlash.
The FlakPhoto Network: Andy Adams takes you into the wider world of photography within his various social media groups that are part of the “FlakPhoto Network.” His communities have a rich dialogue about everything from historic photo work, printing, and other photo-related topics.
Upcoming Events and Training
Trauma, PTSD and Wellness in Journalism: This panel moderated by photojournalist Nic Coury will tackle how “we can all do better to support each other in our industry.” The panel is designed to be a safe space to talk, listen and support others.
Panelists include Rosem Morton, who is a nurse and photographer based in Baltimore, Chris Babcock, who is the Editor-in-Chief of the El Paso Herald-Post, and Brittany Greeson, a documentary photographer based in Detroit.
This event hosted by “Snap Chats! with Erin & Rob” will be held on Sunday, March 21, 2021, at 6 PM EST. You can register for the event by joining Erin Hooley and Rob Hart’s group here. (FREE)
The NABJ Visual Taskforce is expanding its upcoming April 10 video portfolio review efforts to “ALL journalists of color.” There are sponsors available willing to pay the participation fee. The deadline to apply is on March 7, 2021, at 11:59 PM EST. ($$$)
Sports Shooter Academy’s annual contest is open for entries under the topic “sports during the pandemic.” The Student Sports Portfolio category is open to any student that was enrolled full-time in a college or university in 2020. The open category is for both photographers and students. The entry fee is $15 for SSA alumni and $25 for everyone else. The contest fee also gets you into this year’s virtual workshop. The deadline for the contest is on February 28, 2021, at 11:59 PST. ($$$)
That’s all for now, thanks for reading!
The “Fellow Photogs” newsletter brings you photojournalism and photography-adjacent resources, news, and opportunities straight to your inbox. This newsletter is curated and compiled by the all-volunteer Fellow Photogs team. If you’d like to help with this endeavor, please email fellowphotogs@gmail.com.