Through Our Eyes – Week 6

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Each Wednesday, WKU’s Student Chapter of NPPA brings you the best images of the past week taken by our very own students. To submit, you must currently be a WKU Photojournalism student and have taken the images or produced the video in the last week (Monday to Monday). Send your top 5 choices to wkunppa@gmail.com and our officers will pick the best of the bunch to showcase.

                                                                                                                                                                                                   Brittany Sowacke

                                                                                                                                                                                                       Adam Wolffbrandt

                                                                                                                                                                        Morgan Walker

                                                                                                                                                                                                         Morgan Walker

                                                                                                                                                                                                               Danny Guy

                                                                                                                                                                                                               Mike Rivera

Posted in: Student Work, Through Our Eyes

Through Our Eyes – Week 5

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Looking to the drum major for timing, sophomore Christian Duncan, prepares to perform “An Element of Disctintion,” The Elizabethtown High School Marching Band semifinal show. The band performed at Allen County Scottsville High School at 11:30 a.m. on Saturday, October 27, 2012.

Brittany Sowacke

Alix Mattingly

Six-year-old Trevor Thomas of Morganfield practices roping outside the L.D. Brown Ag Expo Center at the WKU Farm during a rodeo put on by the Kentucky High School Rodeo Association Oct. 28. Thomas’s father was working at the rodeo.

Sam Oldenburg

Alix Mattingly

Ian Maule


Posted in: Student Work, Through Our Eyes

Through Our Eyes – Week 3

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This week, in honor of Mountain Workshops, we had three guest judges. Thank you so much to Patty Reksten, Justin Fowler and Rodney Curtis!

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 Morgan Walker

                                                                                                                                                                        Brittany Sowacke

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    Josh Mauser

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    Josh Mauser

                                                                                                                                                                                                                             Brittany Sowacke

Posted in: Student Work, Through Our Eyes

Through Our Eyes – Week 2

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Another great week! Thanks to everyone for submitting.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                            Adam Wolffbrandt

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     Seth Fischer

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 Morgan Walker

                                                                                                                                                                                                                            Adam Wolffbrandt

                                                                                                                                                                                                                             Dorothy Edwards

Tar Root, 20, of Karenni, plays takraw on Saturday, Oct. 6, 2012, a sport popular in Southeast Asia where he lived until 2009 when he and his family came to Bowling Green. Root lives in the Lovers Lane apartment complex where he and his neighbors play takraw almost every day.

  Austin Anthony

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       Danny Guy

 

Posted in: Student Work, Through Our Eyes

Through Our Eyes – Week 1

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NPPA is proud to publish the first week of Through Our Eyes! We received a lot of submissions and want to thank each every one of you for being a part of this. If you don’t see one of your photos here, don’t worry, there are plenty more chances to get one of yours in coming in the near future! Our next deadline is Monday, October 8th at 11:59 pm for photos from this week!

Christopher Burgess, 23, of Detroit, holds his dog, Baby, while his niece Summerlynn Turner, 9, colors a coloring book while her sisters Raelyn, 6, and Makenzie (far right), 4, sit together and eat strawberries while other members of the Turner family hang out on the porch on a summer afternoon in Bowling Green, Ky., Sept. 14, 2012. Burgess recently moved in to the house with his relatives to avoid the trouble he was getting into in Detroit, he said.

Austin Anthony

                                                                                                                                                                                                                             Dorothy Edwards

Luke Musser, a senior WKU swimmer, leads the WKU swimming and diving team in a final cheer after finishing run-swims on Saturday, September 1 at the Russell Sims Aquatic Center in Bowling Green, Kentucky.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   Kreable Young

Graham Browder-Seguin, 5, of Bowling Green, pretends he is a jaguar gathering food for his mother in his cave while playing at Ogden Park in Bowling Green Monday, Sept. 10, 2012.

Austin Anthony

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  Jabin Botsford

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 Morgan Walker

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    Alix Mattingly

 

Posted in: Student Work, Through Our Eyes

One Hot Month

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I mean, July was a HOT month – like epic hot. Like record breaking hot. But in the middle of all this heat came one amazing image that made me cool down and go, “ahhhh”. To be published in National Geographic is awesome, right? But to be published as a double truck in the Vision section is even more awesome, right? But then to be published within the first year of graduation – awe, come on! Way to go Lance Booth – a most awesome image and it was great seeing your name in the lady with the bright yellow jacket!

Posted in: Student Work

Loving Mallory

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Adam Dobson was becoming part of growing trend seen in the gay and transgender population. He was trying everything from Xanax to hydrocodone, and even a horse tranquilizer called ketamine to find a high. According to www.americanprogress.org, up to 30% of the gay and transgender community abuse substances, compared to only 9% in the general population.
A couple of years ago Dobson began to perform in drag which, he says, helped him get his life on a more positive track. He now performs drag as Mallory in nightclubs throughout Kentucky, Tennessee and Indiana, and his number one fan is his mom, Cathy.
Cathy attends almost every drag performance that she can. “He never disappoints me,” she says, “I’m always amazed by his performance.”
The love and support Cathy gives her son is significant. Not every gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgender young adults’ parents are supportive, which experts believe may be a factor that leads many LGBT youth to depression or other risky behavior. A study done by the Official Journal of The American Academy of Pediatrics in 2009 found that, “lesbian, gay, and bisexual young adults who reported higher levels of family rejection during adolescence were 8.4 times more likely to report having attempted suicide, 5.9 times more likely to report high levels of depression, 3.4 times more likely to use illegal drugs, and 3.4 times more likely to report having engaged in unprotected sexual intercourse compared with peers from families that reported no or low levels of family rejection.”
“I’m going to live life the way I want to live it, and I refuse to let anyone bring me down,” Dobson said.

Posted in: Class Work, Photojournalism Projects Class, Student Work

Young in Heart

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Brenda Smith, 56, used to think that when she reached a certain age, she and her husband Bruce would be celebrating their golden years together, with no one else in the house.
That thought changed about eight years ago, when the Smith household began to take care of Shylar, Bruce’s grandson and Brenda’s step-grandson.
According to AARP, more than 2.5 million grandparents in the United States are taking in their grandchildren and becoming responsible for them.

Brenda takes great pride in raising Shylar as her own son, but Shylar isn’t the only person in the household living under her care.
In Dec. 2011, her father Bill Wilcox was diagnosed with cancer and after being faced with the reality of going to a nursing home, Brenda made the decision to take him into her home and take care of him.
She experiences life’s joys and struggles as she splits her time between raising her 8-year-old grandson, and caring for her 84-year-old dad.

Posted in: Class Work, Photojournalism Projects Class, Student Work

The Herald – Fighting for Free Speech

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Twenty-five years ago the students who ran the newspaper at Western Kentucky University fought a battle of David and Goliath to preserve their independence and free speech that helped pave a path of self-governance for student publications across the country. The story is told through archival news footage and current interviews with those who were involved at that time.

Posted in: Class Work, Photojournalism Projects Class, Student Work