WKU’s Carl Kiilsgaard Wins Clif Edom’s “New America Award”.

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ST. PETERSBURG, FL (March 25, 2009) – Student photojournalist Carl Kiilsgaard of Western Kentucky University has won Cliff Edom’s “New America Award” in the National Press Photographers Association’s Best Of Photojournalism competition today during judging at the contest’s host site, the Poynter Institute for Media Studies.

picture-23“Wow,” Kiilsgaard said when he was called with the news. “I was just walking out of class! That’s great!”

Kiilsgaard won the Edom Award for his long-term documentary essay on some families living in Whitesburg, KY. They are the sons and daughters of coal miners and have grown up dealing with the problems of living in impoverished eastern Kentucky, where it is growing more difficult these days to find steady work and to raise their children. Read more ….

Photo by Carl Kiilsgaard, Story by Donald Winslow

Posted in: Contest Winners

The “Mountain” tentatively finds its new home for 2009 workshop.

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Faculty members and staff have made a couple of trips this spring to Murray, Ky., sight of the 2009 Mountain Workshops. Just last week we toured Murray State  University’s basketball stadium, a possible location for the headquarters. While looking thru one of the storage closets we ran across this sign. Seems to me that the photo gods are speaking to us and telling us where we need to be. 

In the meantime, put Oct. 27 – Oct. 31 (Nov. 1 if you are in the picture editing workshop) on your calendar to attend this year’s workshops. We will begin taking applications soon. Check in often at mountainworkshops.org/apply for application updates, prices and for a list of this year’s faculty.

Posted in: Mountain Workshops

Highlights: Student’s work from the Projects in New Media class.

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Seniors in the Projects in New Media class, a capstone course, produced stories that provide thought provoking story telling using multiple forms of media to produce mini-documentaries. Click on the images below to see their stories.

closer to home

Closer to Home: A Daughter Becomes a Caregiver • by Taylor Hayden

Under the Table: Illegal Immigration in America

Under the Table: Illegal Immigration in America • by Philip Andrews

The Road to Stability by Krista Schinagl

The Road to Stability • by Krista Schinagl

 

 

 

Posted in: Photojournalism Projects Class

Lexington Herald-Leader photojournalist visits WKU Photojournalism Projects class.

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David Stephenson, a WKU photojournalism graduate, spoke to the Photojournalism Projects class on Thursday, February 19. Stephenson, last years POYi winner of the best multimedia project, shared his knowledge and expertise of a working photojournalist at the Lexington Herald-Leader. He also spent a great deal of time discussing the pros and cons of Canon’s 5D MarkII camera. He presented his latest project, Road to Recovery, to the two classes.

Photo by Tim Broekema

Posted in: Guest Speakers

Getty is now accepting applications for $5,000 student grants.

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Getty Images believes that photojournalism is a powerful tool for telling compelling social, political and cultural stories. Getty also understand that creating and managing world-class photography assignments requires time, freedom, support and considerable resources.

Since 2005, Getty have awarded five Grants for Editorial Photography annually to professional photojournalists. Each grant provides $20,000, plus editorial, logistical and promotional support. We also award four student grants of $5,000 per year to photojournalism students at accredited schools.

Professional award applicants must be currently engaged as a professional journalist and apply as an individual. This grant will fund new work from both established and up-and-coming photojournalists.

Student award applicants must be under the age of 30 and currently enrolled in photojournalism courses at an accredited college or university.

For more information and guidelines please visit:

http://imagery.gettyimages.com/getty_images_grants/overview.aspx or contact us with questions about our Grants for Editorial Photography at grants@gettyimages.com.

Deadline: May, 15, 2009

Photo by David Gillanders   •   2008 professional recipient

Posted in: Grants and Contest Information

With respect to a legend.

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Our goal here is to publish work from WKU photojournalism students and faculty, however, this week’s news out of Denver is a special situation. We here at WKU would like to express our sympathy for the death of a truly amazing news organization. Many of our graduates have passed through the doors at the Rocky – both on internships and as staff members. The Rocky Mountain News will be missed and our students will have one less place to admire and use as an example of truly great visual journalism. Click here to read more about the making of this historic video and what it meant to the editors of this production.

Posted in: Industry News

Equipment company makes good on educational promise.

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Check out these awesome instructional video clips that B&H has been posting on their web site. They are somewhat product driven but it is a great place to go and watch some instructional direction if you are in the market for purchasing anything from lights, cameras, video or audio. I also really enjoyed this article on unique ways journalists are adapting to the limitations in the audio track for the Canon 5D Mark II. A very thorough review of multiple on-board mic systems for that camera.

Posted in: Technical News

Pulitzer Prize winning photojournalist to spend week at WKU.

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ALTERED OCEANS

The Western Kentucky University School of Journalism & Broadcasting is pleased to present the 2009 Gaines Lecture, “World in Conflict” by Pulitzer Prize winning photojournalist Rick Loomis. He will be presenting his work to the public Tuesday, March 3, 2009 at 7:30 pm at Mass Media and Technology Hall auditorium. Admission is free.

Rick Loomis is a staff photographer at the Los Angeles Times where he has worked poster_loomis2 since graduating from Western Kentucky University in 1994. He served as an embedded photojournalist during the 2003 invasion of Iraq and has covered conflicts in Afghanistan, Haiti, Israel and Palestine. In 2007, he won the Pulitzer Prize for his work on a five part series, Altered Oceans, which delved into the ills of the world’s oceans.

The National Press Photographers Association recognized Loomis as Newspaper Photographer of the Year in 2003. Also in 2003 and 2004, The California Press Photographers Association acknowledged him as Photographer of the Year.

Before joining the Times, Loomis completed internships at the News-Sentinel (Ft. Wayne, In.), the Gazette (Colorado Springs, Co.), the Seattle Times and the Syracuse newspapers.

The Gaines Lecture Series began in 2004 to commemorate the 150th anniversary of The Park City Daily News, the local newspaper owned by the Gaines family of Bowling Green. For more information contact the Chair of the Gaines Lecture Series, Jeanine Howard-Cherry at (270) 745-8921 or jeanine.cherry@wku.edu.

Photo by Rick Loomis/LA Times

Posted in: Guest Speakers

A Journey to Remember

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WKU photo faculty member Tim Broekema, working with AARP Bulletin Today and former WKU graduate Mark T. Osler put together this mini-documentary film looking back at the history of Deland, Fla. legislator Joyce Cusack.

Cusack never dreamed that she would see an African American as president of the United States. But the former Florida state representative and superdelegate to the 2008 Democratic National Convention will be among the crowds streaming into Washington to witness the inauguration of Barack Obama.

On the eve of the inauguration, Cusack and other members of the class of 1960 at DeLand’s segregated Euclid High School reminisce about the lunch counter sit-ins they organized and their experiences as students during the Civil Rights Movement.

Posted in: Faculty Work

WKU students win Alexia scholarships.

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Carl Kiilsgaard won the Alexia student competition with a proposal to document poverty in Eastern Kentucky. An image from his winning portfolio is seen above.
Kiilsgaard is a senior history major at Western Kentucky University and is from Corvallis, Oregon. He has interned at Bucks County (Pa.) Times, the Napa (Calif.) Register, and the Palm Beach Post. Carl was one of Getty Images Reportage’s Emerging Talent picks in 2008. Kiilsgaard is awarded a full tuition scholarship to study photojournalism at Syracuse University in London in the Fall of 2009, plus a $1000 cash grant to help produce his project.

Award of Excellence winners are Philip Scott Andrews and Bryan Anselm, both seniors at Western Kentucky University. Each Award of Excellence winner receives a $1600 scholarship that pays part of tuition, fees and living expenses to study photojournalism in London in the fall semester at Syracuse University in London and a $500 cash grant to help produce their proposed stories.

Congratulations to all of you!

Photo by Carl Killsgaard

Posted in: Contest Winners