Fotoweek Brings Pulitzer Winners Together

Photographers discuss the experiences behind iconic images

Pulitzer Prize-winning photojournalists from The Washington Post convened this Saturday to discuss the sometimes quirky and often wrenching stories behind their award-winning photographs.

Speaking at the Newseum in Washington, D.C. for a recording of Inside Media, 25 year veteran photojournalist Matthew Lewis talked about the difficulty of capturing political figures.

'You have 25 seconds'

"I decided I would put two cameras around my neck, one with color, one with black and white," Lewis said about his brief photo shoot with Ron Ziegler, Press Secretary to President Richard Nixon. "He walked in and said, 'You have 25 seconds.'"

"I don't think any photographer goes out thinking they're going to win," Lewis went on to say about his haphazard experience.

Winner of the 2000 Pulitzer Prize for his coverage of the Kosovo War along with Carol Guzy, Michael Williamson talked about covering the aftermath of battles in a civil war.

"I was literally going to the towns where I heard there were the most atrocities," Williamson said about how he found a man sitting on a bucket containing the charred remnants of a relative's body in a bucket. "He was waiting for the U.N…. he thought I was with them so he stopped me."

In front of their cameras

Carol Guzy and Michel duCille won their first Pulitzer in 1986 for their coverage of mudslides in Colombia following the Nevado del Ruiz eruption.

Talking about his photo of Omayra Sanchez, the young girl who became trapped in a pool of water and who died from exposure after a three day, Internationally-viewed saga, duCille said, "you can't believe she's right there… I left before she died."

The Newseum held the event as part of FotoWeek/DC series of events. FotoWeek's declared purpose is to, "attract those who make a living practicing the art, science, business, education, and craft of photography." Events for FotoWeek concluded Saturday.

Happening: A Video Convention

In the Spring of 2006 I co-developed a happening funded by the Art & Art History Department of Carleton College along with the Carleton Administration. Combining inexpensive and readily available building materials with live video and lighting, we created an indoor video landscape for an estimated 500 participants.

Encouraged to adopt the guise of a fictional character, live wireless video feeds were transmitted within the space, an inflated poly dome roughly 100′ x 200′, and projected out onto the walls, creating space within space and video echo for the guests and amplifying their assumed characters. The project became, through the participants, a living video amoeba and a great success (outside shot seen above).

Town and Gown Bridges: Locally Grown

In December of 2005 I made the fateful decision to contact the then current head of Northfield.org, a community-driven website for the city of Northfield, Minnesota. Griff Wigley was a direct, funny, and engaging advocate of citizen journalism and we hit it off well, quickly coming to an agreement to merge his current community news podcasting project with the resources and additional voices of KRLX-FM.

The resulting collaboration that we initiated, soon after dubbed “Locally Grown,” has seen a team of community and student journalists analyze and discuss pressing local issues including zoning, environmental, and civic works. Leader of the Northfield Downtown Development Corporation (NDDC) Ross Currier (left) and Northfield Economic Development Authority (EDA) member Tracy Davis have worked with Griff and the News Department at KRLX-FM to continue this community service through 2007.

Locally Grown Northfield Link.