I mentioned in a previous post that “photojournalism is a particular form of journalism that crates images in order to tell a story.”
Today, I want to introduce someone who inspired me to have that thought.
Dave LaBelle, a photographer, writer, and professor at Western Kentucky University, has had such great influence on many young photojournalists, including myself when I was starting out. I met him at the 2009 Journalism Education Association convention in Phoenix, Arizona.
His session was about the importance of the photo story. The title was “You are part of the story.”
It was my freshman year so I do not remember a lot, but one thing I can clearly remember was what he told the young photographers during the session.
He said “There are a lot of photographers who can compose well. They know light and can organize, but there is no emotion. It breaks my heart.”
At that time I was starting to get more into photography. The only thing that I’ve practiced and thought about was how I can get better at taking picture technically and skillfully. I wanted to take good pictures that can be published and achieve awards. I never wanted to take a picture to capture the story telling of a moment or an emotion. I realized at that moment, photojournalism is people, their emotions and self-sacrifice of who they represent in an image.
After that session, I went in front of the room and told him thank you…
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| Dave Labelle (Image from google) |
And this is what he said…
Ben, you might want to check my next post for sure! It is going to be about the camera.
Oh If you have a time check this one out about Dave LaBelle’s lesson
"Life will teach you to be a good teacher. If you care, life will show you many, many examples. It will lay all the lessons right before you and all you have to do is bend over and collect these lessons and put them in some order and fashion and you can teach anybody." - Dave LaBelle
That must have been an AWESOME experience, to meet someone so successful in one's own area... It must have influenced you a lot as well. Everyone has a moment of motivation, and I think this was yours. Oh, and I can not wait till your next post! Nice connection... you are gonna keep me waiting :p
ReplyDeleteThat's great you were able to meet and interact with someone who has influenced your passion so much! I can completely understand where you were coming from when you described your desire to perfect the techincal aspects of photography. When I am passionate about something, I also want it to turn out perfectly. However, photography is certainly an art form, and that definitely is more effective and memorable with emotion. From your photos I've seen, I think you have definitely heeded his advice!
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