Reasons & the Missouri Photo Workshop
The Town Square, Mountain Grove, MO
Just one week after drawing my metaphorical line in the sand and committing to writing weekly for this blog, we have something of a small climb down. I'm posting a piece I'd already written. But there are reasons.
First, I've been working away. I work away from home a few days each month. I have all the best of intentions; I'll do some writing, I tell myself, there'll be no interruptions. But there's something about being in a hotel; it sucks every scrap of creativity from my brain. By the end of a long day all I want to do is eat chips and watch TV - what can I say!
Secondly, I was following the posts from this year's Missouri Photo Workshop and wanted to post this while it was still relevant. I had searched online when I was applying for the workshop, looking for reflections from previous attendees, and there was surprisingly little. If you're from outside the USA, as I am, and haven't attended a US college it's difficult to know what to expect; so maybe in future, this will help.
Crystal Lyerla, the focus of my story, with Alan Sivell morning host of KELE 92.5 “The Grove.”
Seeing the posts from the 71st Missouri Photo Workshop taking place in Boonville makes me think back to this time last year and MPW70 in Mountain Grove.
When I researched the workshop, I'd read previous attendees describing it as life-changing, films online showed participants and faculty talking in almost reverential terms about the experience. It all seemed overblown to a slightly cynical Londoner.
On the first day, I was excited but also apprehensive. I wasn't the typical attendee. I was far from straight out of college with a degree in photojournalism under my belt. I was, am, a middle-aged guy from London with no formal photographic or journalistic tuition. And let's be honest the Ozarks are not my 'hood.
It was a week of extreme highs and some lows. Getting pulled over by the police on my first day wasn't in the game plan! I got little sleep and worked harder than I had for some time. But they were right, it was one of the best weeks of my life. I met people I now call friends. I got to spend a week in a community that was, for the most part, warm and welcoming. Most surprisingly, I met a group of students who give me real hope for the future.
Our faculty, Mary Beth Meehan and Dennis Dimick cajoled, encouraged and sometimes criticised. The phrase, "if the pictures were better, we wouldn't be having this conversation", will live with me forever.
I believe everyone takes away something different from the experience. The MPW is not really about how to shoot or what to shoot; it's more than that. For me, it was about an approach to shooting. The belief that in photojournalism, as in life, you should treat people with respect. That is getting to document someone's story is an honour. That you should do it, honestly, to your best ability, 'adding nothing and taking nothing away'. For that, I will be forever grateful.
“You won't know what you've learnt this week until that moment in six months when you're shooting, and the penny will drop into place". Duane Dailey.
A huge thank you to co-Directors Jim Curley, David Rees, Brian Kratzer, my fellow attendees and the students of the Missouri School of Journalism.
