Elections were held between November and mid-January for the new six at-large Board Directors, and some of the regional chairs. Another batch of regional elections (R5 Chair and Associate Chair) will run between March 11th and April 11th, 2010.
To find your region's candidates, log in, follow the Quick Links, or scan through the file to find the candidates for your region. You must log in to cast your ballot.
Each eligible member may cast one ballot for each position, or provide a write-in candidate for each position. Members who are unable to cast their ballots via the NPPA web site may request a paper ballot from the National Office by calling (919) 383-7246, ext. 14.
At present and for the last ten years I have worked as the Photojournalist-in-Residence at Southern Illinois University Carbondale. During that time we have adjusted the emphasis of the program from just photojournalism to multimedia reporting, while not reducing the importance of visual imaging, both still and video. I came to SIUC from the Chicago Tribune, where I worked as a staff photographer, senior photographer, chief photographer and Director of Photography. As director, I supervised a staff of fifty people and installed what at that time was the world's largest electronic darkroom. As a staff photographer, I covered several wars - the Iran-Iraq war, the Sandinistas versus the Contras, the invasion of Panama - as well as major disasters including the Mexico City earthquake. In addition to those notable events, I covered many national stories as well as the city of Chicago and the State of Illinois.
At the present time, I realize that our profession is in trouble. And some of the problems have been brought on by corporations buying media outlets and then cutting the staffs at these outlets. There is a lot of fear about people losing their jobs and about where mainstream media is going. My personal belief is that we have to re-dedicate ourselves to the profession and not wait to be downsized by corporations who are on the wrong path. LESS HAS NEVER BEEN MORE. We need to stand up and do our jobs in a way that allows people to realize that they need quality news reporting. Corporations do not understand why committed people decide to be journalists. We do. Our members know that quality reporting in all forms of media is invaluable to our society. I hope that the public will come to understand that, and fight back.
Sincerely,
Phil Greer
In my mid-30's I returned to college to pursue my life's dream of being a photojournalist. For most of my college career I kept my full-time job and went to school part-time, in addition to working as a photo editor for two upstart student publications and then as a photographer at the Minnesota Daily. I interned at two local weeklies and freelanced at every publication I could find. Eventually, I earned a degree in journalism and another in studio art from the University of Minnesota.
I still work full-time in a non-journalism field and still freelance every chance I get. We all know those full-time gigs are getting very scarce and in this economy its really hard to walk away from a job that has health insurance and risk everything on going freelance. However, my devotion to quality journalism hasn't wavered. I'm about 1/3 of the way through my masters degree, studying how the media consolidations have affected the way news is gathered and disseminated in the 24-hour news cycle and what price the news-consuming public pays for this.
However, the thing I feel most strongly about is the issue I run up against on far too many of my assignments: why should I hire a professional photographer for $$$ when I can get my nephew (or insert name here) to do it for next to nothing? The advent of good, cheap digital photographers has made it easier for nearly anyone to get a reasonably good quality photo. But that isn't the reason someone should hire a professional. One should hire a professional photographer for many of the same reasons one would hire a professional electrician: quality, reliability, adherence to a code of ethics or standards. Sure an editor can license a photo from Corbis for next to nothing, but do they know that the photographer that made that image didn't clone out a soda can or move a light pole? Do they want to run the risk of having to apologize later because the photographer didn't know the ethical standards or didn't simply didn't care? We need to educate the photo editors that photojournalists are more than content providers, we are first and foremost journalists and our knowledge and understanding of the ethical principals that we bring to every assignment is as important as the quality of the images we produce.
Thank you,
Kathy Easthagen
photographer
kathy@karmabats.com
612.817.3733-cell