By Jason Lamb
On a pleasant June night in the capital of country music, at precisely 9:14 p.m., all eyes inside the Musicians Hall of Fame and Museum were transfixed on center stage.
The dozens in the crowd weren’t here to catch a performance from the latest hit artist off of Music Row. Nonetheless, they were about to experience something perhaps just as memorable.
NPPA Best of Photojournalism 2022 Ernie Crisp Photographer of the Year, Michael Driver, Fox 13, Seattle. Photo by Karen Ducey
As the finalists for the 2022 Television News Ernie Crisp Photojournalist of the Year lined the stage, photography contest chair Bob Gould announced what 4-year-old Kai Driver couldn’t wait to hear:
“Our Ernie Crisp Photographer of the Year is Michael Driver.”
As a visibly stunned Driver gave hugs on stage, contest editing chair Shawn Montano ran into the crowd, handing Driver’s son, Kai, the award plaque. Montano brought Kai up on stage so he could hand his father one of the biggest awards of his career.
“You look at moments in your life you’re never going to forget, like truly special ones: getting a house, getting married, that next big gig,” Driver said. “For him to give me that award was the icing on the cake.”
“My family is the reason I do this.”
Driver brought his wife, Ali; son, Kai; and stepson, Kam, to Nashville to spend a week visiting family in his hometown just a couple of hours away in Marshall County, Kentucky. They all live within a 5-mile radius.
“Thank you for having this in Nashville so I don’t have to explain to people where I’m from!” Driver joked on stage in his distinctive Southern twang.
Driver says he’s had a lot of friends get out of the business over the past two years; they say the demands and deadlines can sometimes be too much. Driver says it’s his family that keeps him going — with a drive that begins every day right before he leaves for work, and Kai runs up to him and clutches his leg.
“Dad, don’t leave! Don’t leave!” Kai tells him.
“It sucks because I want to stay in that situation. But if I’m going to go do my job and leave the situation where I’d rather be at, you best believe I’m going to go out and kick that day in the mouth, and I’m going to do something special,” Driver said. “Because otherwise it’s a waste of time, and what’s the point?”
There may not be a better example of something special than a story on Driver’s entry compilation from his work at Fox 13 News in Seattle, featuring a lone, disconnected telephone affixed to a giant tree. Secluded in the woods in Olympia, Washington’s Priest Point Park, the phone is an outlet for those who have messages to share with loved ones who may no longer be living. As a sign above the phone reads, “It is a phone for memories and saying the goodbyes you never got to say.”
What follows in the story are incredibly private moments, but the callers let Driver in.
“When they just see me show up — a good ol’ country boy from Kentucky — I can build some rapport with them; they loosen up a little bit.”
Driver shot all but one of the stories on his POY reel without a reporter's help or voice track, something he says can help him go at his own pace and take the time to uncover memorable moments.
“At the end of the day, viewers at home are watching a story, and they want to see something they’re going to remember,” Driver said.
Driver is now equipped to spread that storytelling philosophy to stations across the country in his new job, working as a photojournalism training specialist for Fox owned-and-operated local TV stations.
“It’s going to allow me to do things at this point in my career that I really like to do,” Driver said. “I love telling stories, but I’m really passionate about mentorship.”
Driver says it was back in 2006 that he first learned the value of mentorship that NPPA could provide, when he attended the NPPA News Video Workshop in Norman, Oklahoma.
“I started seeing videos from competitions, and I started watching the Nathan Thompsons and Darren Durlachs and people like that,” Driver said. “Stories where I thought I was doing well, I’d watch their stuff and say, ‘Man, they’re killing it; they’re knocking it out of the park. I want to do that.’”
It was after that workshop that Driver shifted into a higher gear.
“It changed me,” Driver said. “That first week back from the workshop, I was as giddy as a schoolgirl!”
But for all the accolades and attention Driver has rightfully earned over the years, he says it may be a recent front-page article his hometown paper, the Marshall County Tribune-Courier, wrote about the hometown boy done good that keeps things in perspective.
“Never forget where you came from,” Driver said. “If your family’s not the most important thing in your life, and your job is, you need to reevaluate some priorities.”
“They push me to be better.”
Jason Lamb is a reporter at WTVF NewsChannel 5 in Nashville, Tennessee. He was selected as the 2016 recipient of the Best of Photojournalism contest’s NPPA Photojournalism Award for Reporting. You can find him on Twitter at @JasonLambNC5.
Best of Photojournalism 2022 Editor of the Year: Chris Hansen, KUSA, 9News, Denver
Best of Photojournalism 2022 Reporter of the Year: Chris Vanderveen, KUSA, 9News, Denver
Best of Photojournalism 2022 Solo Video Journalist of the Year: Forrest Sanders, WTVF, Nashville
Best of Photojournalism 2022 Stations of the Year:
Small/Medium Market: WTVR, Richmond, Virginia
Large Market: WFAA, Dallas
