The Pulitzer Prizes have increasingly recognized visual storytellers in categories traditionally reserved for written storytelling, and that’s a good thing.

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*Members of the United States Secret Service scramble toward the stage as then-presidential candidate Donald Trump fell at the podium while speaking as shots from an attempted assassin’s gun rang out toward him during a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on July 13, 2024. Photo by Jabin Botsford, The Washington Post*

**In recent years,** the Pulitzer Prizes have increasingly recognized visual collaboration across the awards. Visual journalists are now acknowledged as partners with writers in categories beyond just photography.

“Seeing visual journalists included in awards that have traditionally been reserved for written content is a sign that collaborative work is valued at high levels. Audio content has also been recognized. These are tremendous gains and acknowledgments for all forms of journalism,” said Sue Morrow, NPPA’s News Photographer Magazine editor, who has long advocated for broader recognition of visual contributors in the Pulitzer competition and other contests.

In the two photography-specific categories, photojournalists Doug Mills of The New York Times and Moises Saman, a contributor to The New Yorker, took top honors. Mills won for [Breaking News Photography](https://www.pulitzer.org/winners/22680), and Saman for [Feature Photography](https://www.pulitzer.org/winners/22686). 

Several awards specifically included photojournalists, videographers and graphic artists in the Pulitzer Prize announcement from Columbia University on May 5. Examples from this year’s Pulitzers include:

### The Baltimore Banner

When The Baltimore Banner won the 2025 Pulitzer Prize for Local Reporting, the live webcast from Columbia called out her name: “Jessica Gallagher.”

Gallagher, an NPPA member, is a staff photojournalist at The Banner. She was named a Pulitzer winner with Banner reporter Alissa Zhu and data specialist Nick Thieme, in collaboration with The New York Times Investigations Fellowship. The project investigated drug overdoses in Baltimore.

The [Pulitzer Prizes website posted Gallagher’s photo and bio](https://www.pulitzer.org/node/alissa-zhu-nick-thieme-and-jessica-gallagher-baltimore-banner-and-new-york-times), which notes that she has a fine arts degree in Professional Photography from the Brooks Institute.

### ProPublica

ProPublica won the Pulitzer Prize for Public Service, examining the impact of abortion bans in the [“Life of the Mother”](https://www.propublica.org/series/life-of-the-mother) series. The award named three reporters and a photographer: Kavitha Surana, Lizzie Presser, Cassandra Jaramillo and Stacy Kranitz. 

The extensive series is “about pregnant women who died after doctors delayed urgently needed care for fear of violating vague ‘life of the mother’ exceptions in states with strict abortion laws.” Kranitz’s unflinching photo essay, [“The Year After a Denied Abortion,”](https://projects.propublica.org/the-year-after-a-denied-abortion/) documented a Tennessee family whose lives unraveled following a denied abortion for a life-threatening pregnancy. The story lets the viewers “see, feel, and understand how decisions made by those in power impact families.”

“A host of ProPublicans helped elevate this project,” said ProPublica’s [news release](https://www.propublica.org/article/propublica-wins-pulitzer-prize-public-service-2025) about the award. Its newsroom acknowledgment was long and included Boyzell Hosey, a past NPPA board member, who joined ProPublica in 2022 as its first Senior Editor of Visual Storytelling. It also included Andrea Wise, visual strategy editor, Anna Donlan, interactive story designer, and a host of additional contributors. 

“This is the first time that a photographer I’ve worked with, in this case [Stacy Kranitz](https://nppa.org/magazine/article/its-a-process-eric-maierson-stacy-kranitz), was named along with the writers on the award,” said Hosey. “And it’s the first time that a newsroom acknowledged my contributions along with my newsroom colleagues, and that feels very special.”

ProPublica’s visual team has been a multi-year winner in several categories in the NPPA’s Best of Photojournalism [2024](https://bop.nppa.org/2024/) and [2025](https://bop.nppa.org/2025/).

### Houston Chronicle

Alongside writers, opinion video journalist Sharon Steinmann is listed as part of the team of four at the Houston Chronicle that won the Pulitzer for [Editorial Writing](https://www.pulitzer.org/node/raj-mankad-sharon-steinmann-lisa-falkenberg-and-leah-binkovitz-houston-chronicle) for “a powerful series on dangerous train crossings that kept a rigorous focus on the people and communities at risk as the newspaper demanded urgent action.”

The Houston Chronicle’s [online news report](https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/article/pulitzer-prize-editorial-writing-stopped-trains-20311207.php) begins with slides of the Pulitzer-winning team, including Steinmann.

### The New York Times

The New York Times won the 2025 Pulitzer Prize for [Explanatory Reporting](https://www.pulitzer.org/node/azam-ahmed-matthieu-aikins-contributing-writer-and-christina-goldbaum-new-york-times) for “an authoritative examination of how the United States sowed the seeds of its own failure in Afghanistan, primarily by supporting murderous militia that drove civilians to the Taliban.” 

The award lists three writers, and the Pulitzer Prizes website lists the winning work, which includes top-of-the-story bylines for photojournalists Bryan Denton and Victor J. Blue, both NPPA members. 

### Reuters

The staff of Reuters won for [Investigative Reporting](https://www.pulitzer.org/winners/22665) for its seven-part series [“Fentanyl Express”](https://www.reuters.com/investigates/section/fentanyl-express/) that “boldly reported exposé of lax regulation in the U.S. and abroad that makes fentanyl, one of the world’s deadliest drugs, inexpensive and widely available to users in the United States.” 

Reuters’ [press release](https://www.reuters.com/world/china/reuters-wins-pulitzer-investigation-fentanyl-trade-2025-05-05/) named two visual journalists, photographer Shannon Stapleton, and interactive graphic artist Daisy Chung, a science visual communicator, among the nine-member story team. The team worked from the U.S., Mexico, China and beyond. 


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### The Washington Post

The work of photojournalist Jabin Botsford appears throughout The Washington Post’s winning Pulitzer entry for [Breaking News Reporting](https://www.pulitzer.org/node/staff-washington-post-22). 

The Post’s staff won for “urgent and illuminating coverage of the July 13, 2024, attempt to assassinate then-presidential candidate Donald Trump, including detailed storytelling and sharp analysis that coupled traditional police reporting with audio and visual forensics.” 

On May 6, the day after Pulitzer Prizes were announced, The Washington Post’s print edition published a photo of reporter Isaac Arnsdorf and Botsford, an NPPA member, with newsroom colleagues on its front page. The [online story explained](https://www.washingtonpost.com/pr/2025/05/05/washington-post-2025-pulitzer-prize-stories/) how Botsford, a multi-year winner in [NPPA’s Best of Photojournalism](https://bop.nppa.org/2025/stillphotojournalism/breaking-news-story/), [documented the scene in stills](https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/07/13/photos-shooting-trump-rally/), as he also had the wherewithal to enlist his Ray-Ban Meta glasses to record video. [That video](https://www.washingtonpost.com/video/politics/post-photographers-view-as-trump-rushed-off-stage/2024/07/13/26a5bfeb-3a1f-4eeb-96bc-561ae86291ae_video.html) essentially placed the viewer behind Botsford’s camera.

The entry included infographics and an [interactive 3D recreation](https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/interactive/2024/trump-rally-shooting-maps-secret-service-analysis/) of the shooting. The Post’s stories have numerous bylines and undoubtedly include a host of visual journalists. 

*Kudos to former Washington Post editorial cartoonist [Anne Telnaes for Illustrated Reporting and Commentary](https://www.pulitzer.org/winners/22684).

### The Big Picture

As the vital role of visual storytellers becomes more respected, newsrooms are less siloed, which has proven essential for in-depth stories. Thus, media awards are evolving to recognize cross-disciplinary teamwork. 

The Associated Press team that won the [2023 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service](https://www.pulitzer.org/winners/associated-press-work-mstyslav-chernov-evgeniy-maloletka-vasilisa-stepanenko-and-lori) for reporting from Ukraine included multi-talented visual journalists:

- Mstyslav Chernov is a Ukrainian war correspondent, filmmaker, photographer, and novelist.
- Evgeniy Maloletka is a Ukrainian war photographer, journalist, and filmmaker.
- Vasilisa Stepanenko is a Ukrainian freelance journalist and video producer.
- Lori Hinnant, who has reported for AP since 1999, combines data journalism with deeply personal reporting.

Both Public Service Finalists in 2023, notes Morrow, NPPA’s editor, included visual journalists.

“I find it promising that collaborations are being better acknowledged and valued in the award process and the workplace. Great work does not happen in a vacuum. It takes skillful communication and leadership across many mediums. Seeing these processes recognized is exciting,” said Morrow.

*Author Ken Klein’s career spans four decades in media, congressional staff, and advocacy. His journalism experience includes reporting positions for The Associated Press and Gannett in Florida. He lives in Silver Spring, Maryland.*

#### RELATED STORIES
[An interview with Stacy Kranitz](link) by Eric Maierson

[Visual Voice podcast: Documenting Political History](https://nppa.org/magazine/article/visual-voice-podcast-documenting-political-history-part-one)
Three photojournalists discuss how they worked during the July 13, 2024, Trump rally in Pennsylvania: Doug Mills of The New York Times, Eric Lee, a photo fellow at The New York Times, and Getty Images' Anna Moneymaker. The now-historic images give us a glimpse into one of the most politically violent moments in our lifetime and demonstrate the power of photojournalism and how it can be evidentiary.

Other stories in [News Photographer Magazine](https://nppa.org/magazine?page=articles)




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MAGAZINE FEATURE

Shared spotlight: The Pulitzer Prizes have increasingly recognized visual storytellers in categories traditionally reserved for written storytelling, and that’s a good thing.

In “Remembrance Garden,” Richards asks us to do something so very human: speak the name of someone we can no longer know, giving their memory another day on earth.

Eugene Richards, as always, makes us stop, look and think … and remember.

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#### ["Remembrance Garden: A Portrait of Green-Wood Cemetery"](https://eugenerichards.com/remembrance-garden)
By Eugene Richards
$55, 152 pages
Distributed Art Publishers, 2024

When we’re young, we believe we’re immortal. That doesn’t last.

The death of a relative is often the first blow, or maybe it’s a classmate who dies, leaving us to reconcile a seat empty at the holiday table or a chair vacant in the third hour. A presence to us is suddenly absent. A life becomes only a memory.

How long we remember and how we do the remembering are raised in Eugene Richards’ book released in May. “Remembrance Garden: A Portrait of Green-Wood Cemetery” asks how long each of us will remain in the thoughts of our friends and family.

Sitting in Brooklyn just a few blocks east of New York Harbor, a few blocks west of Prospect Park, Green-Wood Cemetery was one of the country’s first rural burial places when it opened in 1838. Its 478 acres became known for their beauty. By the 1860s, it had attracted a half-million visitors a year, second only to Niagara Falls as America’s busiest tourist attraction.

Today, the cemetery hosts concerts, art exhibitions, tours for grade-school students and, of course, funerals. Each burial adds to the half-million people for whom Green-Wood is their final resting place.

That’s a lot of graves and even more memories. With more than a half-million of the dearly departed entombed within a city of more than 8 million souls, how long can anyone pause long enough to remember a name carved on a gravestone?

Photographing historic names is the obvious answer. And it should be obvious to readers here that Richards is not a photographer who does the obvious.

A photojournalist like Richards reports through interpretation. Like a playwright who crafts a sentence that explains a character’s motives and weaknesses in just a few precisely chosen words, Richards sees a scene and reveals it obliquely. The rule of thirds and golden light matter little in Richards’ visual syntax. He shows us reality unvarnished, such as the deprivation of mental asylums in “A Procession of Them” (2008) or the stark remnants of rural America in “The Blue Room” (2008) and “Red Ball of a Sun Slipping Down” (2014).

These aren’t cheerful images, but Richards doesn’t make calendar photos. He makes you think.
Richards was recovering from a serious case of COVID-19 in 2020 when he decided to take walks to recuperate and, I would expect, to consider his mortality.

He confronted it in Green-Wood Cemetery, making photographs that show trees and plants and geese thriving amid the memorials to death. He even uses the weather. Rain and blowing snow mimic the challenges we all face, hard days and setbacks that are forgotten when we remember the dead.

In one image, the weather obscures the angel on one pedestal and the man’s bust on another as we look past tawny grass and bare trees through a lens mottled with drops of water. It’s as if we can’t quite remember who is buried there, despite the monuments their family left to honor them.
As popular as the cemetery is with day-trippers, Richards looks past the living to the memorials to death. Statues in a variety of styles are the aboveground residents of Green-Wood, reminding us of the vitality that gave life to the tombs’ names. In one image, a statue of a couple in the clothing of the late 19th century stands as if they are about to dance, while next to them, a mother in flowing robes holds an infant who rests, its head on her shoulder, in peace. These four speak to us silently in the rain, the overcast sky withholding contrast. It’s as if they, like those they were erected to recall, live in a permanent half-light. 

Richards provides no captions to his photographs, an absence that’s somehow fitting. There’s little to add to his cemetery images that would offer practical context. Unless you know someone buried there, the name is just another name.

Yet he finds a way to include plenty of names, excerpting grave markings in the book’s text. Many are no different from what you would find in any cemetery anywhere: the name of the deceased; her birth year and death year; and a description of her as a wife, mother, and friend.

Other markings include a profession. A nurse, a musician, a player for the New York Knickerbockers in the 19th century. There are veterans of the Mexican-American War, the Civil War, the Revolutionary War. There’s Jean-Michel Basquiat (Artist Dec 1960 Aug 1988). There’s Horace Greeley (Born February 3, 1811; Died November 29, 1872; Founder of the New York Tribune). There’s a memorial to the 278 persons who were burned to death on Tuesday night, December 5, 1876, in the Brooklyn Theatre fire. There are graves for lots of children and too many graves for infants.

The names of the dead appear opposite Richards’ portraits of the cemetery. A tree grows around a tombstone: life overwhelming death, perhaps. There’s a tombstone askew, propped up by a tree branch someone placed there: We’re too busy with the present to maintain the past. 

All of these are ways we, the living, try to remember those who died before us. Each grave marker new or historic, each sculpture made smooth by the weather, every statue that’s lost an arm or an angel’s wing over the decades, all are messages from the past to the future, asking us to recall someone, no matter how little we could ever know any of them.

It’s said that the memory of each of us lasts until the final time someone speaks our name. In the Green-Wood Cemetery portraits, Richards gives us names to speak to carry on the memories of ordinary people who will someday be forgotten. And in doing so, he asks us to do something so very human: speak the name of someone we can no longer know, giving their memory another day on earth.

*Eugene Richards’ new book, [“Do I Know You?”](https://eugenerichards.com/) is in production through a (very) successful Kickstarter campaign. But it’s not too late to contribute!*

#### [More News Photographer book reviews](https://nppa.org/magazine?page=standing-feature&categoryId=1)


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BOOK REVIEWS

In “Remembrance Garden,” Richards asks us to do something so very human: speak the name of someone we can no longer know, giving their memory another day on earth.


Eugene Richards, as always, makes us stop, look and think … and remember.


Randall Benton has photographed eclipses for over four decades. He's looking forward to Spain, on Wednesday, Aug. 12, 2026.

“I could see a dark bank of low clouds rolling towards me like Mookie Wilson’s ground ball.”

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April 14, 2024

Total solar eclipses happen somewhere on Earth every 18 months or so. But usually in far away – often very remote – locations. The luxury of being able to drive to an eclipse means being able to take as much bulky equipment as you can cram into your car. For me, that means an astronomical equatorial mount that can follow the sun through the sky, a dedicated Solar telescope to capture the sun’s beauty in Hydrogen-alpha light, a telephoto lens to fill the frame with the sun’s corona during totality, several cameras, solar filters, a laptop computer, a table, and a chair. I won’t have another opportunity to drive to a total solar eclipse until I am 89. So, although April 8 was to be my sixth total solar eclipse, it was probably my last chance to use all this high-tech equipment to shoot an eclipse the way I really wanted to.

I have been preparing for this eclipse for the better part of a year. I streamlined my process so to minimize the chance for error when the excitement of totality can derail the best of intentions. Like many other eclipse chasers, I even had a prerecorded set of voice prompts synchronized to the progress of the eclipse that would alert me when the next crucial step was to occur. Brother, I was ready. This eclipse turned out to be uniquely memorable but for all the wrong reasons.

As the date approached, I turned my attention to the weather, which I cannot control. But with judicious research I can mitigate it to my favor. I have several resources I trust that publish regularly updated forecasts and historical data for the areas within the path of totality. The historical data favored southwest Texas, so that became my target. For weeks prior to eclipse day, I feverishly checked the weather forecasts several times each day. As April 8 drew nearer, I found myself obsessively weather-checking the way a day trader watches Wall Street.

With our SUV swollen with photo gear, my wife Darlene and I left our home in northern California to the path of totality west of San Antonio, Texas. It took us three days of driving, and each night in our hotel room, we would check the ever-changing weather forecasts and then watch whatever movie we could find on the TV.

On Sunday – the day before the eclipse – we spent the day scouting for what would be our observation site the next day. I watched the general direction of the thicker clouds as we meandered around the area between Fredericksburg and Rock Springs. As the cloud cover looked heaviest in the east, we decided to forego a spot on the center line in favor of a location further west where totality would be shorter, but the skies would likely be clearer. We settled on Junction, Texas, in a public park that had plenty of parking spaces and room for lots of visitors.

We drove back to our hotel room satisfied with our selection. I did one last check of all my equipment making sure all the batteries were charged, cameras were set up properly, all the clocks were set correctly, and I ran through the script I had written for the choreographed routine for tomorrow’s big event. Outside, the sky was a cloudless azure sea of potential success. We settled in and found a movie neither of us had seen before starring Michael Keaton called “Game 6.”

The movie is about a fictional Boston playwright who skips the opening night of his latest play to watch his beloved Red Sox play in the 1986 World Series. Darlene is not a sports fan and didn’t know anything about the Boston Red Sox and their legendary streak of World Series failures going back to 1918. She had never heard of Bill Buckner, and at the end of the movie, she was shocked by Buckner’s infamous error and heartbroken that the movie, the game, and the World Series ended the way it did. 

The irony of watching that movie Sunday night didn’t sink in until Monday afternoon, at precisely 1:32 p.m.

We arrived in Junction at about 9:00 a.m. under clear blue skies with a few wispy high clouds. It was warm, with a gentle breeze, and I set up my equipment on the park’s lawn. Dozens of others were already there, setting up telescopes and lawn chairs. Most were members of an astronomy club, the Amateur Telescope Makers of Boston, who had come all the way from Massachusetts.

My plan was to take Hydrogen-alpha light images of the partial phases of the eclipse at regular intervals at 12:33, 12:58, and 1:22 to be used as part of a large wall display. After totality, I would take another set at 1:54, 2:19, and 2:44 to “bookend” my image of totality. At the start of totality (known as “Second Contact”) I would take unfiltered white light bracketed exposures spanning 14 stops. Combining these would create a spectacularly detailed image of the sun’s corona to be the centerpiece of my display. The equatorial mount was tracking the sun perfectly and I was making beautiful images with the H alpha telescope.

But with just a few minutes before totality, I could see a dark bank of low clouds rolling towards me like Mookie Wilson’s ground ball. The crowd of photographers around me and the astronomy club members who had come all the way from Boston all groaned with apprehensive dread as the clouds swallowed the last twinkle of the sun’s remaining crescent. We all shouted in angry disbelief as the dozens of prerecorded prompts vainly heralded, “Filters OFF! Second Contact, ten seconds!”

We all just stood around in the dim light with dumb looks on our faces, with nothing to do now with all the expensive optics we had taken such care to set up. I stood with my shoulder slumped, my arms limp at my sides, my head flopped back and eyes rolled shut as I mouthed some silent epithets.

Three minutes later, the recordings tolled, “Filters ON!” It was over, and I did not see it. Less than two minutes later, the sun re-emerged. The crescent shape, which had been a bright smile before, was now mocking us as a garish frown.

I finished my photo routine while the astronomy club packed up their gear to return to Boston, feeling as deflated as those Red Sox fans back in ‘86. It was sunny and clear the rest of the day.

I had prepared properly, and I made all the right decisions for all the right reasons. But sometimes, the ball just hops past your glove and rolls through your legs. I’ll have to live with that.

There’s always next time, and I already have accommodations for my spot at the next total solar eclipse in Spain on Wednesday, Aug. 12, 2026. I’m really not superstitious, but on Tuesday, August 11, I think I’ll watch “Fever Pitch” instead.

*Photography has been [Randall Benton’s](https://www.randallbenton.com/) profession since 1988, but it has been his passion for over 50 years. From 1997 until retirement in 2018, he worked as a staff photographer at The Sacramento Bee. As a senior photographer, his photos documented the rich and diverse cross-section of life in Northern California. He has photographed the NBA, NFL, PGA and WBC; Stephen Hawking, Barack Obama, Elton John and the pope; surgeons, teachers, cops and murderers. He has photographed from helicopters, the deep sea, inside tiger cages and in burning buildings. He is a freelance photographer for The Associated Press.* 

*Benton’s photos have won numerous awards from the San Francisco Bay Area Press Photographers Association, The California Newspaper Publishers Association, NPPA’s Best of Photojournalism, POYi and WPP. His photograph was selected as the [Underwater Picture of the Year](https://www.randallbenton.com/underwater-1/41c56vx2utdk6039r35es8r1c4i135) by members of the international network of underwater photographers at [Wetpixel.com.](https://wetpixel.com/articles/randall-benton-wins-wetpixel-picture-of-the-year-2009)*

#### Related reading: News Photographer

**February 2024**
[Want to photograph the April solar eclipse?](https://nppa.org/magazine/article/how-to-cover-total-solar-eclipse-april-2024) Randall Benton knows what to do: Prepare. Pack. And drive. Randall Benton has photographed these phenomena for over four decades. And Darlene Ott writes about how life with an eclipse-chasing photographer is always an adventure.

**April 2024**
[My stories of two total solar eclipses are night and day, by Patti Blake](https://nppa.org/magazine/article/patti-blake-total-solar-eclipse-april-2024)
I shot the 2017 solar eclipse from a pool in my mother's backyard in Columbia, South Carolina. At the time, I was working for the Panama City News Herald and just starting to dip my toes into the world of night sky photography.

[On-deadline eclipse coverage began nearly a year ago … and then changed completely,](https://nppa.org/magazine/article/andrew-dolph-total-solar-eclipse-april-2024) by Andrew Dolph

["Nothing could have prepared me for what most of us have never experienced: a sudden loss of light in the middle of the day."](https://nppa.org/magazine/article/tom-fox-total-solar-eclipse-april-2024) The Dallas Morning News published the story of how Pulitzer Prize-winning photojournalist Tom Fox captured the 2024 solar eclipse over Dallas’ Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge.

[April 8, 2024: Eclipse Gallery](https://nppa.org/magazine/article/gallery-total-solar-eclipse-april-2024) - News Photographer magazine asked for submissions. Here they are! Thank you!



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Change is the only constant. That's not a bad thing.

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January-February 2021

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Kent Porter’s fire gear

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January-February 2019

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WILDFIRE INSOMNIA

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September-October 2020

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A lifetime National Press Photographers Association member, Skip Peterson served as the Region 4 director and two terms as national secretary. 


Skip Peterson: July 6, 1951 — March 16, 2025, Kettering, Ohio

![Skip and friends copy.jpg](https://d3dv5x9lc36tse.cloudfront.net/Skip_and_friends_copy_8461cdc521.jpg)
*From left, Skip Peterson, Dan Dry, Joe Vitti and Charlie Nye at a celebration of life for Chuck Scott at Ohio University, April 2016. Dan Dry wrote on Facebook: "It is with great sadness that I just learned about the death of Skip Peterson. Skip took me under his wing when I was just a junior at Athens High School, Skip, along with Prof Chuck Scott are responsible for me choosing to go to Ohio University. Skip was an amazing photographer, mentor and friend. REST IN PEACE, my fine friend." Photo courtesy Dan Dry*

By Bob DeMay
*Published with permission of the author*

If you’re a photojournalist or car enthusiast, you lost a good friend today. **Skip Peterson** passed in his sleep last night, leaving behind a host of friends and colleagues who mourn his passing. He was 73.

Skip was chief photographer at the Dayton Daily News for 25 years and retired in 2006 after a 34-year career.

His list of accomplishments as a photojournalist is lengthy. He was the lead photographer and photo editor of the Dayton Daily News seven-part series Military Medicine: Unnecessary Danger, which won the Pulitzer Prize for national reporting in 1998. 

If you could think of a major sporting event, he covered it, from Super Bowls, World Series and the Olympics and was published in a host of national news and sports periodicals.  As an avid MG owner it should come as no surprise his favorite event was the Indianapolis 500. He regularly posted historical photos and his favorite memories from the race on social media.

Skip was also all about giving back to his profession. He played a major role in the growth of the [Ohio News Photographers Association (ONPA)](https://onpa.org/), serving as president and chairman of the board spanning an 18-year period. A lifetime National Press Photographers Association member, he served as the Region 4 director and two terms as national secretary.

A graduate of Ohio University with a degree in journalism, he won numerous awards from the NPPA, ONPA, The Associated Press, Society of Professional Journalists and the AP Managing Editors Association. 

When Skip turned over the reins of chairman of the board to me in 1997, I said that it was like taking over for Johnny Carson. He had done the job for so long and so well that he made it look easy, but it wasn’t. He and close friend Mark Duncan had to balance listening to the old guard and satisfying the wants of a new generation of journalists. They did it well.

Skip was still serving ONPA and was instrumental in working with the Dayton Foundation and the family and friends of Larry Fullerton to establish the [Larry Fullerton Photojournalism Scholarship,](https://onpa.org/fullertonscholarship/) which ONPA oversees. Fullerton was a long-time member of ONPA, a photojournalist and assistant managing editor of the Hamilton Journal-News.

In 1987, Skip was the recipient of [ONPA’s Carson Award](https://onpa.org/carsonaward/), which is given for outstanding contributions to photojournalism and is considered the organization’s highest honor.

He might have been retired, but he still followed the news and often questioned and commented on the coverage of his local television news market. He pulled no punches. 

I spent quite a few evenings in the famous ONPA hospitality suite of days gone by with Skip. I think Skip Peterson would not want us to mourn today, but to celebrate a life and cherish wonderful memories of a great friend and photojournalist. He wouldn’t mind, and probably encourage you to throw back a little bourbon to mark the occasion. 

Skip Peterson is survived by his wife, Jennifer, four children and four grandchildren.

Bob DeMay was a staff photographer at The Vindicator in Youngstown, Ohio from 1986 to 1999. In September 1999, I joined the Akron Beacon Journal as a staff photographer and moved to a photo editor position in 2003, where I remained until 2018, when Gannett took over.

Now retired, Bob is still very active in ONPA, serving as chairman of the board from 1997 to 2009, a newsletter print edition editor from 1998 until 2008, and has been the webmaster for 20 years. 

[Dayton Daily News obituary](https://www.daytondailynews.com/local/former-ddn-chief-photographer-and-editor-skip-peterson-dies/4HQWCTJ6BNGN7O3D7NHAQVQLHU/#:~:text=A%20graduate%20of%20Ohio%20University,for%20national%20reporting%20in%201998.)
[Funeral home obituary](https://www.westbrockfuneralhome.com/obituaries/skip-peterson?fbclid=IwY2xjawJGO6dleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHcSzprZ2Qp9rgkwrlO_fETa4k8i8MSAGpz-woa-sr2vGxRJApp1Pjxx3Uw_aem_F-U7Hm0HvGta1I1iYkWpCg)

A memorial service will be held Sunday, March 23, 2025:
[America’s Packard Museum](https://www.americaspackardmuseum.org/?gad_source=1&gclid=Cj0KCQjw-e6-BhDmARIsAOxxlxWG-ez6HWDOWETdHA7P_CORZLmVBDesxY4RoyyC_aq_Ry5X5Du38eIaArEgEALw_wcB)
420 S Ludlow St., Dayton, Ohio 45402

Visitation begins at 5 p.m., the Memorial Tribute begins at 6:30 p.m., and a reception follows. Please join our family in honoring the life and legacy of our beloved father, husband, and PopPop, Skip.

In lieu of flowers, donations in Skip’s honor may be made to [Dayton History, The Dayton History Fund.](https://www.daytonhistory.org/support/donate/)






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A lifetime National Press Photographers Association member, Skip Peterson served as the Region 4 director and two terms as national secretary. 



![Luster_stands out.jpg](https://d3dv5x9lc36tse.cloudfront.net/Luster_stands_out_19d1a73794.jpg)
*Bill Luster is in the center of the action at the 2014 Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Kentucky. Photo by Gary Bogdon*


#### *"No one stood taller in the Winners Circle at the Derby than Bill Luster.” - Gary Bogdon*

**I have dreaded this day** as editor of News Photographer — the day I would have to write about the loss of a dear friend and someone who shaped my life and career in countless ways.

Bill Luster mentored me from the moment I walked in as an intern in 1987. We collaborated on NPPA Flying Short Courses, and he was there for me again in Derby in 2011 and for many years after. His generosity, kindness and joy never wavered.

I figured the best I can do is get out of the way and let the words, pictures and videos of Bill Luster’s loyal friends speak for themselves. This tribute captures their feelings and memories about our beloved “Lustie.”

Fitting for decades of memories and accolades – many from the NPPA – it’s lengthy. I hope you take some time to explore it on a large screen, which is fitting for a bigger-than-life personality, our friend Bill. 

*– Sue Morrow, Editor, News Photographer Magazine*

#### Related links

[Bill Luster's website](https://www.billlusterphotography.com/)

[Photographs of Bill Luster through the years with his colleagues and on assignment.](https://www.courier-journal.com/picture-gallery/news/local/2025/05/30/louisville-photographer-bill-luster-dies-at-80-see-photos-of-his-career/83927065007/)

[Photo gallery: Bill Luster](https://www.courier-journal.com/picture-gallery/news/local/2025/05/30/former-courier-journal-photographer-bill-lusters-best-photos/83926971007/)

[Louisville Courier Journal obituary of Bill Luster](https://www.courier-journal.com/story/opinion/columnists/gerth/2025/05/30/bill-luster-former-courier-journal-photographer-pulitzer-prize-winner-dies-at-80/83942646007/)

[BloodHorse magazine tribute to Bill Luster](https://www.bloodhorse.com/horse-racing/articles/284814/award-winning-kentucky-photographer-luster-dies-at-80?fbclid=IwY2xjawKppENleHRuA2FlbQIxMQBicmlkETFORDZicW04eTg5S1duNUhUAR4btVM7zvCt2cj4e4ySbgjucA18YtboAr_P1WSA8a5GG0hmfgaW03QS8Lsdnw_aem_zz_5Vx91exvfmBWvYE6b6Q)






### Sam Abell

**My two favorite images** of Bill show him with his dear friend Pam Spaulding.

The first was made in Louisville, not far from the Courier-Journal building, by Dan Dry.

The image catches the spirit of Bill and Pam's great friendship. By association, it also captures the spirit of the time on the photo staff of the Courier-Journal. It was a time of high spirits, hard work and solidarity around the high concept of doing meaningful work for the paper – and for each other. Bill was a champion of that. He made everyone a better photographer – and a better person.

The second image, made by me in 2015, is also set in Louisville. It was made as a sentimental reprise of Dry’s photo and also as a tribute to Bill and Pam's loving friendship.

*– Sam Abell, June 2025*


### Claude Cookman 

**When I arrived as picture editor** of The Louisville Times in the fall of 1974, somebody told me Bill Luster never took an out-of-focus photo. I silently scoffed at that. But when I left The Times in the spring of 1981, after reading hundreds of his contact sheets, I had yet to see one out-of-focus frame. In his self-deprecating humor, Bill joked about putting “Focus-All” on his negatives.

*– Claude Cookman, Ph.D., professor emeritus, Indiana University Bloomington. Picture editor of The Louisville Times, 1974–1981*

### Pam Spaulding

**"Focus-All"** was one of the many jokes Luster played on young photographers. 

I've never met anyone who loved taking pictures more than Bill. He carried a camera everywhere. To lunch. To parties. Around his home. His enthusiasm for photography was unlimited.  He looked for pictures everywhere. And he wanted to share his pictures. Everyone has had him say to them, "Spaulding! Look at this."

I think it's really important to talk about the love of his life, Linda. She has been his support for their entire lives. When she was undergoing cancer therapy, he took a powerful portrait of her.  

The picture below shows that even during a time of great fear for him about Linda's health, he continued to make remarkable pictures. It's a picture from his heart, and it hangs in a local law firm/gallery, featuring the finest collection of photography you'll ever see outside of a museum. The owner, Paul Paletti, wrote about the picture: 

*"This portrait, 'Strength', is of the love of Bill's life, Linda Luster.  Made after her diagnosis and treatment for cancer, it is one of the finest examples I have ever seen of conveying character qualities through photography. This image is the epitome of both love and courage."*

This is what Paul wrote about his gallery:  
*"The Paul Paletti Gallery exhibits the work of photographers from all over the world. They are the best at what they do, with distinctive visions and superb technical skills, whose work is collected by museums. Throughout the Gallery, you will also see work that is iconic in the history of photography. This collection celebrates the rich variety of photographic artists, styles, subject matter, uses and importance of photography, both as an artistic medium and a way to document our world and our lives."*

Bill is my oldest and dearest friend. He was a happy man, filled with mirth. My life was better because of him.

#### (An elaborate) Prankster

Bill loved pulling pranks on people, and most everyone who calls themselves a friend of Bill has had a prank pulled on them. 

I had spent a long time printing McGarvey family pictures and especially one of a difficult negative. (The McGarveys are a family that I have been photographing for 47 years.)  Finally!! I got a decent print, and I left for lunch, leaving a stack of prints.  

I had just returned when Luster walked into the darkroom, looked at the prints and said, "What is the pile of crap?" He dramatically tore up the top picture, which was the best print of that difficult negative.

I was stunned. I remember thinking we've been friends for a long time and I'm not going to let this change our friendship, but I was definitely perturbed. 

Then he started laughing (of course). While I was gone, he had inserted that negative into the enlarger and made another print. It was that print that he destroyed. I think I then tried to ring his
neck, but that could have happened after another prank.  

*– Pam Spaulding, June 2025*



### C. Thomas Hardin

**I lost a big friend last night.**  Bill Luster died with Linda by his side. Many of us know what a great photographer he was.

Bill was a friend to thousands and respected by them as well. 

On Derby Day, Churchill Downs acknowledged Bill’s 50th Derby with an interview that was posted on the track’s video screens, visible around the track and inside for the public to see. He photographed 55 Derbys. 

Our friendship goes back to 1966 when we met covering LBJ at the Fort Campbell Army base. He was covering for the Glasgow Daily Times, and I was covering for the Louisville Courier Journal. A year or so later, he joined the photo department in Louisville. We worked together until the early 90s.

He was the president of NPPA and a member of the National Press Photographers Foundation (NPPF) board for many years. He managed the NPPA Flying Short Courses for about ten years and really understood how to get the crowds into each of the cross-country stops.

He was part of the teams that won two Pulitzer Prizes for The Courier Journal in 1976 and 1989. The first was for feature photography for the photo department's staff coverage of court-ordered busing. The second award was for the news and photo staff’s local reporting for its coverage of a horrific bus crash that killed 27 adults and children on a church bus.

For the CJ and Louisville Times photo staff, past and present, this is a significant loss. And I share that loss personally and professionally, many times over.

#### Some remembrances:

• A small person in stature, but a photographer who photographed important pictures.
 
• Bill photographed people at their important moments – on the farm, on the basketball court, plus 60 Kentucky Derbies. He loved to photograph sports and had (before autofocus) a coveted ability for eye-hand coordination. Getting moving subjects in focus.
 
• Bill has been an icon in the photojournalism community – on the shooting side, from everyday assignments to photo essays, and has given much to the NPPF and the NPPA.
 
**Bill was the recipient of numerous NPPA awards: **

- 2010 recipient of the annual NPPA Joseph A. Sprague Memorial Award, a legacy award (now the NPPA Founder’s Award), which started in 1949. It is the highest honor in the field of visual journalism, recognizing an individual who advances and elevates the visual journalism profession by conduct, initiative, leadership, skill, and devotion to duty. 
- 2000 NPPA Joe Costa Award
- 1989 NPPA Special Citation 
- NPPA President’s Awards, 1969, 1987 and 1990

• Bill was NPPA president 1993-94 and organized the Flying Short Course for over ten years in addition to his work at the CJ. He found time to shoot for Sports Illustrated and National Geographic, among others. On special assignments, for example, behind the scenes in the White House, he photographed every president from Gerald Ford to Barack Obama.
 
• This world was a better place with Bill Luster roaming it, photographing it, and befriending it.
 
• That kid could really shoot photographs. He really made friends. He knew his subjects.
 
• He collected/ traded famous photographs from other famous photographers. The walls of Bill and Linda’s home display famous photographs by famous photographers. He traded his famous photos for those of other famous photographers so they could have a “LUSTER.”
 
• He collected thousands of friends, not just on Facebook, but real face-to-face friends. When the Hardins and the Lusters shared dinners at local restaurants, someone he knew would come by the table. Surely, he must have called some of his friends ahead of time!!!
 
• He loved people and collected thousands of friends.
 
• Always had ideas... hundreds of times he came into my office --- he talked to me about an idea…  a green light always followed, even times when he would come in… “Hey, I’ve an idea…” “Yes, go do it,” even before he said anything, because I knew it would be a success.
 
• Rich Clarkson, the most important person in photojournalism in our lifetime and before, is an icon and the gold standard. Bill was one of those icons and was a gold standard as a photojournalist and as a person.
 
• I just miss an important friend.
 
• I mourn the loss of his friendship and professionalism, while celebrating his lifelong impact.
 
• Bill Luster was just one of the good guys.  And everyone knows it.
 
•  He “earned” a Ph.D. in Friendships.

*– C. Thomas Hardin was Director of Photography at the Courier Journal and the Louisville Times from 1975 to 1992.* 


![luster in pool.jpg](https://d3dv5x9lc36tse.cloudfront.net/luster_in_pool_619bcc24e6.jpg)

*Jay Mather, left, and Scott Golldsmith throw Bill Luster into the pool at Dennis Dimmick’s going-away party. Clothing and all. Photo by Jim Mendenhall*

### A letter to Bill Luster, from Scott Goldsmith

Dear Bill,
You’ve been on my mind constantly. A whirlwind of memories keeps running through my head — so many incredible moments we shared. From the very beginning, when I was just an intern, you took me under your wing. And through my entire time at the Courier-Journal and after, you kept me close — to your heart, your practical jokes, and your infinite well of wisdom.

The photo above sums up a lot about you and our staff whom I loved:  You, on the edge of being tossed into the pool at Dennis Dimmick's going-away party. That image captures so much: the camaraderie, the laughter, the cohesion of our team. And at the center of it all, always, was you. You were the glue that held us together. My favorite part of this photo is that you are smiling. You appreciated the humor and fun before being tossed into the water with your clothes on by Jay Mather and me. You are the jokester. The master photographer. The big brother. The heart of the C-J photo department. Without Bill Luster, there would be no backbone to that staff — because you were the backbone.

You had a sixth sense — not just behind the lens, where you could see beneath the surface of every moment, but with people, too. You knew how to read us, guide us, lift us up. You were our wise owl, our north star. Everyone on that staff looked up to you.

**Some favorite memories — and there are so many — still make me smile and shake my head:**

- The Reds games. You took me along as if I were part of your family. Introduced me to Pete Rose. Brought me into the locker room. And those postgame dinners — those long conversations shaped me more than you probably knew.
- Albuquerque, New Mexico: where "Pay the Man Heimer" was born, along with the legendary restroom “Heimlich Maneuver.” Classic.
- All the Final Fours. David Robinson in your hotel room. And the leather basketball you “stole” from me… only to have secretly sent it to Pete Souza at the White House, who got it signed by Reagan, and then you gave it back to me. What a joke — and what a gift. That ball, that moment, sums you up perfectly: the thoughtfulness, the mischief, the backstory, the surprise — and most of all, the love.
- The Derby list. I still have it. You had me winning, and Milbert Brown’s horse named after his favorite phrase. Hilarious, yes, but full of affection. That list showed how much you paid attention to us and how much you cared. It made us feel like a family.
- The Collenaide — that crew of friends grabbing lunch and stopping at Schumann’s. Pure joy.
- And of course, the softball game — the one with the grapefruit painted white. I can still hear the laughter as Lutman hit it. Utter chaos. Utterly you.

Bill, I carry so much of you with me. I still use your phrases — “all joking aside,” and “you’re gonna love this story.” I still remember your timing, your stories, your way of seeing people. You helped me through tough times, and you stood beside me during the best.

I never said this out loud, but I want you to know: I love you, Bill. That feeling is real and deep and lasting. You gave your friends the best parts of yourself — the jokes, the insight, the kindness, the memories. Nobody compares to you.

With all my heart,
Scott

*–Scott Goldsmith is an independent photographer based in Pittsburgh.*


![Luster and Van Hook.jpg](https://d3dv5x9lc36tse.cloudfront.net/Luster_and_Van_Hook_2b869eee7b.jpg)
*Bill Luster and Ben Van Hook*

### Ben Van Hook

**It’s hard to describe** what an impact Bill Luster had on my life. I was an intern at the Louisville Courier Journal in the summer of 1983 and knew he was larger than life.

From the moment I arrived, he took me under his wing. It was a heady time, traveling with him, and we enjoyed countless meals at The Colonnade, Masterson's, The Bristol, and Cunningham’s. His endless laugh, stories woven together, his advice and insight on life and showing me by example what a life well-lived really is. 

A devout family man, he introduced me to Cheryl, whom I married three years later. Bill and Pam Spaulding photographed our wedding. I felt Bill was the de facto leader of our tight-knit family in the CJ photography department. And so much passion and humanity in his photography, you couldn’t help but get inspired working with him every day. Rest in peace, my dear friend. I will always be thankful and remember our good times together. You were one of the special ones. Love to Linda and Joseph as well.

*– Ben Van Hook is an independent photographer based in Orlando, Florida.*



### Melissa Farlow

**We lost someone special.** Bill Luster was the heart of the Courier Journal photo department –- the “first friend” to every new face. He made people feel included by reaching out to tease or joke, always lightening the mood.

Photo staffs were very close in what seems like ancient times. We were like taxicab drivers with cameras, knowing shortcuts and every street with timed lights through the city. At any time, a crackling car radio could redirect us to a fire, an explosion or last-minute photo request. Sometimes we flew in the company plane to faraway ballgames or to Appalachia, perilously landing on a mountainside to photograph floods or mining accidents.

These were black and white film days, where we shared war stories and “which frame?” was debated over the light table. We complained about minutia — but Bill kept us laughing. Derby week, he posted a cleverly written list of horse names that matched up to staff members. 

Luster’s practical jokes were often inspired in the “ready room”— swiping keys to move a photographer’s car a few spaces, telling tall tales or giving outlandish advice which I was once gullible enough to take and was almost fired. If you were a loyal friend, you were an obvious target of pranks. We loved him for that.

Bill photographed U.S. Presidents — Obama, Reagan, Carter, Ford, Clinton — and sports figures like Muhammad Ali. He covered 55 Kentucky Derbys, won two Pulitzers, many NPPA awards, and is in the Kentucky Hall of Fame. His work appeared in National Geographic magazine, including a challenging story on organ transplants.

My favorite photo was made on a summer day in Kentucky. A farm family sits in lawn chairs facing an empty road that runs in front of their house while a dog slowly stretches behind them. It is quiet, humorous and reminds me of Bill’s sharp presence of mind, capturing perfect moments in commonplace settings.

Bill’s legacy is not just awards and images — it is about people. He made us feel part of the family. He was our glue. We will miss him and the era he represents — when newsrooms were communities.

I can’t think of anything more honorable than being remembered as everyone’s First Friend.

*– Melissa Farlow, [Instagram](http://www.instagram.com/melissafarlow)* 


### Jay Mather

**I was hired at the Courier Journal in April 1977,** one week before the Kentucky Derby. When I came to Louisville for the job interview, Tom Hardin introduced me to Bill Luster. We shook hands; his grip was firm. Bill was tasked with showing me around Louisville for a day. We toured Cherokee Park, Bowman Field, then downtown to the University of Louisville campus, and on to Churchill Downs. He's explaining the significance of everything and also telling me about his major project covering the University of Kentucky Wildcats basketball team. He was given nearly complete access to the players, on and off court. He said, "Jay, they'll let me do anything."

I responded, "I bet they won't let you play center." That sealed our relationship as friends and marked the beginning of years of camaraderie, collegial respect, and co-conspirators in practical jokes. 

Bill became my brother and remained in contact ever since. 

We had long conversations about our work and our lives. When Bill was the director of the NPPA Flying Short Course, he often consulted with me about people he wanted to invite to the seminars. His trust in my opinion was a gift.

It was hard to see Bill decline in health over the past few years. He was a fighter and wanted to keep going even though he knew his limitations were increasing. When I last saw Bill, on May 27, 2025, we could communicate in short phrases. He knew his friends were around him, Pam Spaulding and Pete Souza. We said our farewells, holding his hand, stroking his head. Bill squeezed my finger with the same firm grip he had 48 years ago, his final gesture of friendship.

*– Jay Mather*


### Dan Dry

**It is with a very heavy heart** that I post about the passing of my dear friend, mentor and one of the best photographers to ever hold a camera, Bill Luster.    
                                                                   
Bill fought the amazing fight. I shot this photo of him just two weeks ago. Please say a prayer and take a look at his amazing work on his website, [billlusterphotography.com.](https://www.billlusterphotography.com/)                                   

"Lustie" Rest in peace.

### Pat McDonogh

**Bill was just a great guy** who took incredible photographs. He loved people and quickly won their trust with his engaging personality. Everyone knew Bill, not only because of his diminutive size but also because of the quality of his work. 

Bill was a prankster as well, often spinning yarns for gullible interns about his exploits as a jockey or escaping from a Viet Cong prison camp. 

“I was the last one out of the tunnel when I felt someone pulling my leg, just like I’m pulling your’s right now,” he would tell an enthralled intern, during one of his beloved lunches at Louisville’s Colanade Cafeteria. 

*- Pat McDonogh, photographer, Louisville, Courier-Journal colleague*




### Mary Ann Gerth 

**I doubt I can say much** about my good friend and former CJ co-worker Bill Luster that others haven't said already. We grew up in the great Glasgow, Kentucky, but we didn't really know each other because of our age difference. Our families knew each other. My mother worked with Bill when she was a bookkeeper at the Glasgow Daily Times and he was a photographer. He made a picture of me as a kid in the mid-to-late 60s watching the Glasgow Christmas parade. 
 
By 1969, Bill had left to become a future legend at The Courier Journal. By the time I graduated from WKU with a major in photojournalism and had the honor of being hired by Tom Hardin at the CJ, it was 1985.

Luster and I were more than just co-workers. We were buddies. We both loved laughing. He helped me edit my photos. I watched his ways and learned things from his photography style that I can never credit him enough for.

I was talking today with a former CJ staffer, another good buddy from back in the day, Scott Goldsmith, about how each one of us thought we had this special relationship with Luster, and the little bit of surprise we felt when we learned he was this way with everybody. Yet we each still had a special relationship with him. Bill made everyone in his orbit feel special. That's what made him a good teacher, mentor and most of all, a great friend to everyone he met.
I can't remember or name all the fantastic photos he's taken. One that is special to me is a favorite of many others -- a simple photo of people sitting in their yard, with a dog stretching in the foreground. It was just quintessential visual storytelling. It reminded me of our shared hometown and its serenity.

This would not be a tribute to Bill Luster without mentioning just the tiniest portion of the memories I have with him.

**HE WAS A PRANKSTER.** He would take great pains to prank people. The more he knew about you, the more he had to work with.

#### Some highlights:

**I collected through the years** a good amount of silverware he used to slip in my purse during the legendary "Luster lunches," where Bill would hold court and tell stories and laugh. These lunches could often run a bit long.

**Near the end of one of these long lunches,** I started worrying that I had let time get away from me and I was going to have to really put the hammer down to get to my next assignment in Fort Knox. Bill told me the fastest way to get there, but it wasn't fast enough. I had to meet a reporter at the guard station and I was so stressed about making everyone late. When I got there and got out of my car, I hear, "LYONS! Where have you BEEN!?" and I look around and it's Pete Souza, who is a wonderful photographer and who would turn out to be the chief White House photographer during the Reagan and Obama administrations. So much for my low-key, slide-in-late-and-hope-for-the-best entry. Apparently, Souza had been there at Fort Knox on assignment, and magically, Luster knew and had called him while I was on my way to have him give me a hard time when I arrived. Luster was everywhere, and he never forgot anything.

**Luster started taking me along to University of Kentucky basketball games** as soon as I started at the CJ in 1985. He introduced me to all the ins and outs of the "Cathedral of Basketball," as he called it, and we visited Rupp Arena often. In 1986, a kid named Rex Chapman joined the Wildcats. I took photos of Rex with girls looking at him like he was a member of The Beatles. I took lots of photos of Rex, and Luster decided that I, therefore, must be madly in love with Rex. Luster invited me along with him one day to UK as he was going to take photos of Rex and then-Coach Eddie Sutton for a freelance assignment for a national sports magazine. Long story short, the friendly UK sports information director wound up letting us wait for Rex and his roommate, Winston Bennett, in their dorm room before they got out of class. Then the guys came in and chatted, and Bill took some photos. I think at one point he took a photo of them wearing a blue, curly wig that they had and called their Eddie Sutton wig. Anyway, I believe the sports information guy got in some trouble for that, and I doubt seriously two goofball photojournalists would be allowed into a dorm under those same circumstances today. Oh yes, there's a photo of me from that day that Bill took.

**We shared a love of the movie JFK.** We were two obnoxious humans to be around once we started quoting lines. Luster crushed my soul once when JFK Jr. spoke at a Democratic National Convention, and Luster brought me back a signed copy of a photo of JFK Jr. I went through all the questions and meanderings one had to take in dealing with Charles William Luster, and finally, he convinced me it was real. I framed it and hung in on my wall for about a week before I determined it was not a real signature.

**President Bill Clinton was in Louisville one day,** and I was among the photographers taking pictures at one of his stops. A photo of mine ran in the next day's newspaper. Several days later, I took a call from someone claiming to be on Clinton's staff, saying the President wanted a copy of the photo. There's that moment when you KNOW it's a prank, but yet, do you want to tell off someone at the White House (all politics aside)? I was nice and polite, but I finally made it clear that there was no way I was believing this. The person finally broke down and confessed. Another Luster prank.

**My wedding to Joe was photographed by Luster and Pam Spaulding.** It was a wonderful day, and I had such talent behind the cameras. Because Luster never forgets anything, when we prayed at the kneelers (we had a Catholic wedding), whose picture did we see there (only we and the priests could see)? Rex Chapman. The face of Rex also made an appearance in the restrooms at our wedding reception.

**And finally, remember that Luster was everywhere.** Coming back from our honeymoon in the Bahamas, we had a connection in Atlanta to get back to Louisville. We're in line at the gate, and we hear "RAH HAH!!!!!" which was a battle cry Luster used often to surprise and delight his pals. We turn around, and there are Bill and Linda! I said, "Luster, what are you doing on our honeymoon?!" before we all laughed and laughed. A coincidental airport connection it was, but there he was, being everywhere again.

I could go on, but I'll leave it with this: I hope I never, ever, ever get away from you, buddy. 

You're the best. 

*– Mary Ann Gerth*



### Pete Souza

**Bill Luster may have been short in stature,** but he was a giant of a person.

I met him in 1983 and we were friends forever thereafter. Initially, it was because we both strived for perfection in our profession as photojournalists. But our friendship deepened as we came to know each other’s families and each other’s friends. When I visited him earlier this week, he could barely talk but managed to ask about my wife, “How’s Patti doing?”

Bill was one of the great newspaper photojournalists of my generation. He spent the first few years of his career at his hometown newspaper in Glasgow, Kentucky, and then five decades at the Louisville Courier-Journal. He loved covering the Kentucky Derby, UK basketball, and whatever community assignment came his way. It seemed like he knew every person in the city. He also photographed seven presidents, including the two (Reagan and Obama) that I worked for.

Even though he knew I was allergic to horses, he twice convinced me to photograph the Kentucky Derby with him. “Come stay at my house,” he'd say. And I did.

He and I also each photographed two assignments for National Geographic Magazine around the same time in the 1990s. One of the most nerve-wracking aspects of that experience was projecting your work onto a screen to the top editors of the magazine after spending months shooting the assignment. The editors would then decide if the photo essay would be published or not. Bill did his projection prior to mine. “Souza,” he said, “I could feel the sweat dripping down my back as I clicked from one picture to the next.” Which is exactly how I later felt. Though we both struggled with our assignments, we did get them published.

Bill was also a top-notch practical joker. Usually with an accomplice, he would pull off some whoppers. As much as he liked doing the practical jokes, I think he liked telling the stories about them even more. “Tell that story, Luster,” one of his friends would say. And Bill, with delight on his face, would recount the prank.

If Bill called me and I didn’t answer the phone, his voicemail would be: "SOOZAH! LUSTER!”

If he didn’t pick up when I called back, I’d leave him a voicemail: “LUSTAH! SOUZA!"

I won’t be receiving any more voicemails from him. Bill passed away last night. I’ll miss him and love him forever.

Sending hugs to his wife, Linda, and son, Joseph, and the rest of their family.

*– Pete Souza*


### Kevin Martin

For his master's degree at Ohio University's School of Visual Communication, Kevin Martin interviewed Bill Luster in May 2009 about his passion for photographing Churchill Downs. Paired with Bill's images, we hear him talk about the thrill of being at the races every year. Bill photographed 55 Derbys.

In the video below, Bill talks about his path to becoming a photojournalist. Historic moments that spanned over 50 years, Bill Luster was a legend and a dear friend to thousands. 

“It's not every day you get to hear the life story of a legend. Bill Luster welcomed me into his home for the interview for my master's project. Twice. My original audio was lost on a corrupt hard drive. When I sheepishly asked to re-do the interview, Bill obliged with a smile."

“We spent what felt like days together as he regaled me with observations about his career and photography. But what struck me as most profound was Bill's dedication to sharing the human experience with us. And how deeply he cared about the communities he documented.” 

*– Kevin Martin, deputy director of photography, The Boston Globe*


### Gary Bogdon

**No one stood taller** in the Winners Circle at the Derby than Bill Luster.

Simply the best of the best. It feels like the moment in Star Wars when Obi-Wan said, “I feel a great disturbance in The Force."

There are many stories and laughs shared with him since we first met when I was in high school in 1976. I was Luster, along with Dan Dry, who gave me the nickname "Razor," which has stuck since high school!

Rest in peace and love to his wife, Linda Luster, and their son, Joseph. Bill sure taught me a lot about photography and about life, but most importantly, about friendships! 

There will never be another "Lustie."

*– Gary Bogdon is an independent photographer based in Orlando, Florida.*

### Mark Cornelison

**I was honored** to photograph Bill as a true legend walking among us.

I was newly inspired by Dave Burnett’s 2012 Olympic photos and promptly went out and got an Aero Ektar lens for my Speed Graphic. I asked Bill if I could come over and do some portraits of him. I showed up, and he said, "Corn, what are we doing?" And I'm sure, in my excitement, I told him the story about Burnett and how I dug out my old 4x5 to use a new/old lens.  

Luster said, “Come with me,” and we went to his hallway, which is wallpapered with prints from famous photographers – Sam Abell, Pete Souza, David Hume Kennerly, and … Dave Burnett. It was a signed print of Robert F. Kennedy on the 1968 campaign trail. We both laughed because here I was with a new inspiration from a photographer who turned out to be a friend of Bill's, with a print on the wall. He really did know everybody!

Last year, Bill was always asking me about my old cameras, and I told him I had just learned, and was still learning, to do tintypes. He was laughing and said, "Corn, you just keep going backwards.” 

Not long after that, David Coyle and I packed up and headed to Louisville to hang out and make a few tintypes. Bill was using a walker by then, so we kept him seated in the living room as I set up a makeshift darkroom on the back porch.  

I poured the first plate, and as it was sensitizing in the silver nitrate, I went in and did a quick pre-focus, getting him into position. I retrieved the sensitized plate, and made the first photo, rushed back to the porch and promptly over processed it – it was a little blown out. 

An underwhelming start, but he said, “Let's do another.” We repeated the process, which takes about 15 minutes per photo, and made two more photos that both looked nice. 

Like every other photographer, I was certain I could do better, and I went and dropped another plate in the silver for "one more." I came back in the house as Bill and Linda had left the living room and Bill headed to his bedroom for a little nap. It was a great day, and I am so glad I got Bill on a wet plate that will last for 175 years. 

*– Mark Cornelison*


### Donald Winslow

April 5, 1982. It was a freezing and windy Saturday morning in Bloomington, Indiana. Beck Chapel is a small limestone building located on the Indiana University campus, surrounded by a stone wall approximately 5.5 feet tall. About 500 bystanders were waiting to get a glimpse after the Mass for the bride and groom: RFK Jr. and Emily Ruth Black, who were American royalty at the time. (This was RFK’s first marriage.)

Photojournalists, wearing down-stuffed winter coats, lined the wall. From my lower left side, I hear, “Winslow, left me up.” It was Bill Luster realizing his vantage point from the wall was going to work for his height. 

We managed to get him situated so that his butt and hip were leaning against the wall, and his 300 mm Nikon was balanced on my shoulder. 

The bride and groom come out, and they’re looking over at us, possibly trying to comprehend the two intertwined photographers. 

I heard the click, click, click, click of Luster’s motor drive, and then, “Thanks, buddy.” 

I was Luster’s Lifter for a few moments. 

*– Donald Winslow, past News Photographer editor and photographer*

![Patrick Lim and Luster.jpg](https://d3dv5x9lc36tse.cloudfront.net/Patrick_Lim_and_Luster_5f0864d13d.jpg)

*Bill Luster with Pat Lim outside of one of Bill’s favorite lunch spots in Louisville. Photo by Patrick Lim*

### Patrick Lim

**I don't know how I ever agreed** to be his assistant, guide, bodyguard, driver and chef for almost two years (on and off) when I was at Indiana University … particularly for the IU coffee-table pictorial book that he photographed. He ended up staying with me at my condo, and I made him pancakes every day while he was in Bloomington making pictures for the book. It was 1987, and the year that Bobby Knight and the Hoosiers won the NCAA Championship. Luster had to become an IU fan, which was painful due to his University of Kentucky faithfulness. We even made a picture (it's in the book) of Scott Goldsmith masquerading as an IU basketball player...with the trophies of course. We made pictures in the rain and snow, hot sun and from a helicopter too.

During the photo session with swim coach Doc Counsilman, I set up the lights, but Luster was unable to trigger his new radio trigger remotes. He asked me to check every connection. And then I asked him, "Do your remotes have batteries?" He said, "Remotes don't need batteries....they're remotes...!!!" He insisted that his radio remotes did not require batteries until I opened the battery compartment and found no batteries. I ran to the IU Bookstore for fresh batteries. 

In the years ahead, wherever I travelled on work matters, I sent him pictures of AA batteries and 9-volt square ones from the wilds of Indonesia to India, China, Thailand and my native Singapore. I sent him postcards saying, "There have remotes here in Timbucktoo for your remotes, Luster...."

Ow. I think he liked that…

*– Patrick Lim, Singapore*


### Sue Morrow

**I was trying to find myself in 1980.** I saw a brief mention in Popular Photography magazine about something called the NPPA Flying Short Course in Louisville. And what was the NPPA? Contact Bill Luster. I called him. He was welcoming to this lost young person who had just discovered photojournalism in her early 20s. I attended. The speakers: Sam Abell, Dave Burnett, John Durniak, Bob Lynn … I didn’t look back.

Flash forward to the summer of 1987 in the darkroom of the Courier Journal. There was lots of laughter and solid friendships. Clearly, this group was a cohesive staff. I was the picture editing intern. Standing next to Bill, I realized I was taller than he was, which was a new experience for me. I said, “I like standing next to you.” Totally deadpanned, he looked up at me and stared. Everyone fell quiet. And then he just cracked up and belly laughed. He one hundred percent had me. I thought I was going to melt into a puddle. 

A few years later, we collaborated on local FSC stops - Atlanta and then San Jose, where I was working. We saw each other at various NPPA events, judged photo contests together, and stayed in touch.

In 2011, I was in grad school at Ohio University’s School of Visual Communication, working on a documentary about a horse rescue. Horse racing was closely tied to the story, and Bill was once again welcoming and extraordinarily helpful, providing an introduction to the Derby. “Stay at our place!” I was happily his chauffeur most of that week, which were days from sun-up to sundown. When I graduated, he sent me a signed black and white print of his famous picture of Secretariat in the winner’s circle at the Derby. It’s a treasured gift.

Bill, your shenanigans live on. I can still hear your mischievous laughter, recall the lunches and camaraderie during my summer internship, when it quickly became clear to this extremely green intern that you were the leader of the pack. 

Big love to you and Linda.

*– Sue Morrow, Editor, News Photographer Magazine*

*Luster on the backside of the Churchill Downs photographing morning exercises. He knew all the horses and the riders. Video clip by Sue Morrow*

### — 30 —

Two-time Pulitzer winner, past NPPA president, Sprague and Costa recipient, dies at 80. He was beloved — stories by his friends. 


Bill Luster:  Nov. 8, 1944 - May 29, 2025

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Two-time Pulitzer winner, past NPPA president, Sprague and Costa recipient, dies at 80. He was beloved — stories by his friends. 

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### JACK CORN 1929 - 2025

##### "Along with Bob Adams and Jim Ausenbaugh, Jack Corn was one of my most influential mentors at WKU. He was an amazing journalist, photographer and friend who influenced so many people. I will always cherish his friendship." *- Tom Eblen, writer*

##### “Jack was instrumental in my career - he believed in me, got me hired at the Chicago Tribune, and was instrumental in the WKU job as well. I never had him for a class, and I never worked for him - he was always one step ahead of me!” - *Tim Broekema, Professor, WKU Visual Journalism & Photography, School of Media & Communication*


##### I only knew Jack Corn by reputation through my professors at Indiana University in the mid-to-late 1980s. They were all peas in a pod who knew one another, had worked together in the classic midwestern newsrooms of the day. They shared a vision and purpose: advocate for photographs and photojournalists. Jack represented staunch advocacy for photojournalism, and like his peers, he thankfully landed in education, where hundreds of students learned from his wisdom and caring. Social media descriptions use words like "cherished" and phrases such as "instrumental to my career" to describe Jack Corn. He was a giant, another one of our legacy professionals who lived their life fully and completely. He is missed.

Jack Corn's detailed biography, as listed on his website, is below. The list is long and impressive. Numerous awards recognized his dedication to the NPPA. 

*– Sue Morrow, Editor, News Photographer Magazine*


![Jack_Corn 4z.jpeg](https://d3dv5x9lc36tse.cloudfront.net/Jack_Corn_4z_29950d6594.jpeg)

### The legacy of Jack Corn has touched the lives of many people.
  
Retired from Western Kentucky University Journalism program as Professional Photojournalist-in-Residence from 1990 to 1995. Recognized by the Board of Regents as Photojournalism Professional-in-Residence of Journalism, Emeritus, effective Oct. 26, 2004. 
 
Director of Photography, Chicago Tribune, 1984-1991. During this time, the Tribune began using editorial color on a daily basis and became the first paper in the USA to move electronic images for daily production. Managed a staff of 55 to 60 people, including photographers, assignments editors, darkroom personnel and picture editors. Attended news and planning meetings including the main front page meeting. Planned, directed and budgeted the local, national and international photographic coverage for the daily and 1,200,000 Sunday circulation Chicago Tribune.
 
Professional Photojournalist-in-Residence, Western Kentucky University, Department of Journalism, seven years.
 
Chief Photographer and Picture Editor, The Tennessean, two years.
 
Staff Photographer, The Tennessean, 21 years.
 
Teacher, Nashville State Technical Institute, photography classes, part-time.
 
Freelance assignments for major publications, including The New York Times, Time magazine,  USIA, Philadelphia Inquirer, Newsweek, U.S. News and World Report, Boy’s Life, and the Louisville Courier-Journal. He was also published in several hundred textbooks, anthologies, and foreign publications.
 
### Honors and Awards

**1995  Joseph A. Sprague Memorial Award** from the National Press Photographers Association,  “In recognition of his outstanding lifelong achievements as a photographer, editor and educator,  and for his tireless devotion and leadership in the photojournalism community.”  This is the association’s highest award.
 
**1993 Robin F. Garland Educator Award** from the National Press Photographers Association.  “In recognition of a lifetime of selflessly sharing his exceptional knowledge and skills in the field of photojournalism with those who follow in his footsteps.”
 
**1983  Joseph Costa Award** from the National Press Photographers Association.  “For the most outstanding initiative, leadership and service in advancing the goals of NPPA in the tradition of Joseph Costa, a Founder and First President of NPPA.”
 
**1977  University of Missouri, National Press Photographers, Nikon,  “World Understanding Through Photography”**, special judge’s recognition for photographs of Appalachia.

**1974  Wilson Hicks International Conference for Visual Communication Award** at the University of Miami for “Excellence in Reporting with a Still Camera”.  Awarded for three photo stories including; “A Prostitute’s Daughter”;  “Chuck, A Retarded Child” ;  “A Black Family on Welfare.”
 
Local, national or international awards every professional year from 1955 to 1977 while working as a photojournalist.
 
### Discipline-oriented Public Services Activities
 
**Served four years on NPPA** board of directors as Region Six (Southeast) representative 1972-1976.
 
Founded with Ken Cooke and the Atlanta Press Photographers Association and the Atlanta Photojournalism Seminar in 1972.
 
National Chairman, NPPA Education Committee and Chairman of the five-city, 35-member staff and faculty, the Flying Short Course, 1982 to 1985.
 
Faculty, Maine Photographic Workshop 1987 through 1990
 
Faculty, Santa Fe Photographic Workshop, 1990
 
**Founder of Western Kentucky University’s Mountain People’s Workshop in 1978**. He served as a faculty member from 1978 to 1983 and visiting faculty member ‘84; ‘86; ‘87; ‘88; and ‘90 through ‘98
 
With Jim Dooley, Newsday, Long Island, New York, he founded and co-chaired the first **Electronic Pictures Editor’s Conference** in Chicago, 1985
 
Judged yearly photojournalism contests in many state associations. Judged the White House Press Photographers Association twice, the Pictures of the Year Contest at the University of Missouri and World Press in New York. In 1989, the W. Eugene Smith International Contest for a $15,000 memorial grant for a photographer’s continuing project.
 
1984 to 1990 A consultant to several European and American newspapers on the electronic picture desk, the use of color photography, computers, captions and film filing in daily papers.
 
**October 1990**  Participant in the first Soviet-American Photojournalism Conference in Moscow and Tbilisi with photo editors and photographers from major American newspapers, magazines, wire services and TASS staff members and the Union of Soviet Photographers.
 
**October 1991** Participant in the second Soviet-American Photojournalism Conference in Washington, D.C. with photo editors and photographers from major American and Soviet newspapers, magazines, wire services. Each participant brought a Soviet photojournalist back to their workplace. A Russian photo editor visited his home and spent three days at Western Kentucky University, talking with journalism students and faculty.
 
**March 2007**  Photography coach for Western Kentucky University Photojournalism Department, Appalachian Culture Workshop in Whitesburg, Kentucky.
 
### Major Speeches
 
NPPA Flying Short Course, 1968, 1972
 
Wilson Hicks Conference at the University of Miami, 1974
 
Southern Short Course, Atlanta Seminar, numerous state, regional and educational institutions in USA and Canada.
 
American Press Institute; Orlando Color Workshop for Southern Newspaper Publishers Association
 
American Society of Newspaper Publishers, Los Vegas, 1987
 
American Society of Newspaper Editors, Washington, DC 1989
 
Bibliography of Major Publications and Creative Activities
 
1973  “Documerica Project”,  Coal mining and the American Landscape.
 
26 pages of photographs in the book, Photojournalism 1977.
 
1979  “Presidents Commission on Coal”, one of four photojournalists on a documentary book for President Jimmy Carter.
 
Day in the Life of Australia, contributing photojournalist, picture editor, 1981.
 
Day in the Life of Canada, Director of Photography, contributing photojournalist, picture editor, 1984.
 
Day in the Life of Japan, contributing photojournalist, 1986.
 
Day in the Life of California, contributing photojournalist, 1988.
 
### Major Shows
 
1968 Parthenon, Nashville, TN, “The Valley of Despair”, one man show.
 
1975 Nashville Tech, “People Not Looked At”, one man show.
 
1980 Cheekwood Art Gallery, Nashville TN, “Perceptions and Conceptions”, one man show.
 
1982 Western Kentucky University Art Gallery, “Perceptions and Conceptions”, one man show.
 
1984 Chicago, IL, “Five Realities”, show with four other Chicago photojournalists.
 
1995 Hendersonville, TN Art Gallery, retrospect show
 
2010 Goodlettsville, TN City Hall, One man show
 
2011Goodlettsville, TN City Hall, One man show, “Painting With Light”
 
### Military Service
 
Attended U.S. Air Force Photo School at Lowery AFB in Denver, Colorado, while a member of the Tennessee National Guard.
 
Korean War Veteran, U.S. Air Force, two years.

### Obituary 

[WKU photojournalism professor Jack Corn dies at 96, leaves behind a legacy](https://wkuherald.com/85544/news/wku-photojournalism-professor-jack-corn-dies-at-96-leaves-behind-a-legacy/)


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*"I was a student and friend of Jack Corn’s. He meant so much to me and was like a second father to me in college. I was lucky enough to stay in touch with him through the years. I got to bring my kids to visit his beautiful wildflower sanctuary in 2015. I wanted to share a couple of photos of him as he hiked with my kids and a “selfie” of the two of us."  *-Mel True, former WKU student*

![Jack Corn Mel True.jpeg](https://d3dv5x9lc36tse.cloudfront.net/Jack_Corn_Mel_True_b6d3b7ccd6.jpeg)

![Jack Corn by Francis Gardler.jpg](https://d3dv5x9lc36tse.cloudfront.net/Jack_Corn_by_Francis_Gardler_9a9e505efd.jpg)*Jack Corn by Francis Gardler*

"The day before Jack Corn passed away, I was flying from Philadelphia back to Texas. As the plane crossed over Middle Tennessee, my thoughts drifted to the last time I saw Jack, back in June of 2019. It was a sunny day when I drove to Jack and Helen’s home in Goodlettsville. We had lunch together—simple sandwiches—and talked about life, what was happening in the world, and what still lay ahead.

"That quiet afternoon has stayed with me, especially because it reminded me of something Jack always told students at Western Kentucky University’s Mountain Workshop. He believed in starting every story with a shared meal or interaction. “Cut the deal,” he would say—not in a transactional way, but as a way to open up trust. Sit down. Talk. Let the person you’re going to photograph know who you are, and listen to who they are. That was the real beginning of storytelling.

"In that moment of remembrance, flying high above Tennessee, I felt Jack’s lesson again: that photography—and life—is about connection. And it often starts, just as it did that day in Goodlettsville, with a simple meal, honest conversation, and an open heart.

"As we stood by my car as I prepared to leave Jack gave me a hug and said, “Thanks for making my day, buddy.”

"Take care Mr. Corn, I’ll always remember you." *- Francis Gardler, photojournalist*



![Screen Shot 2018-06-14 at 10.41.30 PM.png](https://d3dv5x9lc36tse.cloudfront.net/Screen_Shot_2018_06_14_at_10_41_30_PM_aa024b0af6.png)
*Classic Jack Corn quote and stance.*

#### - 30 - 

The legacy of Jack Corn has touched the lives of many people.


Jack Corn: 1929-2025

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Jack Corn's legacy is rich. He had a profound impact on many in the photojournalism world. He was a celebrated NPPA leader, an awarded professional, and a talented professor at Western Kentucky University. He was 96.

We're so happy you're here.

Welcome to News Photographer Magazine.

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IN MEMORIAM

"I find the work exhilarating: placing bets on what will happen, seeing what action does occur, refining your assumptions, shaping the narrative and working under deadline. That process brings me joy." 

An interview with Cath Spangler:

#### *It’s my pleasure to introduce my friend, Cath Spangler. Cath and I met at Western Kentucky University’s Mountain Workshop in 2011. We also collaborated at The New Yorker. Cath has also worked at The New York Times and Vox, where she led a team of some of the best visual journalists in the business.* 

![MontgomeryCathSpangler-02.JPG](https://d3dv5x9lc36tse.cloudfront.net/Montgomery_Cath_Spangler_02_64cfca964c.JPG)
*Cath Spangler*

#### First, congratulations on your return to *The New York Times*. I know you started your career there as an intern and then as a video journalist. What’s it like to be back, and can you tell us about your new role as Senior Editor for visual storytelling?

Thank you for the kind wishes, Eric. It’s a real full-circle moment to return to the newsroom where I cut my teeth as a novice multimedia journalist. The photo desk created this new role in response to a need to be forward-thinking about how to blend visuals in ways that deepen our reporting, provide an immersive and transportive experience, and meet our audience where they’re at with mobile-friendly formats. Increasingly, visual journalists are shooting stills and video in the field, and it’s opening up so many possibilities for how we tell and present stories. I feel lucky that I get to touch a story at every stage in its life cycle, from conception to publication and beyond. Perhaps most importantly, my job allows me to remain in a kind of player/coach position, which is where I like to be because I am a very hands-on person.

#### Previously, you worked as an executive producer at Vox. How do you see the creative differences between doing production work yourself, as you originally did at the Times, and overseeing others who do so with you?

It’s true that at this point, I’ve taken a step back from the tactile parts of the process and am now responsible for empowering and inspiring others to do that work. But, I don’t actually see big creative differences between being a producer and being an executive producer. I think of production work as problem-solving. You have to grapple with different problems depending on your role in the process, but the fundamental approach of needing to find creative solutions remains the same. In doing the production work myself, my concerns were on the granular level, down to where to cut between frames. On the executive level, I’m considering the bigger picture, asking questions like, why is the story best told through this particular format, or how can we maximize audience impact? While the focus may shift from the micro to the macro, the work requires the same can-do attitude. One of the most valuable things I can do from the executive level is to remain at a distance so that I can bring fresh eyes to the storytelling. That can lead to unconventional feedback that pushes stories to be deeper and more resonant in surprising ways. 

#### In the most recent stage of your career, you’ve overseen teams of producers. What skills have been the most essential for your success when working with others?

In this field, we put so much focus on creative skills, but I think organizational skills are underrated. I am a big believer in planning because I’ve seen how effectively it can set you up to confront the messy parts of the creative process that are inevitable when you’re telling true stories. I rely heavily on spreadsheets and trackers that help me keep order so I can embrace the chaos. You can take risks and be more open to serendipity when you have that foundation. I also think communication skills are essential to success. Being able to clearly, concisely and effectively communicate ideas will remain a lifelong pursuit for me.

#### What kind of non-fiction stories interest you the most and how do you determine what is a story worth pursuing?

I’m interested in people, so I look for characters who have compelling personal histories or who are putting themselves in unusual situations. I’m also drawn to stories that make you feel something, whether that be joy, sadness or outrage. If a story makes you laugh or cry, then I feel I’ve done my job as a storyteller.

In terms of determining whether a story is worth pursuing, I work in visual mediums, so my first question is always: can I see the story? Can I see it in my mind’s eye? Of paramount importance is ensuring that we can show and not just tell. Then it becomes an evaluation process of determining the visual potential and then running with it. In some cases that might be unfolding action, in others that might be an ability to transport the viewer to a scene they wouldn’t normally be able to access. Lastly, as a journalist, I feel a responsibility to cover this moment in our history, so I am always screening for news value.

#### Why did you decide to become a visual storyteller?

That is a big question, and I don’t know if I have answers so much as theories. My childhood was very nomadic. I grew up moving every two years as the daughter of a U.S. foreign service officer. I think telling stories helped me make sense of the world from a very young age and satisfied my childhood curiosity. Being a visual journalist gives you license to be bold and ask questions that satisfy an itch. 

Another reason is that I just find the work exhilarating: placing bets on what will happen, seeing what action does occur, refining your assumptions, shaping the narrative and working under deadline. That process brings me joy.

#### We originally met at Mountain Workshop back in 2011. I believe you were still a student at the University of North Carolina. Fourteen years later, what advice would you give to your younger self?

Yes, we did! You gave a talk that I will never forget because it resonated so strongly with me as a student journalist. You spoke about not letting your fears get the best of you and taming that natural anxiety that tends to take hold, especially when you are starting out. In hindsight, I think that remains the perfect advice for my younger self. Don’t worry so much, don’t sweat the small stuff, don’t get paralyzed by fear. Just try to find what it is you love to do, then create as many opportunities to do it, and the rest will fall into place. It really is that simple. 

#### I know you’re a mom with a small child. I’m sure you are asked this question frequently, but for the other parents reading, how do you find balance in your life?

Thank you for asking this question. I have never been asked this before. It is such an ongoing process of discovery. Becoming a mom really taught me the value of every minute and made me ruthless with my time. Necessity is the mother of invention, and motherhood forced me to be efficient. I actively try to work on not overthinking things so that I can be more in the moment and be freed up to prioritize how I want to spend my time (whether it’s with my family or on a project that needs extra care). I don’t know if that gives me more balance, but it does give me a sense that I am in control and can choose where to spend my finite time.

#### Besides your professional career, are you involved in any other creative pursuits or hobbies? How do you recharge?

I’m afraid I am quite wedded to my work as this all-encompassing pursuit. Being a New Yorker, I walk a lot. It sounds basic, but I get a ton of ideas this way – it’s like my mind comes more alive when my legs are on autopilot. So I create reasons to walk for miles every day to have that unstructured time to let the ideas flow. If I’m trying to solve a problem, I’ll take a walk, and more often than not, I’ll come back with a solution.

#### What’s next for you?

 I’ll be sinking my teeth into my new role and seeing where I can make an impact with stories that move people. 

#### Where can people see your work?

I work mostly behind the scenes, but if you happen to notice a story that is weaving stills, motion and text on nytimes.com, I will most likely have touched it in some way. I share stories and sometimes pilot ideas on my personal Instagram account [@hellofromcath](https://www.instagram.com/hellofromcath/).

#### Story Links (viewing may require a NYT subscription)
[A Spa Day for Louis Before the Westminster Dog Show](https://www.nytimes.com/card/2025/02/10/style/westminister-dog-show-grooming-afghan-hound)
[Families Grieve as Funerals for Air India Crash Victims Begin](https://www.nytimes.com/card/2025/06/17/world/asia/funerals-begin-air-india-crash-ahmedabad?unlocked_article_code=1.RE8.AKxJ.TnpUs3-Rv5cH&smid=url-share)
[How NATO Prepares for Arctic Threats](https://www.nytimes.com/card/2025/05/23/world/europe/nato-arctic-military-drills?unlocked_article_code=1.RU8.8n_l.vooYsxyLc-yp&smid=url-share)
[Patrolling the High Arctic, Rifles and Snow Shoes at the Ready](https://www.nytimes.com/card/2025/05/31/world/americas/us-canada-nato-arctic?unlocked_article_code=1.RU8.AzXJ.ciCe-HvnCDWK&smid=url-share)
[Burned but Unbowed: A Hospital in Gaza Rises Again](https://www.nytimes.com/card/2025/03/06/world/middleeast/gaza-hospital-al-quds?unlocked_article_code=1.RU8.f4_K.sDcjgwD3lglm&smid=url-share)
[Behind the Oscars Red Carpet](https://www.nytimes.com/card/2025/03/02/arts/behind-the-oscars-red-carpet?unlocked_article_code=1.RU8.SopP.kRYEq_pkB5q8&smid=url-share)

#### Anything else you would like to add?

Thank you so much for forcing me to put my ideas to paper – as a visual person, I don’t do that as often as I should, and it’s always a helpful exercise. 

**Website** [cathspangler.com](https://cathspangler.com/)
**Instagram** [@hellofromcath](https://www.instagram.com/hellofromcath/)
**New York Times** [portfolio](https://www.nytimes.com/video/catherine-spangler) 

#### Biography
*Cath Spangler is an award-winning visual journalist based in New York City. She is a senior editor focused on multimedia storytelling at The New York Times, where she first cut her teeth in 2012. In between, she was an executive producer at Vox and had stints at The New Yorker and The Atlantic, specializing in handcrafted feature reporting.*








For the past four years, I’ve devoted this column, "It's a Process," primarily to my creative process. I’ve written about jealousy, working with limitations, how to keep going and more. Now it’s time to hear from others.

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IT'S A PROCESS

For the past four years, I’ve devoted this column, "It's a Process," primarily to my creative process. I’ve written about jealousy, working with limitations, how to keep going and more. Now it’s time to hear from others. 

A podcast conversation with NPPA Advocacy leaders Mickey Osterreicher and Alicia Calzada

Welcome to⁠ [The Visual Voice](https://nppa.org/magazine?page=standing-feature&categoryId=15)⁠ podcast. Your co-hosts are Lori King, editor-in-chief for the Toledo Free Press, and Sue Morrow, editor of NPPA's News Photographer magazine.

On this episode, we speak with NPPA’s advocacy team: General Counsel Mickey Osterreicher and Deputy General Counsel Alicia Calzada. Both bring significant photojournalism experience to the organization, offering guidance to members and helping them determine realistic expectations for a given situation. Alicia is a past NPPA president.

![Alicia)Mickey_ black background.jpg](https://d3dv5x9lc36tse.cloudfront.net/Alicia_Mickey_black_background_9a1a4b42e3.jpg) *Alicia Calzada and Mickey Osterreicher*

Mickey and Alicia were photographers who gravitated toward law to support our profession in key areas, such as First Amendment law, the right to document, copyright laws and training law enforcement on police-press relations. Their unflinching dedication to support NPPA has aided its members through tough legal situations, as journalists feel an assault on freedom of the press during this current political climate. 

“I really felt that photographers needed more advocates and more resources,” Calzada said. “I was doing a lot of advocacy work for photographers through NPPA, and part of that involved working with Mickey. I decided that I enjoyed advocacy as much as, if not more than, shooting business portraits.” 

The podcast consists of two parts: 

- First Amendment and the right to photograph and record, which includes discussions of drone photography
- Copyright, contracts and freelance information

The work Mickey and Alicia undertake involves monitoring legislation and often direct litigation on First Amendment rights. Their coalition-building efforts are broad and include other professional organizations whose values align with those of the NPPA.  

For updates on behind-the-scenes Advocacy work, bookmark the ⁠[Advocacy page](https://nppa.org/info/advocacy).⁠ 

We hope you enjoy the discussions. Thank you for listening.

**READING LIST**
[FILM Act](https://nppa.org/news/769)
[CASE Act](https://nppa.org/news/88)
NPPA’s case against [Texas drone rules](https://nppa.org/magazine/article/tim-tai-texas-drone-law-nppa)
NPPA supports the reintroduction of the [Journalist Protection Act](https://nppa.org/news/775)

The Visual Voice is the official podcast of [News Photographer Magazine](https://nppa.org/magazine), brought to you by the National Press Photographers Association.

For podcast story ideas, please contact News Photographer editor Sue Morrow at smorrow@nppa.org.

[JOIN](https://nppa.org/membership/benefits) the NPPA.

[DONATE](https://nppf.org/nppa-legal-advocacy-and-education/) to Advocacy.


Welcome to The Visual Voice Podcast, an NPPA’s News Photographer magazine production. Your co-hosts are Lori King, editor-in-chief, for the Toledo Free Press and Sue Morrow, editor of News Photographer magazine.

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THE VISUAL VOICE PODCAST

From the faculty and staff of the School of Journalism and Communication

"An open letter to our journalism students and the University of Oregon community." 

![UOCampus2.jpg](https://d3dv5x9lc36tse.cloudfront.net/UO_Campus2_a83ef5979d.jpg) *University of Oregon campus, January 2024. Photo by Will Yurman*


**The May 16th episode** of the [Ezra Klein podcast](https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/16/opinion/ezra-klein-podcast-marantz-beauchamp.html) discussed whether the United States is sliding into authoritarianism. What does it say that a mainstream news organization is giving space and time to this topic?

The question becomes, how do we as journalists face this time? And as journalism educators, what do we say to our students and our community?

The letter below, “An open letter to our journalism students and the University of Oregon community from faculty and staff of the School of Journalism and Communication,” was written after many faculty meetings and hallway conversations among the journalism faculty at the University of Oregon.

We did not want to make a performative act. The letter is not, should not, be the only action we take. We hope it is one of many actions that demonstrates our commitment to a free press and a robust, thriving journalism profession. More needs to be done.

But we also think that speaking out loud. Publicly. Matters.

We were driven by the desire to signal to our students that what they do is important — and more important now. We want to be a small voice in what we hope becomes a loud choir, standing up to the assault on the First Amendment. 

We plan to offer this letter to publications at the [local, regional](https://eugeneweekly.com/2025/05/22/journalism-under-attack/) and national level. We view it as a demonstration of support for our students and as a call to action for our community.  

*– Will Yurman, instructor at the School of Journalism and Communication at the University of Oregon, and long-time NPPA member. He can be reached at Yurman@uoregon.edu*

*(Download the letter below.)*

### An open letter to our journalism students and the University of Oregon community from faculty and staff of the School of Journalism and Communication.

May 19, 2025

Dear students, colleagues and our community,

Journalism and freedom of speech are under attack. We write this letter as proud faculty and staff in the School of Journalism and Communication at the University of Oregon who feel the urgency of the times. These are not isolated events, anomalies in an otherwise functioning system. These are systemic and systematic attacks on the First Amendment by our own government. 

In recent months, the administration has targeted journalism. Lawsuits are in motion against “60 Minutes,” the “Des Moines Register,” and the Pulitzer Prize Board while the Associated Press was banned from the White House for refusing to change the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America. Voice of America has been gutted, and an executive order would defund the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Our political leaders have set a tone of accusation and denial, and the label “fake news” has normalized open hostility against journalism and journalists.
 
Large corporations have the choice whether to fight or acquiesce. But these attacks chill the broader journalism landscape, pressuring local news organizations to make choices about whether to publish news that risks lawsuits and costly legal action.
 
Rümeysa Öztürk, a Tufts University Ph.D. student, was arrested by plainclothes ICE agents on the streets of Boston on March 26 and was held in a Louisiana detention center for the act of writing an op-ed in her college newspaper. After six weeks in detention, a federal court ordered her release.

From the highest offices of our government, we’ve heard rhetoric that characterizes journalists not as citizens doing the hard work of democracy, but as enemies to be discredited. And this rhetoric has spread to state and local government leaders, a contagious disease in a country that has lost its herd immunity. 

Let us be clear: These actions are not political disagreements or critiques of coverage. They are threats—direct and indirect—to the constitutional foundation of our democracy. You do not have to like what journalists report to support their right to publish. 

As teachers and staff, we train our students to report honestly, think critically and serve the public good. As a university community, we are charged with nurturing free inquiry, principled debate and the exchange of ideas across differences. These values are not partisan. They are democratic.
To our journalism students: Your work matters. You are carrying on the essential, often risky work of bearing witness and seeking truth. Journalism is not an act of compliance. It is an act of responsibility. 

To our community: A free press is not a luxury. It is a safeguard. At its best, it holds power accountable, exposes injustice, and helps us understand one another. It is a check against the excesses of governments and corporations. To weaken it—whether through legal intimidation, rhetorical attacks or bureaucratic roadblocks—is to weaken the public’s ability to know, to question and to decide.

Silence is not neutrality. In moments like this, we must affirm, clearly and unapologetically: The role of journalism is essential. The right to report, to question and to publish is not a privilege granted by the government. It is a right enshrined in the First Amendment and defended by generations who came before us.

Respectfully,
Faculty and staff in the School of Journalism and Communication at the University of Oregon

*Charles Butler, professor of practice •Christopher Chávez, professor • Ari Coburn, development program coordinator • Alex Segrè Cohen, assistant professor • Nicole Dahmen, professor • Andrew DeVigal, director, Agora Journalism Center • Therese Devoe, building & operations manager • Torsten Kjellstrand, journalist • David Koranda, professor of practice emeritus • Peter David Laufer, James Wallace Chair, professor • Dr. Regina G. Lawrence, associate dean and professor • Tai Le, communications & events assistant • Ed Madison, associate professor • Nick Mahlum, SOJC academic affairs project manager • Karen McIntyre, assistant professor • Joey McMurry, instructor • Annie McVay, graduate programs assistant • Juan-Carlos Molleda, dean and professor • Daniel D. Morrison, professor of practice • Deborah Morrison, Ph.D., professor, associate dean • Camilla Mortensen, Ph.D., instructor, Eugene Weekly editor • Hailey Nailor, career & academic advisor • Julianne Newton, professor and doctoral program director • Sung Park, professor of practice • Kym Rohman, instructor • Lori Shontz, professor of practice • H. Leslie Steeves, professor • John Sutter, assistant professor • Brent Walth, associate professor • Christine Wise, professor of practice • Will Yurman, instructor •*

[Download the letter](https://d3dv5x9lc36tse.cloudfront.net/Uof_Oregon_SOJC_Faculty_Letteron_Free_Speech_Will_Yurman_May_2025_docx_51a99927b4.pdf)

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GUEST OPINION

The need for content provenance is driving development of new standards, technology

Necessary proof: Photojournalism's challenge in the age of AI

The need for content provenance is driving development of new standards, technology


Necessary proof: Photojournalism's challenge in the age of AI




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The need for content provenance is driving development of new standards, technology




Necessary proof: Photojournalism's challenge in the age of AI



"The Best of Photojournalism 2024" inspired NPPA member Bob Scott to write about photojournalism in a recent column.

##### NPPA member Bob Scott is a weekly columnist for the Franklin Press in Franklin, North Carolina. When the "The Best of Photojournalism 2024" book arrived in the mail, it inspired him to write about photojournalism in a recent column. The annual 200-page book is an NPPA member benefit. 

##### “The people of Franklin will get a feeling of what photography in the media means to its readers,” Bob wrote. 

##### Thank you, Bob!

![BOP_cover_2024_John Moore.jpg](https://d3dv5x9lc36tse.cloudfront.net/BOP_cover_2024_John_Moore_083cbfbf13.jpg)
*Photo by John Moore, Getty Images*

### My copy of the NPPA’s “The Best of Photojournalism 2024” arrived in the mail. 

In my opinion, there has never been a medium that reveals life-- or has had a greater influence on humankind than photography. It beats the artist’s brushes for authenticity. Sometimes it can be shocking in its grittiness. Sometimes entertaining. But always realism.

In today’s world, anyone with a smartphone can take pictures. Pointing a cell phone and pushing a button is not the same as paying attention to light, shadow, the moment in which to click the shutter. Telling a story. But to the narcissist, it is great for a “selfie” to grace Facebook with a vain mug shot.

Photography can save us. It is personal as it brings us wars, famines, floods, the bombing of children, and the destruction of our environment. Nonetheless, it also brings us together as we see our children playing on a swing, our little leaguers, our politicians, and reunions, our worship. Long-deceased family members in picture frames smile at us. A grinning child who won a spelling bee. Or when an itinerant man took our picture as we sat on a pony for a dollar.

Who among us remembers snuggling up with a girl or boyfriend in a photo booth? Acting silly.  Or maybe we were not acting.

Your first camera was probably a Brownie Hawk Eye and flash bulbs. Or the magic of Polaroid before digital cameras. It spit out a 2 X 2-inch photo that developed as you watched, and then you rubbed some kind of goo on it to stop it from fading.  

Matthew Brady and other photographers of the time gifted us a graphic visual record of the horrors of the Civil War. Or how photos of emaciated and dirty children brought about child labor laws? Or the 1936 photo of a migrant mother staring blankly into space, holding her child during the Great Depression. 

Or the photo of bodies from the 1911 Triangle Shirt Fire that prodded politicians to come up with safety regulations for sweatshops. Or a scarred and burned child on a street bombed out in Shanghai in 1937. Or the feeling of patriotism at seeing Joe Rosenthal’s 1945 photo of Marines raising the flag on Iwo Jima. 

The photos of the carnage in Vietnam and film on the nightly news brought the Vietnam War into our living rooms. As did the protests of that war. Those images played a role in bringing it to a close.

There are hundreds of these photos. On the pages of newspapers in rural and metropolitan areas.

Getting back to last year’s best photos from 2024, here are a few that influenced us. 

My favorite photos of the year were “Katie & Matt.” Two young adults with Down syndrome who have been dating since 2022, following the pandemic shutdowns. Katie, 27, and Matt, 31, brought their life to us in a series of photos in The Frederick (Maryland) News-Post. Katina Zentz carried away the Best in Still Photojournalism (in the Community division). 

Another photo story was about a family living in a vehicle that they park from parking lot to parking lot, looking for safe places to spend nights and where the police would not ticket them. Their son is photographed playing with his toy dinosaur. Their life was laid bare in photos (by Carlos Rosillo, First Place, Cliff Edom New America Award). 

Wonderful photos of sporting events. The joy of winning and the drudgery of defeat.  

Many of last year’s outstanding photos were from the war in Gaza. 

Photography documents the world, preserves our memories, and lets us understand what others’ experiences are like. It has proven itself as an artistic tool when bringing about social change, fostering understanding and empathy toward others. It connects us to the people and events we will never face personally. It captures the beauty and wonder of the natural world. 

*Bob Scott is a Franklin. N.C. writer and photographer.  He can be reached at scoopscott79@gmail.com*

*“I began photography in 1952 with a Brownie Hawk Eye. I was the college yearbook and newspaper photographer in 1960 at Brevard College and did some photography for the Transylvania Times weekly. From there to interning at the Greenville, S.C. News Piedmont while attending Furman University. Then, I went to the State Record in Columbia, S.C., Asheville, N.C. Citizen-Times. Then, I made a giant career change and became a law enforcement officer. After retirement, I got into politics and served four terms as mayor of Franklin. After retiring, I returned to being a freelance writer and photographer. I also served as a photo officer/ PIO in the National Guard and Army Reserve. If that sounds like a lot, it is. I am 84 and still chasing fire trucks and ambulances. I do a regular general interest/humor column for the Franklin Press. I also do freelance photography for the Smoky Mountain News in Waynesville, N.C., and any other publication I can con. My Facebook page is LIFE in Franklin, NC. I describe myself as an obnoxious, old shoe leather news photographer.”* 

[The Franklin Press](https://www.thefranklinpress.com/)
Publisher rhoskins@thefranklinpress.com
Editor moverton@thefranklinpress.com 

#### The Best of Photojournalism book is a benefit of being an NPPA member. [It can also be purchased.](https://nppa.org/news/777) 

#### Best of Photojournalism Galleries
[2025](https://bop.nppa.org/2025/)
[2024](https://bop.nppa.org/2024/)
[2023](https://bop.nppa.org/2023/)
[2022](https://bop.nppa.org/2022/)
[2021](https://bop.nppa.org/2021/)







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#### "I think it's important to stay humble, never stop learning, don't become complacent, push yourself to be better every day, and treat everyone with respect." - *Amanda Cowan, Northwest Region POY 2024, The Columbian*

Congratulations to the 2024 Regional Photographers of the Year in the Regional Monthly News Still Clips Contest. “The Clips” differs from winning other annual contests. A photojournalist must impress as many as a dozen different panels of judges over a year and produce work month after month to be named Regional Photographer of the Year.

There are nine NPPA regions. Seven newly minted winners joined two repeat winners from 2024: New England’s Marc Vasconcellos and Central’s John Hart. Co-chairs Pu Ying Huang and Sean Elliot [announced the results Feb. 17, 2025.](https://nppa.org/news/755)

Again this year, I asked each photographer to tell us about their year and share the stories behind their pictures. This is one of my favorite packages to compile. The work celebrates what we value about photojournalism: life’s fleeting moments, community and storytelling.

- *Central: John Hart, Wisconsin State Journal 
- Mid-Atlantic: Billy Schuerman, The Virginian-Pilot 
- Midwest: Denny Simmons, The Tennessean 
- *New England: Marc Vasconcellos, The Enterprise of Brockton 
- Northwest: Amanda Cowan, The Columbian 
- NY/International: Rodrigo Abd, Associated Press 
- South: Chancey Bush, Albuquerque Tribune 
- Southeast: Corey Perrine, The Florida Times-Union 
- West: Terry Pierson, The Press Enterprise

**Denotes repeat top finish.*

The co-chairs would like to thank everyone who participated in The Clips for 2024, with special thanks to the Regional Clips Chairs: Peggy Bair (Central), MaCabe Brown (Midwest), Joe Lamberti (mid-Atlantic), Wes Bunnell (New England), Monique Woo (NY/International), Meegan Reid (Northwest), Allison Lee Isley (Southeast), Rick Choate (South), and Jane Tyska (West), for all their hard work, and to all those volunteer judges who took the time and met the deadlines to keep the competition on schedule. The Clips is a grassroots effort and a community effort, and everyone who participates contributes to the success of the competition and the NPPA.

For more information about The Clips, [read the Q&A](https://nppa.org/magazine/article/the-clips-q-and-a-2024) with co-chairs Sean Elliot and Pu Ying Huang. If you would like to volunteer, please contact Sean Elliot at clipcontest@nppa.org.

*– Sue Morrow, Editor, News Photographer Magazine*

#### Past Showcase links:
[2023](https://nppa.org/magazine/article/2023-regional-photographers-of-the-year)
[2022](https://nppa.org/magazine/article/2022-regional-photographer-of-the-year)




Showcase: 2024 Regional Photographers of the Year

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Congratulations to the 2024 Regional Photographers of the Year in the Monthly News Still Clips Contest!

A podcast conversation with Eugene Richards, featuring his new book, "Do I Know You?" 

Welcome to [The Visual Voice](https://nppa.org/magazine?page=standing-feature&categoryId=15) podcast. Your co-hosts are Lori King, editor-in-chief, for the Toledo Free Press and Sue Morrow, editor of NPPA's News Photographer magazine.

On this episode, we speak with iconic photographer, filmmaker, educator and author [Eugene Richards,](https://eugenerichards.com/) on a snowy day in February.

![Eugene Richards copy.jpg](https://d3dv5x9lc36tse.cloudfront.net/Eugene_Richards_copy_a00d0062af.jpg) 
Listen as the Massachusetts native talks about the gritty, haunting and intimate photographs he's captured throughout his long and illustrious career.

Richards discusses aging and memory loss, advising photographers to "go out there without preconceived ideas" of what they might find and the problem with "collaborative photography." Listen as he reads a passage from "Do I Know You?" and view a selection of photographs from the book below.

He has published 22 books, and we will discuss two of them: "The Knife and Gun Club" and his most recent, "Do I Know You?", which is a "compendium of 24 photographic and textual stories that speak of the diversity of America, of survival, the shadows cast by slavery, crime, imprisonment, blind hatred, incomprehensible loss, the longing for love and what it means to be beautiful."

His work has been showcased in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Museum of the City of New York, George Eastman Museum, and the International Center of Photography, to name a few.

To see Eugene Richards' work, visit [eugenerichards.com](https://eugenerichards.com/)⁠.
To purchase ["Do I know You?"](https://eugenerichards.com/store/do-i-know-you)

The Visual Voice is the official podcast of [News Photographer Magazine](https://nppa.org/magazine), brought to you by the National Press Photographers Association.

For podcast story ideas, please contact News Photographer editor Sue Morrow at smorrow@nppa.org.

![EugeneRichards_DoIKnowYou_Cover.jpg](https://d3dv5x9lc36tse.cloudfront.net/Eugene_Richards_Do_I_Know_You_Cover_53ba36a163.jpg)



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February 24, 2025

By Lori King

On this episode of [The Visual Voice](https://nppa.org/magazine?page=standing-feature&categoryId=15) podcast, co-hosts Lori King and Sue Morrow speak with Mexican-American documentary photographer Zaydee Sánchez, who learned from a phone call on Jan. 3 that she was awarded an unrestricted cash prize of $100,000.

Sánchez won the prestigious⁠ [American Mosaic Journalism $100K Prize](https://www.hsfoundation.org/programs/community-and-opportunity/journalism/prize/)⁠ for her coverage of migrant farmers and transgender Latinx groups. Growing up in California’s San Joaquin Valley, she was exposed to farmworkers and gender and environmental racism, which has shaped her identity and photojournalism.

On the podcast, Sánchez describes her reaction when she learned she had won the monetary prize and what she plans to initially do with it. She also talks about the value of finding mentors and community support, which has been instrumental in her successful freelancing career and shares her experience of covering the aftermath of the Los Angeles fires.

The Heising-Simons Foundation recognizes outstanding freelance journalists who lift up the diversity of the human experience. A national panel of media judges from outlets such as the Columbia Journalism Review, Associated Press, and NPR selected Sánchez for her powerful coverage of laborers and migration across the Southern border.

Sánchez is the third photographer to receive the award. [Tamir Kalifa](https://nppa.org/magazine/article/visual-voice-podcast-tamir-kalifa) was the 2024 recipient, and [Ryan Christopher Jones](http://www.ryanchristopherjones.com) was the first in 2022.

To view more of Sánchez's work, go to ⁠[zaydeesanchez.com⁠.](https://www.zaydeesanchez.com/)

[The Visual Voice is the official podcast of News Photographer Magazine](https://nppa.org/magazine?page=standing-feature&categoryId=15) brought to you by the National Press Photographers Association.

For podcast story ideas, please contact News Photographer editor Sue Morrow at smorrow@nppa.org.


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*Photo by Kat Contreras*

**Zaydee Sánchez** is a Mexican-American documentary photographer and writer originally from Tulare, California, an agricultural town in the San Joaquin Valley that inspires much of her work. She focuses on labor workers, the environment, and migration. She gravitates towards long-form stories that aim to inform, connect, heal, and highlight the resilience of humanity. 

Zaydee is a recipient of the [2025 American Mosaic Journalism Prize,](https://www.hsfoundation.org/awardee/zaydee-sanchez/) where a panel of anonymous judges recognized her “poignant coverage of farm workers, migrants, and transgender Latine groups.” She proudly serves on the Visual Task Force board of the National Association for Hispanic Journalists. Her photography and words have been published in The New York Times, ProPublica, The Wall Street Journal, National Geographic, and Palabra and others.

#### [Instagram](https://www.instagram.com/zaydee.s/)
#### [Website](https://www.zaydeesanchez.com/) 

![zaydee-grapevine012825-katcontreras-7.JPG](https://d3dv5x9lc36tse.cloudfront.net/zaydee_grapevine012825_katcontreras_7_d386f819cb.JPG)
*Zaydee Sánchez in Grapevine, California. Photo by Kat Contreras*

#### About the American Mosaic Journalism Prize
The [Heising-Simons Foundation](https://www.hsfoundation.org/) launched the American Mosaic Journalism Prize in 2018 as part of its work supporting journalism as a critical element of a healthy and multicultural democracy. It is part of a portfolio of journalism grants supporting and elevating underrepresented voices, groups, and content in journalism, which includes support of TransLash, Futuro Media, Journal-isms, The 19th and Radio Ambulante, among others. 




Welcome to The Visual Voice Podcast, an NPPA News Photographer magazine production. Your co-hosts are Lori King, editor-in-chief of the Toledo Free Press,   and Sue Morrow, editor of News Photographer magazine.

Zaydee Sánchez, recipient of the Heising-Simons Foundation's $100K American Mosaic Journalism Prize⁠ 