It’s been a busy couple of days. First, my wife Carol received her Governor’s Award for Excellence in Teaching in Jefferson City, then it was up to Columbia to the Missouri School of Journalism for the dedication of the Angus and Betty McDougall Center for Photojournalism Studies, and the Cliff and Vi Edom Photo Lab. While I spoke briefly on the friendship that Carol and I had with the McDougalls at the dedication ceremony, photo editor veteran Rich Clarkson delivered an insightful keynote tribute to Angus and Betty McDougall, Cliff and Vi Edom and Brian Lanker.
It was exciting to see the McDougall Gallery packed with people for the formal opening. Currently, the work of Angus McDougall is on display. The exhibit, curated by Jim Curley, comprises of vintage prints from McDougall’s career at the Milwaukee Journal and International Harvester. For information on upcoming exhibits, contact McDougall Center for Photojournalism Studies Director, David Rees.
The center and lab dedication was followed by a day of presentations of POYi and CPOY winners in multimedia. New media guru Brian Storm of MediaStorm delivered an out of the park presentation on how to do multimedia right. While I’ve always been a believer in multimedia (even before it was electronic!), no one, until Brian could make the case to me that there was a workable business model for photographers. Brian’s talk covered everything including why you should want to use new media publishing for greater audience reach, how to tell stories through multimedia, how to get them published by leveraging social media, and a workable business strategy. It’s worth your time and effort if you ever have the opportunity hear him speak. I simply loved the idea of how he creates online auctions for the licensing of MediaStorm projects (creating a race to the top for pricing, instead of the race to the bottom seen today in photo agency negotiations), and using technology to create your own media viewer so you can let your work go viral, yet control where it appears along with the ability to collect 100% from pre-rolls. These were just a few of his insights. His takeaway piece of advice to the students was “Don’t be an ass-hole.” While it was said somewhat tongue in cheek, he was serious. The photojournalism community is relatively small. Bad karma WILL come back to bite you.
ABOVE: James Balog (center), an award winning nature and environmental photojournalist, answers questions from photojournalism students in the gallery of the Angus and Betty McDougall Center for Photojournalism Studies at the Missouri School of Journalism in Columbia, Missouri. Balog was at the university to receive a Missouri Honor Medal In recognition of three decades of using the photographic image to help the public understand the impact of environmental change. Balog is the founder and director of the Extreme Ice Survey (EIS) and the Earth Vision Trust. The visit by environmental photojournalist James Balog to the McDougall Center for Photojournalism Studies last fall is just one example of how photojournalism students at the Missouri School of Journalism will be able to interact and view the work of some of the best photojournalists in the world. The Center’s purpose “is to preserve for archival, research and educational use collections of photographs by newspaper, magazine and documentary photographers. It establishes the Missouri Photojournalism Archive, providing educational programming from the archive of Angus McDougall and other individual photographers, while sustaining and expanding educational efforts of existing Missouri programs, POYi (Pictures of the Year International), CPOY (College Photographer of the Year), MPW (Missouri Photo Workshop).