UNION — This week, one Franklin County town is a training ground for photojournalists from around the world.
Union is hosting the Missouri Photo Workshop for its 77th anniversary. The program was founded in 1949 with the goal to “show truth with a camera” by documenting small-town Missouri.
The workshop’s founders created the gathering with deep roots. Clifton C. Edom, a photo professor at the University of Missouri; U.S. Farm Security Administration Director Roy Stryker, and photographer Russell Lee wanted to provide a workshop that would teach students the art of creating images like those “gritty, content-rich photographs” made by the photo unit of the pre-World War II FSA.
“Now, we have one of the largest continuing archives of what rural Missouri looks like,” said Brian Kratzer, the workshop’s director, “maybe the [largest] continuum of visuals of the changing face of small-town America.”
The idea is simple: Source, pitch and empathetically document one story over the span of a week with coaching from industry-leading photojournalists and editors. The catch? Each photographer has only 400 frames to do so — no deleting allowed.
Over the years, students have argued this is one of the most challenging aspects of the workshop in an era when memory cards can hold thousands of images.
Grace Smith, a photojournalist with the Indianapolis Star, is one of the 38 visual storytellers in this year’s edition of the workshop. She is documenting the relationship between a pair of twin sisters who are avid soccer players and members of the local high school marching band.
"It's been inspiring,” she said. “I think the most important thing is that no matter where you're from — if you're in rural Missouri or if you're in Indianapolis like me — you have a story. ”
This year’s program participants also include former STLPR photojournalist Eric Lee, former visuals intern Lylee Gibbs and Belleville News-Democrat photojournalist Josh Carter.
Union is hosting the Missouri Photo Workshop for the first time — the 53rd new town in 77 years.
James Schmieder, Union’s assistant city administrator, said it’s an honor for his community to be included. “It’s a piece of history,” he said. “I hope that they find what they were looking for, but also maybe something that challenges those preconceived notions of what they were expecting.”
Kratzer said one of the hopes of the program is to help people understand how nuanced and nonstereotypical small towns can be, adding that the program exemplifies what community journalism can look like.
“By slowing down and really concentrating on the person and the relationship in front of you, I think it redefines for many people throughout rural America what good and honest journalism looks like,” Kratzer said. “It's no longer the journalist’s story. It is that resident’s story, and it is a huge responsibility for that photojournalist to tell that story with pure honesty and empathy.”
The students’ work will be displayed in a public exhibit from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday at the Union City Auditorium, 500 E. Locust St. in Union.
