Arizona Republic staff photographer Patrick Shannahan spoke to our group today about some of the work he has been doing for his paper. When I first saw him I thought, "My lord, they sent us the high school intern!" Then I realized the truth - I am just getting that old.
I should probably not make such remarks - I do not mean to offend him. He has a youthfulness that was nice to see in a photojournalist. So often the proverbial old-timers in photojournalism like to sit and complain about how bad things are where they work. There is certainly a lot to complain about. Instead in Patrick I saw a spark of true passion for his work and pride in what he does, even after eight years at The Republic. Good for him.
Later in the day I heard ASU/Cronkite School of Journalism dean Christopher Callahan talked to our group about what makes a good journalist, and he said that an intelligent person with a high degree of intellectual curiosity would be ideal. That is the impression I got of Patrick Shannahan. Sometimes I hear about other photographers getting these great jobs with the big gun newspapers and I wonder why I never got one of those jobs. Then I meet the photographer who did and I see how well they fit and how they truly belong where they are and I know their editors made the right choice. I thought that when Mark Holm hired Craig Fritz to work at the now defunct Albuquerque Tribune, and I see the same thing with Shannahan. There is still a bright shining future for photojournalism - it just may need to be presented on something other then pulverized trees.
Jeff Jones
Miyamura High School
Gallup, NM
Posts
I do believe that this institute is stirring your photojournalist's passion, Jeff! Once again, your professionalism shines through by having the best photo on today's blog, but more importantly, maybe you can't teach an old dog too many new tricks, but would you say you CAN help him appreciate some of his old ones?
ReplyDeleteEven after only two short days, I think the institute has revived, awakened, and challenged all of our old tricks.
Jeff, I liked your perceptive comment about Shannahan, an "intelligent person with a high degree of intellectual curiosity."
ReplyDeleteI'd not connected Christopher Callahan's comments to Shannahan's work, but you really hit that squarely on the head!
I used that quote in the story we wrote this afternoon covering Callahan's speech. It really jumped out at me from my notes.
Mark Webber
Vidal M. Treviño School of Communications and Fine Arts
http://my.hsj.org/tx/laredo/vmt