The lifelong course that is photojournalism.
Over the last fifteen years I have been actively involved in supporting and educating photojournalists around the world. FiftyCrows Foundation, which I founded in 2001, evolved the International Fund for Documentary Photography (started by Kerry Tremain at MotherJones with photographers Ken Light and Michelle Vignes, and with the tremendous guidance and support of Marc Riboud and Sebastião Salgado). Part of the evolution was that the awards included education and truly supporting the emerging photographer with the tools s/he needed to build their career.
A few years later I would assist National Geographic Fellow and world-renowned photographer Chris Rainier in the development of the All Roads Photography Awards. From the start, the All Roads programs had education at its core bringing in some of the masters of the industry to aid the winners in further understanding of how things work best. Mary Virginia Swanson, Shahidul Alam, Reza and NatGeo Traveler's Dan Westergren. The winners received a cash grant, but it was the two weeks in DC, NYC, San Francisco and Los Angeles that really helped shape minds and careers. I taught a day long course on marketing which included them having a new website by the end of the day, we travelled to meet with leading editors for portfolio reviews, I set them up to present at Stanford's Aurora Forum, and had exhibitions at FiftyCrows Gallery in San Francisco.
This past year I have been working with photographer, artist and entrepreneur Chase Jarvis with his company CreativeLive. To date, CreativeLive has streamed over 2 billion (with a B) minutes of learning to millions of creative people around the world. I paired my colleague at VII Photo with CreativeLive and the results are quite amazing. Ed Kashi has taught classes on the online platform to people all around the world. In his teaching, his giving back, is the gift of also learning from the students with whom they interact.
What amazes me his how much the industry continues to evolve, and how important it is to keep learning if you want to be able to remain relevant. In the past few weeks I have been schooled in new forms and methods of storytelling that we could have only dreamed of ten years ago - heck five years ago. The industry is far from dead or dying, rather it is exploding with possibility for those that continue to seek out and explore. Don't stop learning, experimenting or being curious! Your work is far too important.