Photojournalism: The Chameleon's Approach


Acquire a working base line for any photographic challenge that might arise in the field

©SuarezEvery day in the life of a photojournalist is a new opportunity, a new challenge. The goal of this workshop is to teach participants to think on their feet, to adapt and to start thinking like a photojournalist. Providing a working base line for any photographic challenge that might arise in the field, this workshop teaches aspiring journalists to think like pros in the industry.

Students discover their ability to visually process information to their advantage, finding beauty in daily life by focusing on the elusive yet ubiquitous moments. In addition, participants learn how to use light as another storytelling tool, deciphering when to use natural light and when to take control by utilizing additional light sources. 

Each day new topics are explored including portraits, features (a.k.a. stand-alone art in the newspaper lingo), documentary photography, travel and landscape. Discussions are taken into the field in the form of daily shooting assignments.

As the average journalist may not necessarily have a choice regarding what their daily assignments are, students learn to remain flexible when presented with assignments. Everyday is a new challenge. Photographers must adapt and keep moving forward while meeting deadlines and creating interesting images that catches the viewer’s eye. Students strive for an opportunity, challenge, balance and visual voice.

Instructors

Essdras Suarez

©suarezEssdras M. Suarez was born in Panama City, Panama. He graduated with a degree in Journalism specializing in photojournalism at the University of Florida .

While pursuing his photojournalism degree, he worked as an assistant/intern for National Geographic while on assignment in Central and South America, with the Fort Lauderdale Sun Sentinel and the Rocky Mountain News in Denver, Colorado. As a photographer for Rocky, Essdras shared the 2000 Spot News Pulitzer with his coverage of the Columbine Massacre of 1999. That same year he was the recipient of a Robert F. Kennedy International Photojournalism award ,a Headliner Award Feature Photography award and a News Press Photographer Association award for his story called “Osveli’s Journey” in which he documented the story of a 14-year old Guatemalan boy who died in a car accident while being smuggled into the US.

Throughout his 14-year professional career as a photojournalist, Essdras has received awards by the Colorado Press Association, Boston Press Photographer’s Association, the Society of Newspaper Design, the Thomas Lowell Travel Writer’s Association and a second Headliner national award.  Recently, Essdras won top honors from the Association of Editors & Publishers for the past two years.

Among his international news assignments, Essdras has covered the war in Iraq, the Indonesia tsunami aftermath, the 2004 Haitian coup with president Jean Bertrand Aristide, the Gaza strip evacuation in Israel and the re-patriation of nuclear material from Romania to Russia.

He was hired at the Boston Globe in 2002 where he still works as a staff photographer. While there he has developed a niche in travel photojournalism. These assignments have taken him throughout the world to the African desert, the Russian tundra and the tropical jungles of South East Asia.

Essdras has recently been focusing his attention on teaching photojournalism and photography workshops in New England , Costa Rica, Panama and El Salvador.