Photojournalists work under the pressure of deadlines daily, using their skills to provide information to the public. Seven award-winning Utah based news photographers were given 48 hours to create a body of work that conveyed their interpretation of the Diane Arbus quote, “Nothing is ever the same as they said it was.”
“Self Assigned,” an exhibit showcasing the photographers’ work, will be on display in the Kimball Center’s Garage Gallery Oct. 8 through Nov. 21.
Developed by Kimball Art Center and Park Record photographer Erik Daenitz, the project tipped the scales back toward creativity and allowed these seven news photographers to pursue their own vision and tell their stories with appealing images rather than words.
Read more about the participating photographers below:
Photographer/videographer Erik Daenitz, who divides his time between the Kimball Art Center and The Park Record newspaper, helped create the concept for the project. “I was trying to adapt the framework of our newspaper jobs to create an opportunity to shoot something important, to show work that matters,” he says. This project carried some of the same constraints of photojournalism but abandoned others. “A self-imposed deadline and 48 hour window forced all of us to produce,” Erik says, “but normal visual rules imposed by newspapers were ignored to allow the photographers to interpret the world in their individual styles.” Erik has been interested in photography since he was eight years old, and he got his first SLR camera when he was twelve. His goal is to pursue larger documentary projects focusing on socially significant issues like religion, conflict, roles, the decline of empires, etc. and present them in nontraditional ways. “I’d also like to examine the world in a historical perspective,” he says, “contrasting how things change and how they stay the same.”
Djamila Grossman saw this project as a way to break away from the sometimes narrow themes of her photojournalism career at the Salt Lake Tribune. “Things aren’t always the way they seem, and that could apply to anything,” Djamila says. “The things I’m most attached to, like my job, sense of self, relationships, and life in general, are also the things I’m most worried about.” So, she photographed scenes that made her think of these things, and the images revealed the underlying issues and complexities not readily apparent on the surface.”We’re all newspaper people, and it’s easy to fall into a rut with our approaches to an assignment,” she says. “This helped us break away from the confines of habit.” Outside of her role as a Tribune photographer, Djamila is drawn to documentary work and multi-media projects.
Grayson West, a photojournalism major and history minor from San Jose State in California, interned at the Salt Lake Tribune during the 2002 Winter Olympics. He is part of the Salt City 50, a group of photographers that are focused on pushing the medium of photography in Utah. After a stint as a corporate photographer, he came back to The Park Record. “I enjoy community journalism,” he says. “Our town is small but with a global outreach, and I like documenting that.” Grayson used a large format “Holga” camera and 120 color film and traipsed around Summit County to depict “A Day in the Life of Utah,” to capture pieces of history before they are destroyed. “I wanted to photograph moments in time that will never exist again, or scenes that we pass by every day but never notice.”
Michael Friberg was studying photography at Westminster College when he went to Uganda on a humanitarian trip. There he met a man, a former child soldier who’d been kidnapped and later became a schoolteacher, who started a football program as a way to heal youth damaged by war. Michael wanted to document his life. “Shooting social issues is the only type of photography that I really care about,” he says. He came back from that trip for another year of school and then spent some time in NYC working with an editorial photographer and learning the art of documentary filmmaking. For the Self Assignment project, he says “I didn’t struggle with constraints; I worried about how open-ended it was, so it was daunting at first.” Michael then started thinking about the facades we put forth, and he created a series of portraits using long exposure times that showed people as they meditated on the Diane Arbus quote. “I’m leaning towards documentary filmmaking,” he says. “I want to tell stories.”
Salt Lake native Tyler Cobb began taking photographs in high school and continued studying the medium at the University of Utah where he became the photo editor of the Daily Chronicle. “At first I struggled with this assignment, but when I talked with my roommate about current issues like losing my job at the Deseret News, the grim financial forecast, crime, etc., we still went out to a baseball game and had fun,” he says. Diane Arbus’ quote, “Nothing is ever the same as they said it was,” made him think about how we keep hearing about how bad things are, but people are still going out, having fun, and meeting for dinner. We need to remember to get out and see for ourselves.”
Mike Terry’s older brother was a fashion and portrait photographer, and he introduced Mike to the joy of photography. After earning a Communications Degree at the University of Utah, Mike began freelancing as a photojournalist and joined the staff of the Deseret News three years ago where he shoots images for all sections of the paper. As the youngest of six kids, I was always looking up at what my siblings were doing. “I approached this assignment by remembering what I imagined life would be like when I was a kid– your first girlfriend, your first job, etc.,” he says. “That’s a little dangerous because you’re setting yourself up to be disappointed. Rather than regretting what didn’t happen, enjoy what is or we’ll miss it all.” Mike’s images reflect passages: a wedding, his brother in a hospital and other slices of life.”I enjoy photography more than anything,” he says. “It makes me appreciate life and people. It’s like shining a light in dark places, or giving a voice to the voiceless.”
Trent Nelson’s photography career spans almost 25 years, mostly in newspapers, and he has been at the Salt Lake Tribune since 1995. The theme of Self Assigned intrigued him because it could have been interpreted in many different ways, and the 48-hour time limit forced him to get out and do it. “You have to make something happen–it was a challenge. I shoot from the hip, not composing so much in camera but more as I edit,” he says. “I took shots of people on the street, shots where you had to look closer and think about what was going on. I like candid photos where people are unaware–it’s kind of like romance in a way.” Trent loves all types of photography, and he’s had a couple of small shows of his personal work, his “passion projects” of small editions. “I miss the craft of photography at the newspaper where everything is digital,” he says. “I like touching the images as I’m developing them, making prints, mounting them. I was honored to be a part of this show.”