More than 50 photographers milled around the square. There was one on the roof of the courthouse. Five squatted between a row of cars.
Engines roared in the distance. Drums got louder. The photographers raised the cameras,poised for the first banner to appear in the square.
”There sure are a lot of photographers here,” said one bystander watching Lafayette HighSchool’s 1991 homecoming parade. “Where are they from?”
The photographers, from Western Kentucky University’s Mountain People’s Workshop, had descended upon Lafayette, bent on improving their photography by documenting the town.
During the day they roamed through Macon County taking pictures of everything fromwhittlers in the square to farmers to homecoming queens.
At night they gathered in the United Auto Workers building to have their pictures critiqued, listen to lectures and watch slide shows.
While the students worked hard to get great shots, the faculty worked on strategies for theevening seminars. Instructors were Mike Morse, Sequence Co-ordinator for Photojournalism atWestern; Jack Corn, Dave LaBelle and Michael Williamson, Photojournalists- in- Residence atWestern; Peggie Peattie, photographer, the Long Beach Press-Telegram; C. Thomas Hardin,Director of Photography, the Louisville Courier-Journal, John Long, Chief Photographer, the Hartford Courant; and J. Bruce Baumann, Assistant Managing Editor/ Graphics, the PittsburghPress.
The first day, students introduced themselves to their subjects and got permission to take photos. They didn’t shoot a lot, but they spent time developing rapport with their subjects.
The first night there were presentations on ethics.
“One thing I ask you to do in this business is treat people as people,” Long said. “Do not separate from the community. We are the people we cover.”
That night the students stayed up late at the hotel talking about the next three days. But asthe week went on, the days got longer and bedtime came earlier. Students like Brian Bohannon spent the night with their subjects to capture the first hours of the day.
With full schedules, the photographers were racing time to finish their photo stories.
Before the final day, the staff ate a country dinner of fried chicken and all the trimmings at a bed and breakfast in Red Boiling Springs, Tenn. After dinner, they relaxed in rocking
chairs on the porch and discussed how tough they should be on the critiques. Should they put a lot of pressure on the students before the final day, or should they try to encourage them?
“We’ve put pressure on them before, and they’ve been trying to see how to get out fromunder the pressure,” Baumann said.
“I think we should tum up the volume on both sides,” Williamson said. “We have those who are nailing it.”
The staff decided to have the students talk to the group about mistakes they were making,sort of like a Photojournalists Anonymous meeting, Morse said.
That night the students gathered for their personal critiques. Then they showed their workto the whole group.
After presenting her slides, Amethel Parel said the workshop was helping her overcomeshyness. “If l tell them who I am, I know they’ll tell me who they are.”
“That’s exactly it,” Williamson said.
To gear up for the final day, Morse told the students to ask, “Am I pushing myself to the limits?”
Each night after the critiques, the students were treated to a show of a staff member’swork. Larry Powell, freelance documentary photojournalist, presented his slide show on the Wall in Washington D.C. Long, Peattie, and Williamson shared their work.
By the end of the workshop, the students had made new friends and were inspired to pushthemselves. Though they did not get a lot of sleep and photography was burning in their minds, some could not get enough.
John Lindsey, a Western Kentucky senior, said the workshop fired him up for photography.
And it must have.
When the workshop ended, Lindsey dropped his bags at home and headed to a fall festival in Bowling Green to make more pictures.
Noelle Phillips
