Appalachian Cultural Project

David Y. Lee presents to ACP students

admin — Thu, 10 Mar 2011 05:53:19 +0000

David Y. Lee, a freelancer from Washington, D.C., arrived on Wednesday and will stay for the remainder of the workshop, serving as our final critiquer on Thursday night. “I came here because a lot of people gave me a lot throughout my career,” Lee says. Acting on his words, he drove to Lewisburg in between assignments to present his work, talk candidly about the freelance market and inspire the students.

Lee showed a mixture of work from covering politics for TIME and Newsweek magazines in addition to several personal projects including The Waiting List, which is a project aimed to end the high numbers of people on the waiting list for organ donors. Never settling to see photography as just a job, Lee left a newspaper career to work as a freelancer in Washington which eventually led to a job as Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice’s official photographer, a job that Lee describes as covering important history, no matter your personal politics.

On the final day of the workshop, Lee will be busy doing portfolio reviews until the evening when the students will present their final work to the group.

ACP and High Rocks pair up for a photo adventure

adamwolffbrandt — Thu, 10 Mar 2011 00:07:15 +0000

This year, ACP is partnering with High Rocks, a well-respected leadership program for girls in southern West Virginia, and as part of that partnership, five High Rocks high school age girls worked with WKU students for an afternoon of one-on-one shooting in downtown Lewisburg.

Before heading out in the steady cold rain, instructor Josh Meltzer gave the girls a quick lesson in the basics of photojournalism and handed out cameras to experiment with. Each of the five girls paired up with an ACP labbie and went to practice shooting in downtown Lewisburg.

The girls were given a choice of two shooting assignments. They could either photograph people dealing with the weather, or make a portrait of someone downtown. Thirty minutes, as they quickly discovered, goes by very fast.

Returning a little wetter than when the girls left Dogwood Studio, labbie Adam Wolffbrandt ingested the girls’ images into the computers and helped edit them down to a gallery that you see here.

Here at ACP we’re very excited for the opportunity to establish a long-term relationship with High Rocks, with hopes to involve the High Rocks staff and high school girls even more in the future, and we certainly would be delighted if some of the girls considered coming to WKU for an education in photojournalism based on their experiences with our students at ACP.

American Heritage Dance Hall

adamwolffbrandt — Wed, 09 Mar 2011 17:17:15 +0000

The American Heritage Dance Hall in Ronceverte, WV has been a labor of love that has been able to flourish because of the dedication of a few individuals. They took an abandoned roller rink and transformed it into a social hotspot through donations and hard work. The dance hall hosts open band jams every Tuesday and features a band in the first Saturday of every month. Tuesday night, labbies and shooters from ACP were fortunate enough to experience this unique social experience and translate it into photography.

Asa Black follows Michael Rivera

adamwolffbrandt — Wed, 09 Mar 2011 05:43:16 +0000

Labbie Asa Black followed ACP participant Michael Rivera out into the field on Tuesday to experience and document his method of finding and shooting a photo story. After touring and shooting features at Organ Cave in nearby town Ronceverte, Michael’s curiosity led to a family farm where they experienced a checkup of a newborn calf and got to participate in a backyard shootout (involving both cameras AND shotguns). Michael then followed up on a subject, spending several hours adding photos to his potential final story.

Meet the Participants and Staff

adamwolffbrandt — Wed, 09 Mar 2011 05:15:32 +0000

The 2011 Appalachian Cultural project is coached by WKU Photojournalist-in-Residence Josh Meltzer and Washington, D.C. freelancer Mike Kleinfeld. Six Labbies joined the group to assist with cooking for the group, producing and publishing to the website and archiving the entire previous 8 years of stories from ACP, and 11 shooters from Meltzer’s Picture Story class are here working hard to find, research and photograph their individual stories. Each day the students and staff meet going over every photo shot during the day to prepare for the following day out in the field.

High Rocks

adamwolffbrandt — Wed, 09 Mar 2011 00:08:57 +0000

Labbies went to the High Rocks Lodge in Pocahontas County. They listened in on group discussions and got a better idea of the organization that ACP is partnering with. Dorothy, Danny and Elizabeth helped with little tasks around the lodge and got to know some of the High Rocks and AmeriCorps staff members. Participant Shelby Mack is doing her story on a group of students from Haverford College that are working with High Rocks. Later in the afternoon, AmeriCorps staff member Nora Rye took the group of labbies on a hike to a waterfall in Pocahontas County.

First Days, First Images

admin — Tue, 08 Mar 2011 14:40:56 +0000

ACP students are challenged to find single feature images in addition to the stories that they pursue during the intensive week in Lewisburg, WV.

Day Two

adamwolffbrandt — Tue, 08 Mar 2011 04:04:36 +0000

Shooters were in and out all day Tuesday tracking down leads for their stories and finding features along the way. Later in the evening, everyone met back up at the house for a presentation put on Mike Kleinfeld who spoke about his multimedia work and freelance career in Washington, D.C., offering suggestions on what shooters needed to be aware of in the working world. Shooters continued editing, both on their own and with their coaches.

Labbie Elizabeth Hisle followed shooter Chris Wilson on the field for a day of feature hunting. Together they encountered a local welder, a college student’s Habitat for Humanity building project, and flooding creeks.

Freelancer Mike Kleinfeld presents

adamwolffbrandt — Tue, 08 Mar 2011 02:55:19 +0000

On the second full day of the workshop, participants were in and out of the house from sunrise to early evening shooting features and making great strides developing their stories. Crew and shooters gathered together after a labbie-made taco dinner for a presentation by ACP coach Mike Kleinfeld, an Ohio University grad and freelancer currently based in Washington, D.C.

Kleinfeld is much more than just a still photographer, integrating video and audio into his work. He emphasized the advantages of being able to create multiplatform multimedia, providing an insightful perspective into the rapidly changing state of photojournalism. Kleinfeld spoke of his experiences as a freelancer and provided a realistic and candid view of what students can expect in the years ahead pursuing work in a rapidly changing field where it makes all the difference to be mindful of the business end of things.

Behind the scenes

adamwolffbrandt — Mon, 07 Mar 2011 19:16:13 +0000

On the first full day of the workshop, participants researched their stories and labbies prepared the work site for the week. In the afternoon, Sarah Riley, the director of High Rocks, led a discussion with the photographers about visual stereotyping and the perceptions that the community here might have of photographers, and those preconceptions that we might have of the members of this community.