“Managing Risk, Safety, and Trauma as a Journalist” with Alison Baskerville and Tara Pixley

October 13

This session discusses key elements of risk assessment, safety and security planning, and the management of bio/psycho/social impacts in the work of journalists, understanding those experiences and the realities of the job through an intersectional lens. By recognizing how identity, environmental, organizational, and operational variables impact our health and safety for every assignment, we are better prepared to enter any space or experience. 

Tara Pixley (she/her) is a visual journalist and educator with 20 years of experience as a freelance photographer and photo editor for news organizations such as the New York Times, Newsweek, CNN, Wall Street Journal, ProPublica, and many others. She is currently an IWMF NextGen Fellow in journalist safety and risk assessment and a professor of journalism at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles. Tara was a Knight Visiting Fellow at Harvard’s Nieman Foundation of Journalism, an inaugural awardee of the World Press Photo Solutions Visual Journalism Initiative, and holds a Ph.D. in Communication from the University of California San Diego. You can follow her @tlpix.

Ali Baskerville (she/her) is a documentary photographer and a media safety trainer and advisor with a focus on freelancers. A former-soldier-turned-photographer, Alison is able to blend her military experience with her career as a conflict photographer to translate into realistic safety training for the media community. As a photographer she uses her experience to comment on, document and question the military experience that aims to make work reflecting on important contemporary issues such as social inequality, military occupation, gender identity and safety as well as the long-term consequences of emotional trauma through conflict. You can follow her @ali_baskerville.

Anatomy of a Story with Andrea Wise

May 12

In this session, Andrea Wise will deconstruct a couple of published stories to demystify how stories come to be from the editor’s perspective. She will talk about story origination, including assignment work and stories pitched by photographers, getting ideas and budgets approved, creative planning/art direction, working visually in harmony with text, selecting and sequencing images, and laying out stories for publication. You will learn more about what visual editors do, how to get on their radar, how best to work with them on assignment, and how to maximize the chances of getting your pitches picked up.

Andrea Wise is co-founder of Diversify Photo and a visuals editor at ProPublica where she ideates and commissions photography, illustration, and other forms of visual journalism. She was previously a contract photo editor on the history & culture desk at National Geographic. She has also worked with Newsweek, BuzzFeed News, The Intercept, Open Society Foundations, among others. Her work has been recognized by The Telly Awards, The National Press Photographers Association, College Photographer of the Year, and The Student Academy Awards. Andrea earned her M.S. in Photography from Syracuse University’s S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications and her B.A. with Honors in Studio Arts from Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut and is an alum of the Eddie Adams, Kalish, and Mountain Workshops. You can follow her @andreawise_

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Finding Support for Your Projects – Grant Writing with Danielle Villasana

Danielle Villasana will share tips on preparing grant applications for new or ongoing projects. She’ll cover the do’s and don'ts as well as various funding organizations within the visual media industry.

Danielle Villasana is a photojournalist based in Istanbul whose documentary work focuses on human rights, gender, displacement, and health around the world. She’s a National Geographic Explorer, Magnum Foundation awardee, and an International Women's Media Foundation fellow. Danielle strongly believes in pairing photography with education and community. She’s co-founder of We, Women, an Authority Collective board member, on The Everyday Projects’ Community Team, and a Photo Bill of Rights co-author. She’s also a member of Women Photograph and Ayün Fotógrafas. Ultimately, Danielle works by the words of Donna De Cesare: “You are a human being first and a journalist second.” You can follow her at @davillasana.

Be Your Own Manager – Finances and Self-Promotion with Yagazie Emezi

June 2

Yagazie Emezi will draw from her personal experiences of utilizing social media for self-promotion, managing finances as a freelancer, understanding contracts, and finding opportunities. She will speak to the challenges photographers regularly face, including setting a day rate and understanding usage and copyrights. Her session will be rooted in practical tools and strategies, and in understanding the overall value of one’s work. 

Yagazie Emezi is a Nigerian artist and self-taught photojournalist focused on stories surrounding African women and their health, sexuality, education and human rights. Having worked extensively across Africa, Yagazie also covers stories on identity and culture, social justice, climate change and migration.  Her art practice uses photography and sculpture to construct visual critiques of Nigeria's socio-political state and the roles media play in it, pulling from history and current events. You can follow her @yagazieemezi.