Bre's artist talk reviews

April Saul Photojournalist
I attended an artist talk lead by April Saul photographer from the Philadelphia Inquire News Paper on February 24, 2009.
She talked about what she liked to photograph, which was people and their lives. One of her assignments photographing adopted children turned into an extended project. She began following a young girl from the Philippines who was separated from her family and they were though to be dead. She was sent to America and adopted by a nice suburban family in the US. April made a connection with the young girl and kept in contact with her and they had a friendship. She photographed all the important moments in the young girl’s life into adult hood. She photographed her first job as a follow up story for the newspaper. Then she took pictures of her wedding, her children, and her reunion with her Philippine family, and her battle with cancer up to her death. April said she wanted to get the pictures printed and published as a book.
April photojournalism job lead her into areas that she wanted to explore on her own time. It was a good example of how job and your creative interests and intersect and inspire your artwork.

National Geographic
I attended the artist talk by Matthew Moyer on March 26, 2009.
He talked about how every person with a camera can assume the title photographer. But what makes the difference between an amateur and a professional is taking the extra time to pause and organize the content of the frame.
Someone asked if it ever gets easier to approach people for their pictures. He said getting nervous about asking people for their pictures is normal and it never goes away. And he compared it to the butterflies musicians get before taking the stage. If you don’t get a little tingle it just is not right. He said most of the time people don’t care, they acknowledge you with the camera and if they do mind they say no. And if no is the worst thing that happens then you’re ok, but if it’s a military situation or more intense then you just comply or run!
He said working for national geographic you are paired with a writer. But he said on his trip he saw the writer once over dinner and he was there for 3 months, although he did communicate with via email and phone they mostly worked separately.
Editing photographs was a big challenge to do. He will be on assignment for a period of months, taking pictures every day. When he was finished he’d have hundreds of photos to look at and sort through.
Matthew Moyer’s brother, James Moyer is an English professor here at Moore and he asked him to talk about the amount of writing involved in the job. He said 70% of his job is writing, and 30% is fieldwork and taking pictures. He writes many proposals for jobs and assignment he wants to do or be involved with. He also has to write about his work and be able to sell his skills for why he is the best candidate for the job. He said the internship coordinator at National Geographic looks reviews the written portion of the student applications and if there is one grammatical error or misspelling throws it out, and does not even look at the portfolio.