Do1Thing Blog

Born and raised in St. Louis, Missouri, Chris Usher graduated from Indiana University at Bloomington with a degree in Journalism. Usher spent several years as a newspaper photographer before going freelance and moving to Washington, DC in 1990. Since then Usher’s images have appeared in numerous domestic and international publications including TIME, LIFE, Newsweek, US News & World Report, Sports Illustrated, People, Fortune, Forbes, BusinessWeek, L’Express, Der Spiegel, Stern, VSD, and Globus.

Throughout his career, Usher has received numerous awards for his photography: Indiana College Photographer of the Year (1985 and 1986), the William Randolph Hearst Photojournalism Championship (1985 and 1986), POY (2000, 2001, 2003) WHNPA (2001, 2003, 2005, 2007), CHIPP (2006), and an Eisenstaedt Award (2000) for his unique and controversial depiction of Clinton’s post-acquittal speech. His award-winning photos have most recently been published in American Photography 22 and The World’s Greatest Black & White Photography.
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Usher’s documentation of behind-the-scenes moments at the White House, entitled Behind the Velvet Rope, is a traveling exhibition that next opens at the Southeast Museum of Photography in 2008. One of Us, a two-year photo-documentary project begun on the day Hurricane Katrina made landfall in the Gulf Coast, is currently in development as a book (scheduled for publication in 2008) and a traveling exhibition. Usher photographed and interviewed residents of the Gulf Coast for three weeks immediately after the storm, and five times since, most recently on the 2nd anniversary.

Currently, Usher is immersed in wet plate photographic processes. When he isn’t working on assignments or projects, Chris would rather be fly-fishing in Montana.

Bumper DeJesus is the Creative and Technical Producer for The Star-Ledger’s web presence including: The Ledger Live webcast, online news and sports videos, and new media presentations. Designs and creates motion graphics animation, edits multimedia projects, and develops newspaper-to-internet strategies for the company. Began in the industry as a photo editor and photo illustrator for Business and Sunday pages. Constructed and currently manages an industry website, the New York Press Photographers Association.

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Curt Chandler brings more than 25 years of newsroom experience in print and online to the classroom, where he teaches communications and multimedia.

Before coming to Penn State, Chandler was the editor for online innovation and director of photography for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. He also taught at Duquesne University from 1998 to 2005.

Chandler’s professional background also includes experience at the Cleveland Plain Dealer, the Ogden Standard-Examiner in Utah and the Pueblo Chieftan in Colorado.

Chandler has also participated in the Poynter Institute Picture Editing and Newsroom Leadership workshop and has organized seminars conducted by the Online News Association. He has presented at seminars conducted by the National Press Photographers Association and the Society for News Design. He is a founding faculty member of the University of Kentucky-affiliated Picture Kentucky workshop, which began in 2004.

Chandler has also co-authored and published an APME Update titled “How Web + Print + Cutbacks Can Still = Success” in April 2006.

Antonin Kratochvil photo by Clay Enos

Antonin Kratochvil is a founder of the VII photo agency.

As photojournalists go, Antonin Kratochvil has sunk his teeth into his fair share of upheaval and human catastrophes whilst going about his documentation of the time in which he lives.

As people go, Kratochvil’s own refugee life has been much in the way the same as what he has rendered on film. Kratochvil’s unique style of photography is the product of personal experience, intimate conditioning and not privileged voyeurism.

Over the years his fluid and unconventional work has been sought by numerous publications stretching across widely differing interests.

From shooting Mongolia’s street children for the magazine published by the Museum of Natural History to a portrait session with David Bowie for Detour, from covering the war in Iraq for Fortune Magazine to shooting Deborah Harry for a national advertising campaign for the American Civil Liberties Union, Kratochvil’s ability to see through and into his subjects and show immutable truth has made his pictures not facsimiles but uncensored visions.

And yet, what set his kind apart from the many is his consistency and struggle to carry on.

For Kratochvil this fact comes in the form of his numerous awards, grants and honorable mentions dating back to 1975. The latest of these are his two, first place prizes at the 2002 World Press Photo Awards in the categories of general news and nature and the environment.

The next is the 2004 grant from Aperture publishing for Kratochvil’s study on the fractious relationship between American civil liberties and the newly formed Homeland Security since the World Trade Center bombings.

In addition, Kratochvil’s fifth book Vanishing was presented in April

2005 and marks another significant milestone for the craft to which he belongs.

Vanishing represents a collection of natural and human phenomena that on the verge of extinction. What makes this book so innovative is the twenty years it has taken to produce, making it not only historical from the onset, but a labor of love and a commitment to one man’s conscience.

View Antonin’s Work

Photo by Clay Enos

Pim Van Hemmen, a native of the Netherlands, spent 10 years covering sports, features and worldwide news events for The Star-Ledger in Newark, New Jersey.
He then created and ran an all-digital photo department at the newspaper, which won the  Pulitzer Prize for feature photography in 2001, the newspaper’s first Pulitzer.
He is a former New Jersey Press Photographer of the Year, co-editor of three books, and the co-founder of the Heart Gallery of New Jersey, which since 2005 has used photography to find permanent homes for more than 150 unwanted children.
Pim is also co-founder of Do1Thing, a national non-profit group, which uses photography to promote social change.
He is a lifelong sailor, and the parent of two young children, which explains his passion for those two subjects.
He lives in Fair Haven, New Jersey with his wife, son and daughter.

Mark Peterson is a documentary photographer, and the author of the Powerhouse Book, Acts Of Charity.

He started his career in Minneapolis, Minnesota in 1982 where he was a staff photographer for City Pages. In 1984 he became a staff photographer for UPI in Minneapolis. In 1987 he moved to New York, where he opened the Reuters Photo bureau, which he worked at until 1990. At that time, he started to work with numerous magazines as an editorial photographer.

Mark’s work can be seen in publications such as the New York Times Magazine, Fortune magazine, InStyle magazine, Time magazine, New York magazine, and Geo among others. He is represented by Redux pictures.

Mark  has won several grants, including a Eugene Smith support grant for his work on revolving door alcoholics. He has won a Picture of the Year award for feature photography, and has been included in the World Press annual photo book and exhibition.

View Mark’s Work

Stephanie Sinclair, 34, graduated from the University of Florida, with a BS in Journalism and a minor in Fine Art Photography. The Chicago Tribune hired her out of college where she worked for five years. After covering the war in Iraq, Stephanie quit her job and moved to Iraq and then Beirut, Lebanon to work out of the region. Her regular clients include The New York Times Magazine, Time, Newsweek, US News & World Report, Stern, German Geo and Marie Claire among others.

Awards and Scholarships

In her short career, she has earned numerous awards including the Visa D’Or at the 2004 Visa Pour L’Image photography festival in France, a first place in World Press Photo and the FiftyCrows International Fund for Documentary Photography’s 2004 Central Asia and Caucasus Grant for her work on women’s issues in Afghanistan.
Stephanie most recently won a third place in World Press Photo for her coverage of the 2006 war in Lebanon and was a participant in World Press Photo’s 13th Joop Swart Masterclass. Stephanie has also earned several awards in the Pictures of the Year International annual competition including a first place for a story she did on courthouse weddings in Chicago, and has been recognized in the American Photography competition for the last four years. The Chicago Bar Association’s Herman Kogan Meritorious Achievement Award 2000 was awarded to Stephanie for her involvement in a series that the Chicago Tribune produced on the failure of death penalty in Illinois and resulted in the governor to put a moratorium on capital punishment in the state. Stephanie was also part of the paper’s team that won the Pulitzer Prize for their documentation of problems within the airline industry in 2000.

Stephanie is also the publisher of the award-winning independent online magazine for women photographers called Photobetty.com.

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Ken has 25 years of professional experience as a photojournalist. His specialties include corporate, documentary, editorial photography, portrait and fine art.

Ken began his photographic career with the United States Air Force, while stationed in Anchorage, Alaska. After shooting for the Air Force, Ken moved to Santa Barbara, California to attend Brooks Institute of Photography. Ken’s next stop was Chicago, where he served as a photo assistant, assisting with fashion, advertising, industrial, travel, and portrait photography.

Drawn to photojounalism, Ken moved to Washington, DC and worked full- time for AFP, where he covered demonstrations, Capitol Hill, and the White House for 4 years. Ken then began freelancing, working for Associated Press, Reuters, Bloomberg News, and later, Newsweek, New
York Times, London Sunday Times, and other publications worldwide.
For the past 20 years, he has covered a range of stories and events, including public protests, breaking news, Congressional hearings, the White House, and stories of local interest.

Ken has traveled to Croatia, Spain, Iceland Italy, France and covered the 1991 Pan American Games in Cuba.

View Ken’s work on Corbis

View Ken’s website