Girl Culture

I belong to the National Press Photographers Association (NPPA) mainly so I can suck dry anyone and everyone with anything to say or offer on making strong images. The NPPA held its Photojournalism Summit in Portland, Ore., which I attended this past weekend.

Lauren Greenfield

The highlight, for this audience, was Lauren Greenfield, who has done a lot of great work photographing girls - from her work "Fast Forward" on Hollywood kid culture, to the aptly named "Girl Culture," both of which led her to "THIN," a feature-length documentary and companion photo book for HBO about eating disorders that is collecting awards left and right.

The fascinating thing to me, which I told Greenfield, is that I photograph probably the opposite end of the spectrum from her. My subjects - girl athletes - don't have the same hangups about body image. It's OK to be big and cut in our little world.

But don't discount Greenfield's work - please. It's important and certainly relevant to our kids because of the societal pressures involved. Check out her work on her website:

www.laurengreenfield.com

Carolyn Cole

The other thing that struck me this past weekend is the power that women have in photojournalism. Those who also made great presentations were Photojournalists of the Year Mary Calvert of the Washington Times and Carolyn Cole of the Los Angeles Times, plus Renée C. Byer of the Sacramento Bee, who won the Pulitzer Prize for a powerful, year-long following of a single mother and her young son, who loses his battle to cancer.

Cole's presentation ended the Still Photography portion of the summit, so was somewhat of a keynote, and it blew everyone away. She had participated in a multimedia immersion workshop and said she was wiped out, so she let her work do the talking. Wow. Cole also is a Pulitzer Prize winner who has been to about every significant war zone during the past half decade or so. Her images are stunning - for both their composition and insight, and their emotion.

In talking to a few of my friends in the business (photojournalism, that is), Cole has been a huge inspiration to her colleagues. And it's very clear why. Her stuff is just on a different level.

Cole's work is not aggregated on a single website, so you'll have to hop around to find it. Here are some links:

Carolyn Cole Background

Cole's Pulitzer Gallery

Cole's POY Gallery

I have emphasized images on this website because I believe females to be more visual (plus I love taking photos). It also seems that, in real life, many women are more capable of recognizing, embracing and capturing emotion - which is what makes the women above all extraordinary.