Rangefinder
Issue No. 6
Daryel Franklin Miller, at left, reaches out to his lifelong friend, Lori Lafferty, as she wakes him up after he spent the night sleeping under a bridge on Thompson Avenue in downtown Excelsior Springs. Miller occasionally stays with Lafferty and the woman she cares for during cold winter months. He spent the night before drinking the whole day with Lafferty. Unable to find a ride back to his father's house, which is an hour and a half walk away, he decided to sleep under a bridge for the night. Photo by Antanik Tavitian
Photographer Takeaways
Story by Anastasia Busby
As MPW.74 comes to a close, this year’s photographers take a moment to reflect on the photographs they have made and the experiences they have had over the past week. Throughout the late nights and early mornings, photographs and relationships were crafted into stories and memories as this year’s 40 photographers documented Excelsior Springs as a new Missouri town in the MPW archive.
Eli Imadali, Promises I Hope to Keep
The moment Eli Imadali knew his work paid off was as he watched the family he photographed experiencing the photos from the gym of Lewis Elementary School.
“They came in — this mother and daughter — and had had a hard morning and had been fighting a little bit, you know, just like, as moms and kids do,” Imadali said. “And then they saw the pictures, and then they started crying and hugged and just made up.”
Imadali appreciated seeing the work of his fellow photographers each night at critique and again at the final gallery presentation. He felt he was seeing a visual history of the town in real time, through different perspectives.
“I think there should be a visual archive like this for every state,” he said. “It's clearly very meaningful to the community. And it's really beautiful to see (the town) come together and see themselves.”
Kelly Fogel, Three Mothers For Adilyn
Kelly Fogel is one of several photographers to begin the workshop without a lot of journalism experience. Her most valuable lesson learned was being present to photograph for the in between moments and the importance of being around Adilyn all the time.
“I've really picked up on a lot of ‘do's and don'ts,’” Fogel said. “And I really appreciate the slowing down part of the 400 frames. Ever since I heard about the workshop, like five years ago, that was like, I don't think I can shoot only 400 prints in one week.”
Fogel felt lucky to have such open access to Adilyn and her mothers. However, there was a moment she regrets not capturing.
“I got too personally involved in the story and I was too concerned about if they would be embarrassed of me photographing them crying,” Fogel said. “When I look back at that week, that's a missed moment in the story, but personally, it was a good moment to be able to share that together.”
Jacob Wiegand, Mary’s Dream Farm
Jacob Wiegand made the least frames for his story, finishing the week with a total of 152 frames. His biggest takeaway was taking time to be thoughtful about each and every image he made.
“Generally speaking, the big thing to take away from the workshop is to slow down and be thoughtful about the stories that we're telling,” Wiegand said.
Therese De Vos, Ed’s Big Heart
Therese De Vos doesn’t have a journalism background, but is thankful for the new skills she has developed at MPW. “I really feel like I have a whole different set of tools now,” she said. “I feel like I'm born again.”
At the beginning of the week, De Vos felt nervous and insecure about taking part in the workshop.“I was shaking in my boots when I first got here… It's intimidating to be in a place where everyone is already so super talented.” To her, the exhausting week spent at MPW was much more intense than she thought it would be.
“I cried on Monday, I was like, feeling so much better on Tuesday… And then I was really enjoying it,” she said. “And now today, it's like tears, like just thankful… Seeing the photographs is such a rewarding feeling. It's been an amazing experience, obviously, from start to finish.”
Eli Imadali
Kelly Fogel
Jacob Wiegand
Therese De Vos
'It's how you find out what's going on in your town'
By Anastasia Busby
In Excelsior Springs, Jason and Courtney Cole work hard to provide reliable, hyper-local news to the residents. As the time-honored local paper started wanning, Courtney Cole, a 5th-generation resident of Excelsior Springs, started a Facebook group to serve as the communities news forum.
“She has a passion for the community and was just posting stuff constantly about all that was going on,” Jason Cole said. “And so it became the de facto place for people to go with their news.”
For workshop photographer Ethan Weston, every day is spent dedicated to local news. Weston has been the local photojournalist at the Buffalo Bulletin in Buffalo, Wyoming since April. Buffalo has less than 5,000 residents and Weston has seen first hand how local journalism impacts residents.
“It's how you find out what's going on in your town. It's how you find out what the city council's doing… how you stay engaged with local democracy,” Weston said.
Weston feels welcomed by the community. People are excited to see him and his camera, showing the world what they are doing. He especially loves how feature hunting gives him the opportunity to photograph people who often otherwise wouldn’t be seen in the newspaper, giving everyone a chance to see themselves and their lives documented, even for just a moment, with a camera.
“Everyone likes to see themselves in the paper. And I like to think that photojournalism is kind of a way to introduce people to their neighbors,” Weston said.
Not only has this workshop helped to introduce community members but the Cole family and their dedication to local news help to make community introductions every day.
In 2020, when Excelsior Springs and the world were shut down by the Covid-19 pandemic, the Coles decided to disseminate an Excelsior Springs newsletter. About a year and half ago, they launched the Excelsior Citizen, an exclusively online publication for the residents of the town.
“We rebranded as the Excelsior Citizen, because a lot of the news and things that we were reporting was coming from the Facebook group or social media,” Cole said. “And so it was citizen generated content.”
The newsletter now goes out to over 1400 people, and the website is visited by about 1500 people a month.“Part of the reason I jumped over and started doing it full time is because I want people to be informed,” Cole said. “I was tired of the misinformation that was out there."
The publication will continue to be free and open to the public.
Excelsior Springs residents and photographers browsing MPW. 74 picture stories at the photo exhibit. Photos by Lily Dozier
The art of selecting an MPW town
By Tanishka R.
If you are wondering how the Missouri Photo Workshop directors choose towns each year, the answer is straightforward - they get into a car and drive around.
"We're going to places that are real America and where real people live," MPW.74 Co-directer Brian Kratzer said. They choose the smallest town that has big enough to accommodate 40 photographers, MPW faculty and crew - that is, enough hotel rooms and a few dining options. "I want to make sure the faculty aren't having the same burgers everyday for lunch and dinner," Kratzer said.
The section process heavily depends upon the town's willingness to host the workshop. "If we have somebody who's living in the town champion for us, it makes a big difference," he said. The town sponsors the headquarters space where the workshop is conducted and a facility for the photo exhibit.
"It is kind of this interview process," Kratzer said. The town needs to be receptive to 40 photographers and not just the idea of a workshop. "We're trying to get inside homes and businesses. If we sense that they [city officials] are not open, that might be a sign the town isn't, too."
Kratzer contacted Excelsior Springs' city manager, Molly McGover, to see if the town would be interested in hosting MPW.74. " She was excited right away," he said.
"I had been to another city that had participated with it [MPW]," McGovern said. "I saw the book they [MPW] produced afterward, so I knew that I wanted to do it."
McGovern set up meetings with the Rotary and Chamber of Commerce to explain what the workshop was about and help raise funds to host it. It didn't take much convincing. "We're a tourist town, so we love having people," McGovern said. Moreover, the influx of over 50 people in town economically benefits community members.
Kratzer then met with McGovern and toured the town to scout for potential headquater and photo exhibit locations. Excelsior Springs was to host the MPW.72 before the pandemic forced the workshop to go online. The town had to wait two years before hosting the workshop.
"People are excited to see you all around town," McGovern said. They are curious to see the stories and photos beyond downtown. It's sort of a yearbook."
Brian Kratzer, Co-Director
Alyssa Schukar, Co-Director
Hany Hawasly, Technical Director
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