The truth is, I did not start out as a great photographer. When I first became EIC, that became *painfully* obvious. Our writing was strong—we had talented reporters who could capture a story with precision and depth, but our photo coverage? It was inconsistent at best. We were missing the moments that mattered most. A game-winning goal would go uncaptured, a powerful student protest flattened by a blurry, wide-angle shot, or a visiting speaker reduced to an unflattering picture under harsh gymnasium lighting. The stories we worked so hard to tell just weren’t getting the visuals they deserved. I knew we could do better. I just didn’t know how.

That’s when we onboarded Gabe Kolodner. He was a student at North and a three-time New York Times photography contest winner. I had admired his work on his Instragam photography account. Truly, there was a way his photos told stories without needing a single word (shoutout @gabe_kk). I figured, if anyone could help us transform our approach to photojournalism, it was him. 

Together, we built something from the ground up. Gabe started the Newtonite Photojournalism Club, recruiting a team of student photographers and introducing structure where there had been none. But even with that, it wasn’t an instant success. We quickly realized the photos we were getting weren’t always what we needed. I remember one issue—our January Special—when we asked for shots of the sophomore speech semi-finals. The photos we got back? An empty podium and a few students practicing in the hallway—none of the actual finalists. For sports, we kept getting wide, static shots, missing the energy and movement of the game.

It was frustrating, but it also taught me that photojournalism needed as much planning as writing did. So, Gabe and I sat down and came up with a system. For each special issue, I gave him a detailed list of every photo we needed, matched to specific articles, with clear priorities, what shots were essential, what moments we couldn’t miss. The impact was immediate.

Suddenly, our sports coverage wasn’t just dry recaps anymore. We had photographers at every major game, capturing mid-air shots of slam dunks, the split-second before a soccer goal, or the celebration after a championship win. Our social media came alive with those real-time action shots, and readers started engaging more, commenting, sharing, and reacting to the moments as they happened.

The real turning point, though, was during the teacher’s strike. We worked side by side, carpooling to rallies with our cameras (mine was a phone), standing shoulder-to-shoulder in the crowd, snapping photos from every angle. There was a kind of urgency to it—we’d take a picture, pass the camera or phone back and forth, edit it on the spot, and get it up on social media within minutes.

And while I was never the star photographer—Gabe had the expensive camera and the natural eye. I just learned a thing or two along the way. My photos might not have made it into the print editions, but they found a home on our Instagram stories and the website. And honestly? They weren’t terrible. You couldn’t always tell I was snapping them on my phone, frantically adjusting the brightness or trying to get a good angle in a crowd. They were a far cry from the blurry, too-far-away shots I took when I started.

The thing I’m most proud of, though, is that we built something that will last. By establishing a dedicated photojournalism team, we made sure that even after Gabe graduates, The Newtonite will continue producing high-quality, impactful visual storytelling.