Pierce College Media Arts Department Magazine

pierce college

MEDIA ARTS

DEPARTMENT 2011

MAGAZINE

around THE WORLD ADRIAN SANCHEZ-GONZALEZ AND OTHER MEDIA ARTS JOURNALISTS LET THEIR PASSION TAKE THEM ALL OVER THE GLOBE.

inspiring generations A PROFESSOR WHO HAS TAUGHT GENERATIONS OF REPORTERS RETIRES.

A SUPPLEMENT TO THE ROUNDUP

+ A Q

AN INTERVIEW WITH THE DEPARTMENT CHAIR

WITH photojournalism professor and media arts department chair JILL CONNELLY

WHAT IS THE MISSION OF PIERCE COLLEGE’S MEDIA ARTS DEPARTMENT? Our mission is to educate our students for jobs across the media career spectrum: broadcasting, cinema, journalism, photography, multimedia, public relations.

While continuing to stress the vital foundational skills such as writing and visual literacy, we combine them with cuttingedge technology and practical experience gained through internships and field work for our campus media outlets.

We draw a wide range of students, from those still in high school getting a jump-start on college all the way up to working professionals wanting to brush up on the latest technology.

WHAT ARE SOME OF THE MORE PIVOTAL DEVELOPMENTS THE DEPARTMENT HAS MADE IN RECENT YEARS? The department has expanded into multimedia - journalists now also record podcasts to go with their articles, photographers record audio

to make slideshows and our students need to know all the latest technology in addition to their basic foundation in solid writing and reporting. This has made our non-fiction storytelling focus more interdisciplinary, so our students are trained in multiple skill areas and delivery platforms.

We have also expanded our cinema program from survey courses to hands-on learning.

Other significant improvements include an Internet radio station, KPCRadio.com and we have broadened our campus newspaper, therounduponline. net, and magazine, thebullmagazine.net, to online publications with multimedia content.

WHY SHOULD STUDENTS STILL BE INTERESTED IN A DEGREE IN MEDIA ARTS, EVEN THOUGH THE JOB MARKET ISN’T WHAT IT USED TO BE? Our students get a basic foundation in critical thinking and communication with strong writing skills and visual literacy that can also be applied to other fields, but many of the students we attract are passionate about storytelling and can’t imagine

themselves doing anything else and they are ready to put their skills to work in new media outlets.

IS THERE AN ADVANTAGE FOR STUDENTS TO GO TO A TWO-YEAR COLLEGE FOR JOURNALISM, PHOTOGRAPHY, CINEMA AND PUBLIC RELATIONS COURSES? A distinct advantage is that our students hit the ground running.

They have better technical skills because we can often keep pace with the industry and adapt to changes faster than universities. It is also a great place for students who already have a degree or professional experience but want to keep up with industry trends.

WHAT DOES THE FUTURE LOOK LIKE FOR PIERCE MEDIA ARTS? The future is exciting. In addition to our expanded degree and certificate offerings, including mobile media, our students will be working on interdisciplinary programs in the state-of-the-art Digital Arts and Media Building which will have cutting-edge facilities at a prime location in the center of campus.

INSIDE THE MAGAZINE

contents 2

4

10

TRUE STORIES FROM THE STUDENTS.

BLAST FROM THE PAST: TWO PIERCE ALUMNI TAKE THEIR SKILLS TO THE AIRWAVES.

7

BUILDING THE FUTURE: A PEEK INTO THE FUTURE OF THE DEPARTMENT.

8

SNAPSHOTS: FORMER PHOTOGRAPHY STUDENT TAKES TO THE WORLD.

NOTES FROM HAITI ACT: PROFESSOR AND 14 BALANCING PROFESSIONAL PHOTOJOURNALIST. LONG-TIME MEDIA ARTS 18 APROFESSOR RETIRES, BUT NOT WITHOUT LEAVING AN IMPRESSION.

The cover photo is of Adrian Sanchez-Gonzalez whose story is on page 8. PHOTO JARED IORIO

PIERCEMEDIAARTS.COM

BY WORD OF MOUTH

“

TESTIMONIALS: STUDENTS TALK ABOUT WHAT THEY LEARNED IN THE MEDIA ARTS DEPARTMENT

1

PHOTO GIL RIEGO JR.

2 AARON SHELDON JOURNALISM

COURTNEY COLES PHOTOGRAPHY

My time spent in the department helped me come to the conclusion that I wanted to learn all there is to know about photography.

I spent six – very diverse – semesters at Pierce College’s Media Arts Department: one semester as a staff member of Roundup newspaper, two semesters in photo classes, one semester on The Bull magazine and one semester as the music director for KPCRadio.com.

So, I applied to Pacific Northwest College of Art, an art school in Portland, Oregon.

While in Portland, I stayed in touch with Portlandbased band Archeology

The professors and peers I met through the Pierce College Media Arts Department changed my career path and boosted my personal and professional growth.

Having entered the journalism program on a whim, I quickly became fascinated with the field thanks to Stephanie StasselBluestein’s engaging teaching style.

The experiences to come in the following years were life-changing.

The Roundup newspaper offered hands-on opportunities

and at the end of the school year; I went into the Oregon desert to photograph their documentary, “The Oregon Project.”

I’m currently an intern at Capture, an artist agency in Hollywood where my main concentration is in social media.

The Media Arts Department has helped me understand that no matter where I’m at in my career, I’ll always be a journalist. I left journalism to go to an art school only to see that you can take the girl out of journalism, but you can’t take the journalism out of the girl.

in a plethora of journalistic roles.

My journey as a reporter could not have been better without the masterful guidance of professors Rob O’Neil, Amara Aguilar, Jill Connelly, Roger Vargo and Stephanie Stassel-Bluestein whose wisdom and encouragement helped me take on multiple editor roles in future semesters.

My passion for copyediting truly stuck, and I am currently enjoying a marketing career where one of my primary responsibilities is

Hovanes Robert Hovanisian CINEMA/PHOTOGRAPHY My experience with the photography and cinema department has been educational and rewarding. In my experience, I have acquired the skills necessary to progress in my field of study both on an academic and professional level.

The professors I encountered

in both photography studies and cinema studies have been integral to this developmental process. Their patience and candor has allowed me to examine my work on a critical level and make the necessary corrections and adjustments in order to improve the work.

4

COURTESY OF LOUIE HEREDIA

proofreading materials. When I am finished with my journalism degree at California State University, Northridge, I look forward to other copyediting opportunities with magazines or news organizations.

Above all else, I met some amazing people and close friends through the Media Arts Department.

I am confident future students will cherish their experiences in one of the greatest journalism programs in the country.

3 I have been taught by these individuals to chase after perfection rather than be content with mediocre results.

This inclination towards the highest standard will ultimately serve as the foundation for any future success I have in this life time.

LOUIE HEREDIA PHOTOGRAPHY

After spending most of my time taking photographs and making short video documentaries for Pierce College’s Roundup newspaper, The Bull magazine, and KPCRadio.com, I went on to do freelance work wherever I could get it.

I shot weddings, photographed food for restaurants, and contributed photos to tourist maps and magazines. I also had the chance to shoot major sports events such as Breeders’ Cup held at the Santa Anita Race track, and Los Angeles Galaxy soccer matches at the Home Depot Center.

KPCRadio.com gave me plenty of contacts to shoot popular bands playing at venues all around the greater Los Angeles.

I thought I would continue on that path, but I was referred by a friend to a small business called Image Locations, Inc. that works

in the entertainment industry finding premier locations for high fashion photo shoots, television shows, and major motion pictures.

They hired me full time to photograph the best locations in Los Angeles. I shoot million dollar homes to small dive bars for clients such as Harper’s Bazaar, Vogue, HBO, ABC, and more. In the process, I was picked up by another company, B-Rolling, Inc. to take footage documenting celebrity photo shoots in behind the scenes style short videos.

Pierce and all of my advisers in the Media Arts Department prepared me for this major step in my career in photography and multimedia. This is just the beginning for me. Thank you Jill, Amara, Rob, Stephanie, Jeff, Julie, Gerard, Roger, and Sean for all the help you’ve given me, the patience you’ve had with me, and the lessons you taught me.

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radio road: from

BLAST FROM THE PAST

WRITTEN BY

STEFANIE FRITH

A

ll right, good morning, we’re going to begin over in Boyle Heights northbound 5 before Main Street report of a bumper in the No. 1 lane and that’s been a tough drive north on the 5 freeway; we had a sig alert earlier in Boyle Heights, set the tone, the 5, never recovered...”

90

SECONDS. That’s all Tommy Jaxson has to dish about the hundreds of traffic incidents that force Los Angeles’ tangled web of freeways and highways to contort into such a mess each morning.

“They threatened to do it, well, now they have. The state Senate introduced a bill that would require the owners of the Sacramento Kings to repay a $77 million loan to the city of Sacramento before any move to Anaheim can take place. The bill itself says any team that wants to move to another city in the state—like for example if the Kings want to move to King City or the Clippers to Chico—that would mean the dumped city would get all loans repaid. Are you listening, San Diego Chargers?”

75

SECONDS. That’s all Randy Kerdoon has to wrap up the world of sports, from controversial legislation to who came out on top the night before: the Dodgers, the Angels, USC, UCLA, the Lakers and, yes, even the Clippers.

Jaxson and Kerdoon can be heard any given morning on KNX 1070, the Los Angeles area’s only allnews radio station— Jaxson from 5 to 9 a.m., Kerdoon from 5 a.m. to 2 p.m. Their larger-than-life, boisterous personalities barely fit into their tiny, individual studios on the Miracle Mile. But their roughly 75 years of combined radio experience hasn’t gone to their heads. They appreciate where they are, and where they came from.

The duo never thought they’d work together at KNX. More than 30 years ago, in the early 1970s, they were holed up in a couple of rooms in the now-beingrenovated Campus Center at Pierce College, operating KPCR, the student radio station. Jaxson was a DJ and, later, the general manager. Kerdoon was also a DJ, and later moved into sports coverage.

Their radio careers took them in different paths: Jaxson worked at KOST, POWER, STAR and KBIG. Kerdoon became a sports anchor and news host for both television and radio at Fox Sports and KFWB, among others.

And then, several years ago, they found themselves working together again at KNX 1070.

“This guy’s fascinating,” Jaxson says, joking and gesturing to Kerdoon inside his studio on a spring weekday morning. He’s just wrapped up a four-hour traffic reporting shift and has stopped by Kerdoon’s area for some quick banter.

Kerdoon replies with a Cheshire Cat-sized grin and stretches his long frame in his chair, seeming to take over the small space.

The two radio guys have an easy-breezy, sometimes goofy rapport that stems from working together in the 1970s at KPCR. That lighthearted approach is something Kerdoon uses on air. He has nearly 400 audio clips he enjoys slipping into his reports. These range from circus-

KPCR to KNX

TWO PIERCE COLLEGE RADIO ALUMS DISH IT OUT AGAIN, EACH MORNING ON THE L.A. AIRWAVES. TOMMY JAXSON AND RANDY KERDOON ARE KNX 1070’S MORNING TRAFFIC AND SPORTS GURUS.

(Left) Randy Kerdoon at work in a studio at KNX 1070 radio. PHOTO JARED IORIO (RIght)Tommy Jaxson and Randy Kerdoon of KNX 1070 radio visit the Pierce College student-run internet radio station following their presentation on campus as part of the Media Arts Speaker Series on March 22, 2011 in Woodland Hills, Calif. PHOTO JILL CONNELLY

themed music to silly quotes from athletes, coaches, celebrities and cricket sounds. Britney Spears’ “Oops, I did it Again” chorus is just one example. These “drop-ins” are a carryover from Kerdoon’s KPCR days, when he was just getting used to creating a more entertaining style of sports reporting. He just stores them away and even creates his own cheesy jingles.

“It’s completely hokey,” Kerdoon, 55, says. “I completely believe that bad production values equal humor.”

After KPCR, he worked with Weird Al Yankovic at a radio station in Pismo Beach. “Try telling me and Weird Al Yankovic you cannot ad lib!” Kerdoon told a group of students at Pierce College earlier this year.

Indeed, ad libbing and sports reports for Randy Kerdoon just go together.

That doesn’t mean he isn’t doing his homework. Kerdoon must prepare 18 different sportscasts per day. He’s up at 3:40 a.m. at his home in Agoura Hills that he shares with his 15-yearold daughter (who is not a sports fan) and is into KNX by 5 a.m.

He gave up caffeine a while back, though he misses Mountain Dew. This morning, he’s sipping peppermint tea, though the “apple cinnamon is much better.”

The sports news is hot this morning. There’s that state Senate bill about teams relocating to other cities, the upcoming Lakers and Dodgers games and the Angels’ new pitcher. Kerdoon remembers when he first started sports reporting. He took a reel deck to El Camino College and did a play by play of a football game. He went to CSUN, where he did his first big sportscast.

But not well, he says.

“Reading the encyclopedia was more exciting,” he says.

He realized quickly that personality was important. He also learned to speak using his diaphragm, helping to develop a deep “radio voice.”

He moved from radio stations in Reno and Salt Lake City, back to Los Angeles via Simi Valley, which eventually brought him to KFWB (at the time, a 24-hour news station) and then television and KNX for sports and the occasional car report.

And now, with 30 seconds to go before his next report, Kerdoon pounds away at the keyboard, adjusting his script.

“...It has been slow from the 605 freeway and westbound. You were catching a little bit of spectator slowing...”

It’s 8:39 a.m. and Jaxson is nearing the end of his four-hour shift at KNX. The computer screen in front of him is a jumble of red lines dictating that traffic this morning is as slow as molasses on a winter day.

“My secret is to get the most valuable information out there and once people realize I do that a lot, then they come back and they want my service. … It’s the hardest thing in the world to do because it’s always changing,” Jaxson says to a visitor on a spring weekday morning in between reports.

Since midnight, there have been 800 traffic incidents in Los Angeles County, 104 in Orange County, 379 in the Inland Empire.

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Randy Kerdoon (left) of KNX 1070 radio laughs as Pierce students try to guess which person in the 1975 photograph from his college days at Pierce is his colleague Tommy Jaxson. Kerdoon and Jaxson were at the Great Hall to speak to students as part of the Media Arts Speaker Series on March 22, 2011 in Woodland Hills. PHOTO JILL CONNELLY

“It’s always a grind for me. It always is. It’s always unpredictable. It’s always busy and it’s always different,” Jaxson says. “Sometimes, it’s just so insurmountable, you can’t do it all.

This is L.A.” As if to prove his own point, one of his 90-second reports goes over by a few seconds, throwing off the strict deadlines of the morning show hosted by Dick Helton and Vicky Moore.

Jaxson presses a button and speaks into the microphone. “Hey Dick, I’m sorry I went late there.”

“You bet,” Helton replies from the next studio over.

When Jaxson or Kerdoon were at KPCR, no one monitored what they did. But it didn’t stop them from trying to be the best. Even though the station was run by students, they kept it professional. Jaxson says he emulated the Top 40 style of “real commercial radio.”

“Little did we know that was the best thing we could have ever done,” says Jaxson, who also DJs a country music radio show that airs on 250 stations nationwide.

David Blake, a former KPCR program director who worked with Jaxson and later went on to work for KFI and now is a news anchor at WWL in Louisiana, says the experience he gained at Pierce was invaluable.

“There was quite a batch of talent that came out of my little area,” Blake says.

Jaxson, 58, still wants to be the best. He used to do his reports from the air, which helped him memorize the city.

“I don’t want to confuse anybody,” he says.

The man who holds the L.A. area’s most coveted traffic reporter

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spot fell into the job almost by accident. After years of working as a DJ at stations including KOST and STAR, the industry got “a little dicey” in 1996 when the Federal Communications Commission lifted the ban on how many stations one company could own. He started training to do traffic reports and started at KNX in 1998.

“Some say I’m pretty good at it,” Jaxson says, a bit of amusement in his deep, clear voice.

He is good. He’s quick. He reports on the fly. He does 90-second reports every five minutes. In between, he’s balancing phone tips from listeners, calling Caltrans, checking the California Highway Patrol website, looking at sigalert.com and checking in with the traffic reporter in the air that morning. All the while, he’s trying to dress up his reports a bit, throwing in some of the personality he’s crafted over so many years in his business.

His listeners are savvy commuters. They rely on his extensive knowledge of the freeway systems. Take Chris from Malibu Canyon, for example. She’s just left a slightly rambling voicemail for Tommy about construction issues affecting her drive. Jaxson is forced to cut off her message mid-sentence so he can go on air.

“Gonna begin, if you generally use Malibu Canyon coming out of the valley or maybe from the Palisades as you work your way into the San Fernando Valley know they are setting up camp south of the tunnel there’s going to be some roadwork and I just heard from Chris talking about one of the Caltrans signs saying expect a 20-minute delay so you might want to opt for either Topanga Canyon or Kanan Road but probably steer clear of Malibu Canyon south of the tunnel and thanks for the update...”

THE FUTURE

BUILDING the FUTURE

A SHORT GUIDE OF WHAT’S TO COME THE MEDIA WORLD IS CHANGING RAPIDLY AND THE MEDIA ARTS DEPARTMENT HAS EVERY INTENTION OF GIVING OUR STUDENTS THE TOOLS THEY NEED TO KEEP UP, STARTING WITH A NEW BUILDING.

New computer labs, classrooms, a television studio, radio station, soundstage, screening room and art gallery will constitute the new building.

“it’s an incredible, project. everyone within the [los angeles community college] district is excited about it.”

GRETCHEN WAHAB, SENIOR ASSOCIATE WITH DLRGROUP WWCOT, A DESIGN TEAM WORKING WITH THE DEPARTMENT.

2012

is the year when construction begins on the upcoming Digital Arts and Media building.

COLLABORATE The building will house a collaborative environment where students from Media Arts, Art, Architecture, Music Theater and Dance can work on collaborative projects.

PROXIMITY The new structure will be placed near the heart of the campus by the Pierce College Mall. Student journalists will especially benefit from the proximity to the center of campus, which will allow them to communicate with students, faculty and staff quickly and efficiently.

FOR UPDATES ON THE PROJECT, GO TO : PIERCEMEDIAARTS.COM

GREAT IMAGES, NOT JUST

snapshots FORMER PIERCE COLLEGE STUDENT ADRIAN SANCHEZ-GONZALEZ HAS TRAVELED THE WORLD FOR PHOTOGRAPHY

PHOTO BY ANTONIO NAVA

WRITTEN BY

A

STEFANIE FRITH

drian SanchezGonzalez says he’s not the kind of photographer who wants to change the world. But he does want people to feel something when they see his

images.

“We are documenting history, the stories that are around people,” SanchezGonzalez, 25, says. “Some of the more interesting stories come from getting to know those people.”

He may not want to change the world, but photography has allowed the former Pierce College photojournalism student to travel to multiple countries. SanchezGonzalez recently returned from Africa where he photographed orphanages for a nonprofit. He has also been hired to work in Argentina, Spain, Dubai, Wales, China, Tibet, Thailand and several major U.S. cities.

When he isn’t traveling the world for his photography, he’s back home in Los Angeles, where he freelances for Agencia Efe (a Spanish-language wire service similar to the Associated Press), shooting the Angels, Dodgers, Latin Grammys, Oscars, soccer and other events. His images have appeared on the New York Times website and a picture he shot of former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger was in TIME magazine.

He needs a few more units to transfer from Pierce and is pondering attending San Francisco State University. He was thankful for a $10,000 scholarship from the Nikonsponsored Eddie Adams Workshop in New York, also known as “Barnstorm.” He was one of 100 photojournalists chosen to attend the prestigious four-day workshop in Jeffersonville, New York in 2009.

As part of the workshop, SanchezGonzalez, armed with his Canon 5D camera, photographed a family of Mexican immigrants who work in a slaughterhouse.

“They were working illegally… but once I got to know who these people are, they were

just Mexican families trying to help their families back home,” Sanchez-Gonzalez, whose parents hail from Mexico, says.

“They can live for free, but unfortunately, they live in a cruel thing.”

The photographer’s long-time mentor, Armando Arozizo, says Sanchez-Gonzalez is talented and brings a personal approach to each the subjects he photographs. He knows this is why the Pierce student won the scholarship.

“He’s really quiet,” Arozizo says. “You hardly notice he’s taking the picture.”

Jill Connelly, assistant professor of photography at Pierce College, says she knew when Sanchez-Gonzalez was a photographer for the college’s student newspaper the Roundup and student magazine The Bull that he had an eye for capturing moments. He also brought the college recognition with the awards he won at the Journalism Association of Community Colleges conferences.

“I knew Adrian would do something special,” Connelly says. “But I didn’t know it

AROUND THE WORLD

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“WE ARE DOCUMENTING HISTORY, THE STORIES THAT ARE AROUND PEOPLE.” ADRIAN SANCHEZGONZALEZ, PHOTOJOURNALIST

Lisa Blumenfeld, (bottom left) founder of Project Goodlife, an NGO helping impoverished orphanages in Tanzania, hands out shoes to orphan children at the Huruma Children’s Trust orphanage outside Arusha, Tanzania on Thursday, January 20, 2011. PHOTO ADRIAN SANCHEZ-GONZALEZ/Project Goodlife

would happen so quickly.”

Sanchez-Gonzalez has been attending classes at Pierce College since 2006.

He graduated from San Fernando High School in 2004, where he participated in a multimedia program his last semester.

In 2005, Arozizo, who is a photographer for Agencia Efe and owns a gallery in Koreatown, invited him to attend an Angels game and help him take pictures. That was when Sanchez-Gonzalez says he got “the bug.”

“I got to do stuff that people pay for or wish they were (at),” he says.

Sanchez-Gonzalez later connected with freelance photographer Don Camp.

He says Camp was just starting to shift to digital photography and agreed to let Sanchez-Gonzalez help him out. Camp took him to China and Argentina to help him photograph his assignments.

Now, just a few years later, the humble photographer can offer insight about traveling the world on various photographic missions. He’s been to Dubai twice and

casually rattles off the differences between the first time he was there five years ago (“nothing but sand, you could get lost in the middle of the dunes”) and what it’s like today (“It’s like Beverly Hills, times 100”).

His time in Africa, however, causes Sanchez-Gonzalez to pause with reflection.

Using his camera to help others in need took on a special meaning. He spent two weeks in Tanzania, where he was paid to photograph orphanages. He was hired

by Project Goodlife to create images that can be used by the non-governmental organization to raise funds to help pay for the children’s education, clothing, food, shelter and medications.

“The families struggle to raise their children,” Sanchez-Gonzalez says. “There are economic troubles, HIV/AIDS and the parents die from diseases, like malaria. So the children end up in orphanages.”

Sanchez-Gonzalez says his photo and journalistic background helped him find the best images for photographs in Africa.

“My intention was to photograph daily

life,” he says. “…I was very much there to embrace the culture and integrate myself into the society. (I wanted) to bond with people to get immediate access to see what was going on. I wanted evidence that they are living hard lives.”

The freelance photographer says he was able to learn enough Swahili to be able to carry on conversations. This surprised a lot of the people, he says, but helped him create bonds with people who want him to return to their country. It seems to surprise even Sanchez-Gonzalez himself that he was able to break out of his self-described “shy” nature and push himself out of his comfort zone in order to obtain the images he desired.

“It was kinda cool to be able to see the people’s reactions,” he says. “Now I have friends who want me to come back.”

But perhaps best of all, the people who hire Sanchez-Gonzalez realize he takes his photography seriously.

“I really want to make some great images,” he says. “Not just a snapshot.”

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JARED IORIO FIRST WENT TO HAITI IN JULY 2010 TO VOLUNTEER. HE HAS SPENT MOST OF THE LAST 6 MONTHS IN HAITI, LIVING AND DOCUMENTING EVERYDAY LIFE IN PORTAU-PRINCE AND JACMEL.

NOTES FROM HAITI WRITTEN BY

JARED IORIO

7 14 2010 d

THE FORMER MEDIA ARTS STUDENT HELPED BEGIN AN INFORMAL AFTER-SCHOOL PROGRAM TEACHING PHOTOGRAPHY TO LOCAL CHILDREN. UPDATES ON THE PROGRAM WILL BE POSTED ON HIS BLOG AT : JAREDIORIO.COM/WORDS

d

JUST GOT TO JACMEL LATE LAST NIGHT. We struck camp in an empty school classroom. The pastor of this Christian school, Vie de France, has let us use his property as a base for the house we are rebuilding down the street. “If you’re helping someone in my community, you’re helping me.” This gives us running (cold) water, way out of the elements -- and a

flushing toilet. Things the majority here don’t have. Most importantly, though, it gives us the ability to keep the tools and materials under lock and key, so that we can get Madam Jean Baptiste’s house rebuilt.

This frail 70-year old woman has no children, and no one in her life with the ability to look after her, or fix her badly earthquake-damaged house. To make enough money to live on, she spends her days in the marche (outdoor market),

AROUND THE WORLD

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(Above) Papa Danis David, head houngan (Vodou priest) of the village in Cyvadier where Jared Iorio lived for six months. Or, actually, this is his body, here he is mounted by a lwa (spirit) during a Vodou ceremony. (Left) Jared Iorio getting “masqued” for Mardi Gras in Jacmel this past March. The body paint is equal parts charcoal, motor oil, fine dirt and kleren (sugar cane moonshine). He kept one hand clean to be able to shoot. Mardi Gras runs every weekend for a month leading up to Karnaval. PHOTO JARED IORIO

selling plastic shopping bags to marchans (street merchants) and customers. Some days she won’t sell a single bag, on others she can come out of it with 30 or 40 gourdes ($1 US).

What a great way to spend a birthday. I’m 32 today, and I will never forget this.

11 22 2010 d

d

AAHHHHH. I’M TIRED. Late night at the local peristil (Vodou temple). Everyone

is wonderfully drunk at these fets (dances).

They can’t see straight, and when the lwa (spirit) mounts them, it’s downright unnerving, especially when they have knives or machetes in their hands. That said, I can’t completely discount this religion anymore than any other I’ve seen. In fact, there is probably more physical evidence for Vodou than anything else I’ve seen. The rest is all talk. Here we have action. Dancing.

Singing. Rum. Haven’t seen a Vodou doll yet, and don’t expect to. I’ve seen Erzulie

Dantor (mother spirit) though, and I’ve seen Kriminel eat a glass bottle bit-by-jaggedbit without the possessed person’s mouth bleeding. At least I think I saw it, I was pretty sou (drunk). I’m sure I have pictures of it here somewhere…

12 25 2010 d

d

THE RHUM BARBANCOURT IS FLOWING. We found one string of

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Photo by Dikerson Jean, age 12, one of Jared Iorio’s informal photography students. This was taken during a processional to a mass grave of earthquake victims located in the cemetery in Jacmel on the one-year anniversary of the disaster. PHOTO DICKERSON JEAN

Christmas lights on sale at the outdoor market in Jacmel. They’re strung over a miniature palm tree and tied to the ironbar windows. Tiblan, Ricardo, Jondi and the boys are dancing and lip-syncing to Barricade Crew on the front porch.

Tiblan’s wearing a pair of knock-off Aviator sunglasses with one lens missing. It’ll be on to the beach in a few minutes, the Caribbean. Maybe have a lobster, definitely a Prestige beer and pictures. It’s Christmas in Cyvadier.

01 02 2011 d

d

HAPPY NEW YEAR! Just came back from the kolera (cholera) treatment facility run by Doctors Without Borders. Not to shoot a story, to get checked out. This is day 18 of me being chained to my toilet. The good news is I do not have kolera; I have

parasites. Lots of them.

01 12 2011 d

d

WHAT A DAY! Took the kids out for a little street photography session on the anniversary of the trembleman te (earthquake). Amazing how elastic a language Kreyol is. The new word for earthquake (or at least that earthquake) is Goudougoudou. Because that’s the sound the ground made.

I thought maybe it would be nice to go out and do something with the kids instead of having them sit at home on a day like this. Turns out, I was thinking about it more than they were. It’s history. I guess it was a long, long time ago for kids. They just wanted to get to town and take pictures.

My friend Gogo came with us and he was great, showing the kids how to get up close

while shooting without being scared. He’s a natural, except all of his photos came out blurry as hell.

We ended up following a memorial procession to the cemetery in the center of town. The memorial was to end at the site of a mass grave of 101 people killed in the earthquake. When the procession entered the cemetery, we were invited along to photograph.

The paths through the rows of tombs fit one person at a time, and there was no way we were going to get any decent shots, it was too compact, no elbow room. Then, Gogo and Dike suddenly leap on top of the nearest tomb and started skipping from large to small tomb in an effort to get ahead of the procession, like some macabre game of hopscotch.

AROUND THE WORLD

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Karnaval onlookers party long into the night. Jacmel’s Karnaval was the first in two years, as last years was canceled due to the earthquake just a few months previous.

PHOTO JARED IORIO

Ignorant of the cultural norms, my feet are cemented to the ground. I can’t jump on the tombs of the dead, can I? What will they say if they see a blan (white foreigner) doing it? Apparently nothing, as two seconds later I was running after my mates, and having a laugh just like them. They got the better pictures.

02 08 2011 d

d

THAT WAS ROUGH. I may have gotten a tad too comfortable here.

Reginald, one of the older kids I’ve been helping learn photography, asked me to go shooting with him at Ravin Normand, just up the road from our neighborhood. It’s a bit of a hike.

After a 10-minute tap-tap (bus) ride, you have to cross over a mountain, to get

to what he said was a pristine river. I’m not sure what he wanted to take pictures of.

Maybe just the landscape. I probably won’t find out.

We met a bunch of people on the way up, calling out bon swas (good afternoon) and komann ou ye las (how are you) to everyone we passed. All seemed fine.

Another sweltering late afternoon in Haiti.

Thirty minutes in, we met a man on the goat path who seemed to want to chat a bit. I couldn’t make out most of the conversation, which happens a lot when two Haitians begin speaking without slowing it down for the blan. As my ears adjust I hear catchwords, and start to get a bad feeling.

Then I hear kolera and I’m straining to try and understand what this old man with the walking stick is saying. No dice.

Suddenly, Reginald, pulls my arm. “Let’s

go!” In English. And he starts leading me back down the hill. I try to stop him and get an explanation. Supposedly we’re almost to the river. Why are we going back? Reginald is already 10 meters ahead of me and still calling “Let’s go!” over his shoulder, he’s bounding down the steep decline. I realize he’s running. I turn to look behind me and there’s a crowd following us. Chasing us out of Ravin Normand.

Safely on another tap-tap home, Reginald clues me in as to why he took off. The man had accused us of trying to put a white powder of kolera in the river.

Why else would the blan be here? Then I remember reading that article online about how the inhabitants of a small village near Jeremie took a deadly machete to nine of their own houngan (Vodou priest) because they believed that they had poisoned the water with kolera powder.

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BETWEEN f two g worlds JILL CONNELLY, PIERCE COLLEGE’S MEDIA ARTS DEPARTMENT CHAIR AND SEASONED PHOTOJOURNALIST, TRAVELED TO THE DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO LAST SUMMER WITH UNICEF.

AROUND THE WORLD

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A 42-year-old woman, at the Heal Africa psychosocial support center near Goma in North Kivu, Democratic Republic of Congo on July 5, 2010.

She was selling beignets at home when a man violated her. She then went to Heal Africa for medical and psychosocial support.

PHOTO JILL CONNELLY/ UNICEF

WRITTEN BY

JEFF FAVRE

S

kin and bones would not be an exaggeration to describe the little girl being carried by her mother into a clinic in the Democratic Republic of Congo village of TK. When a community volunteer removed her shirt to weigh her, her frail, fragile body exposed the reason why she was in her mother’s arms. She was too weak and malnourished to stand, let alone walk.

The sight of this tragic moment caught Jill Connelly—a mother of two children—off guard … momentarily.

But, raising her Canon 5D Mark II digital camera, she kept doing her job, which was to document without emotion the little girl, her mother and everything that was taking place at the clinic.

Connelly juggles two worlds—each

informing the other. For five years she has been a photography instructor at Pierce College, and for most of that time she also has served as department chair of the school’s Media Arts Department.

Her other career is as a photojournalist, freelancing for Associated Press, the Boston Globe and the Atlanta Journal Constitution, to name only a few.

Last summer’s trip to the Congo’s Katanga province, however, wasn’t for a news organization, but for UNICEF. The three-week job sent her to some 14 locations in the country—most in or near the capital city of Kinshasa, and a few in other more remote regions.

As a mother, Connelly hesitated to take the assignment.

“It’s the rape capital of the world,”

said Connelly, whose degrees include a bachelor’s in communication from State University of New York and a master’s in journalism from Boston University. “But the woman who hired me is also a mom.

I asked her a lot of questions, and from talking to her I felt comfortable enough to do it.”

Still, that didn’t keep Connelly from barricading herself in a hotel room the first night in the country with her money stuffed in her underwear.

“Well, they give you all your daily spending money up front, and it’s thousands of dollars in cash,” she explained. “It’s a little scary.”

Soon Connelly settled into the routine.

Nights at the hotel and tourist restaurant food were followed by daily visits to a

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(Right) Girl, age 16, a former child soldier at Cajed transit center for children who were in the armed forces and now are looking for their families to be rejoined with them, Goma, North Kivu, DRC, June 8, 2010. She is presently the only girl there (there are 162 boys.) She voluntarily joined the military but says she suffered and wants to be with her family again. She was demobilized 3 months ago and expects to join her family soon.

(Far right) Louise Arun, with her newborn, under a bednet at a maternity hospital in the Tshamilemba health district of Lumbabashi, Democratic Republic of Congo, on July 3, 2010. PHOTO JILL CONNELLY/UNICEF

location where the relief agency was assisting the local residents. Besides taking photos, she took notes and wrote stories that UNICEF could use in various outlets, including online and for a bilingual brochure.

Programs she covered included education, helping victims of abuse, and various health issues.

The challenge for Connelly was to straddle a fine line that UNICEF paints.

The nongovernmental organization doesn’t want staged or altered

photographs. But at the same time, the images can’t be overly depressing or graphic. They are particularly sensitive to how children are depicted.

So Connelly’s photo of the malnourished girl won’t be seen in any published UNICEF materials.

“For me teaching always comes from a photojournalistic background, and there were different considerations working for a not-for-profit,” she said. “The experience is something new for me, and it’s something I can teach to students.

While some images were too stark for UNICEF, many other photos made the cut. In addition, Connelly filed more than a dozen stories.

“I most enjoyed the education stories,” Connelly said. “We visited a preschool and I got some beautiful photos there.

And we visited a program where older kids mentored younger ones. I enjoyed working with the kids. They loved seeing their faces on the back of my camera when I took their photos. I don’t think most of them had ever seen a camera like that

AROUND THE WORLD

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before.”

Most days, Connelly reached the designated location by car, driven by a local who knew the area and who was equipped with a radio. A small plane provided transportation to the further away areas.

She was almost always able to get back to home base by night.

“But one time we were too far away,” she said. “There was no hotel and we couldn’t make it back by nightfall so we

stayed with this priest. He charged us $5 for a room in his house. And he had bread for breakfast.”

Roughing it away from the hotel wound up being some of Connelly’s favorite parts of the trip. During the country’s 50th anniversary of independence, she was relocated for a day to a village that was considered safer.

“Most of the time in Kinshasa I couldn’t walk around or go shopping,” she said. “So it was nice to be somewhere

that I could get a better sense of what daily life was like.”

Connelly’s trip was problem free— except for a broken lens (her husband sent a replacement via DHL) and some pre-trip malaria medication side effects.

And despite potential dangers, she would accept another similar opportunity if it came her way.

“I love documentary photography,” she said. “And I’m always looking to cover something new.”

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inspiring generat WRITTEN BY

KELLY GOFF

W

ith his head lowered and cocked to the side, an eyebrow raised above his glasses, he stares at the room full of wide-eyed journalism students, most holding their breath, some with tears welling up as he points out the mistakes they made, ones he’d warned them not to make.

There is no argument against his criticism. First, it’s not allowed. Second, rarely is he wrong. All attention focuses on the professor’s words, or rather, on the issue of the paper that he woke at 6 a.m.

to cover in red marks.

“Oh, hell sheets were hell with a capital ‘H’!” laughs Michelle Hofmann, 46, a former editor in chief of the Roundup, who attended Pierce from 1994 to 1996.

Rob O’Neil, the man who trained countless journalists through this weekly turn of the rack, retired from teaching last semester, much to the disappointment of many former students, who see his tough love approach as a reason for their success.

These ‘hell sheets’, as the Wednesday meetings are called, happen every week in the Roundup newsroom at Pierce College, following the morning distribution of the school’s student-produced newspaper.

Their goal is to critique the student

editors, photographers and reporters as though they were hearing it from their bosses in a morning editorial meeting at a major metro daily, or in feedback letters from their readers.

The saving grace for many of the students was the so-called Pony Pulitzers, the chance for advisers to recognize the great work that students do each week.

The elation at one of these awards often outshone any devastation from the critique.

“Rob always had the ability to refine a story without destroying me. That’s a skill a lot of people don’t have,” says Hofmann.

O’Neil leaves behind a legacy of humor, dedication and an unceasing passion for news.

PHOTO GIL RIEGO JR.

PHOTOS COURTESY OF GIL RIEGO JR.

tions

PROFESSOR SPOTLIGHT

RETIRING OLD-SCHOOL NEWSPAPERMAN PROVES THE FUNDAMENTALS OF JOURNALISM REMAIN

A CONTAGIOUS PASSION A SPECIAL NOTE FROM A TEACHER TO HER MENTOR AND COLLEAGUE

I

met Rob O’Neil on my 19th birthday.

It was the first day of journalism classes at L.A. Valley College. I had been interested in journalism since middle school, but had taken a break from reporting and writing during my freshman year at the university. I was miserable. It was Fall 1984 and I needed a purpose in life. I needed to be around people who loved journalism. I needed direction.

As my first college journalism professor, Rob put me on a path that would ultimately guide my entire professional career.

My passion for journalism was reignited by the intensity of his teaching style. When our timed writing exercises were done, Rob would physically pull the plug on the electric typewriters.

When someone’s story contained a GFE, a “gross factual error” that prompted a correction in the newspaper, we heard about it. When someone’s story nailed it, he sang our praises. He said he would defend our right to publish and would stick by us, no matter what. Inspired by Rob’s reverence for accuracy and the truth, we had the courage to question the administration’s ability to govern our community college district. We covered protests and heated board meetings, fulfilling journalism’s duty as the watchdog of democracy.

After three semesters, I transferred back to the university. Rob and I kept in touch by phone and his typed letters. He

later transferred to Pierce College and I would occasionally lecture to his students about being a newspaper reporter.

Over lunch I would tell him of my latest career plans and inevitably ask for yet another letter of recommendation. When I was hired at the L.A. Times, he was as proud as if I was his own daughter. We eventually became colleagues when he worked at the Times as a reporter for several summers. At first, this change in dynamics was awkward for me. In time I came to view Rob as a colleague, although in my mind he will always be my mentor.

Our time together in the newsroom turned out to be a precursor to our time together in the classroom as journalism instructors. I was laid off in June 2004 during a round of cutbacks, after 14 years with the Times. Unable to relocate to another city and uninterested in working for a smaller publication, it felt like I’d not only lost my job but also my career. I emailed friends and fellow journalists to tell them what happened. Of all the email responses to my news, Rob’s was the most heartfelt.

Within a week, Rob suggested that I teach an intermediate news writing class at Pierce College starting in the fall semester. I hesitated because I didn’t have a master’s degree or any teacher training, but with Rob’s encouragement I decided to give it a shot. That summer we talked on the phone constantly—at his office, at his home, on Sundays—as Rob gave me a crash course on teaching community college journalism and coadvising a student newspaper. He even successfully petitioned the community college district to let me teach, based on

my experience, at least until I could earn my master’s degree.

It turned out that we made a great team, far better than I think either of us could have imagined. Rob had the wisdom that comes from decades of teaching; I had the energy that reignited his passion for education. Our Wednesday team-teaching sessions included an often-blistering critique of the newspaper, just as Rob had done when he was my instructor at L.A. Valley College. We took students to journalism competitions where they won numerous awards.

And most of all, we had fun. On St. Patrick’s Day, leprechauns magically decorated his office with green streamers and there was a sea of green shirts in the classroom. On Halloween, a few of us dressed up, and Rob came as a shark with a pair of feet sticking out of its mouth.

He then delivered a unique grammar lesson about a man eating shark and a man-eating shark. Each year on the day before Thanksgiving, we carved a turkey in the newsroom and watched rock ‘n’ roll performances from the ‘60s while trying to guess the names of the artists.

Rob always won.

I forever will be grateful to Rob O’Neil for always believing in me, more than I believed in myself at times. He taught me how to be a journalist and a teacher.

During the past 27 years, he has left an indelible mark on my education, my professional career and my heart. On the occasion of his well-deserved retirement, I wish Rob all the best—now and always.

Stephanie Stassel-Bluestein is an Adjunct Professor at Pierce College.

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“He walks around like he’s still on the beat,” says Elliot Golan, 27, a former Roundup staffer who is now majoring in news editorial at Humboldt State University.

“He walks up and says ‘What’s going on?

What’s happening?’ but he always seems to be looking out the corner of his eye like he might miss a triple homicide.”

O’Neil came to the school after a stint at Valley College, and following a reporting career that included time at United Press International’s Los Angeles bureau and with the Valley Edition of the Los Angeles Times.

O’Neil began teaching at Pierce in 1987, and

because he taught us in a shark suit,” wrote Aaron Sheldon, a former Roundup editor-inchief, in an email.

Doreen Clay, another former student who is now the college’s Public Relations Manger, says that Rob’s humor is something that continues to draw her to him as a friend and colleague long after leaving his classroom. “What I love about Rob is that he is totally hysterical,” she says. “He is halfcrazy in a wonderful way.”

Clay is one of many former students who say that entering the program with O’Neil as a professor altered the course not only of

classroom, seems perhaps to dedicate himself just as much to his students as he does to their hunt for news.

Javier Zazueta, a former Roundup staffer, talks about how O’Neil took a personal interest in him that kept him in the program when everything else in life looked grim.

“Throughout my adult life struggles he brought comfort and he was constantly there for support,” wrote Zazueta in an email.

“A moment that stands out for me in my relationship with Rob was when I was 20 and homeless. I finally had found a job and with the hope to return to school, I went to talk to him in the old Roundup trailer.

“With my baby sister next to me, he listened to what I was dealing with at the moment and he took a genuine interest in my life, hopes and baby sister, he still asks about her whenever we talk. That type of care is one that goes beyond from being just an educator into someone who sees you more than a student and wants you to succeed,” he says.

Though he will be fondly remembered by many former students and colleagues for his humor, wry sensitivity and his series of rules to always be ready for the news (Always carry a change of clothes! Always have a pen and paper ready, tapes or digital might fail!) it is the fundamentals of good storytelling that he passed along to an entire generation of journalism students that will live with his students long after he leaves the classroom.

“He always read your story and then said, ‘well, think about this,’” recalls Golan.

“He always taught us to be flexible. He always said that ‘news is a deviation of the normal flow of events,’ and to think about what the news really was in a story,” he says.

Certainly his take on hyphens – “Maneating shark” versus “Man eating shark” – will live on in newsroom lore.

More than that, Rob’s impact will be seen in the works that his students continue to produce as they work in the field.

“Some teachers can define a generation,” Hofmann says of Rob, “and some can define a series of generations.”

“he walks around like he’s still on the beat,”

ELLIOT GOLAN, FORMER PIERCE COLLEGE STUDENT became a full-time faculty member in 1989.

He acted as chair of the media arts department for seven years, overseeing the move of the newsroom from the old bungalows to its current interim location in the Village. He handed over his chair duties to photography professor Jill Connelly in 2008.

While his attention to detail often infuriated students desperate to make deadline or who found themselves defending a word choice in an otherwise stellar story, it was Rob’s voracious appetite for perfection that they now credit for their successes.

“I think the program kind of set a foundation for me,” says Rabeeah Patail, 24, a former Roundup managing editor who now works for Bender Helper Impact, a public relations firm in Los Angeles.

“Before I joined the program,” she says, “my writing was weak. But Rob was not afraid to get in your face and say that this is not a good piece. I copy edited my stories so many times, wanting to see if I could get a 90 or an A.” Others note that his unique sense of humor often added something to what could have otherwise been a boring grammar lecture.

“I remember when Rob taught me everything I know about hyphens, a lesson I will absolutely never forget and frequently reflect on when I am editing — chiefly

their academic careers, but frequently, their life path.

“He changed me,” says Hofmann. In 1994, Hofmann registered for the J100 class, Social Values in Mass Communication, which at the time was team-taught by O’Neil and former media arts department chair Mike Cornner.

“I thought I was too old for college,” she recalls, “But Rob changed my life. He never talked down to me. He has such respect for the humanity of his students.”

Hofmann transferred to Cal State Northridge after her time at Pierce and became a reporter, including freelancing for the LA Times. Now she is pursuing a graduate degree at CSUN and hopes to help other students the same way Rob helped her by returning to the classroom to teach.

“I could never pay him back,” she says.

Similarly, Clay says that O’Neil’s influence changed the course of her life. “I was a musician,” she says. “In the spring of 2001, I thought I’d take a class, so I registered for Collecting and Writing the News, and he was totally inspiring.”

She eventually took a part-time job at the college as an assistant for the former public relations manager, Mike Cornner, who had previously taught with Rob and chaired the department. When Cornner retired, Clay landed the position.

O’Neil, for all his dedication to the

contributors art director

assistant art director

NATALIE YEMENIDJIAN

KRISTOPHER PRUE-COOK

is a former Pierce College student who has been editor of the student-run publications Roundup newspaper, The Bull magazine and was the first program director of KPCRadio.com.

is a Pierce College alumnus who has been managing editor of the student-run publications Roundup newspaper and The Bull magazine.

writers & Photographers JILL CONNELLY

SPECIAL THANKS AMARA AGUILAR

is an assistant professor of multimedia for Pierce College’s Media Arts Department.

STEPHANIE STASSEL-BLUESTEIN is an adjunct professor of journalism for Pierce College’s Media Arts Department.

ADRIAN SANCHEZ-GONZALEZ is a Pierce College alumnus and freelance photojournalist.

is the department chair and photography professor for Pierce College’s Media Arts Department.

STEFANIE FRITH

is an assistant professor of journalism for Pierce College’s Media Arts Department.

KELLY GOFF is a Pierce College alumna who has been editor of the student-run publications the Roundup newspaper and The Bull magazine.

Goff is currently the editor for San Francisco State University’s Golden Gate Xpress.

JEFF FAVRE is an adjunct professor of journalism for Pierce College’s Media Arts Department.

JARED IORIO

is a Pierce College alumnus who has been editor of the student-run publication The Bull magazine.

GIL RIEGO JR. is a Pierce College alumnus who has been editor of the student-run publications the Roundup newspaper and The Bull magazine.

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