D.C. Day 4

Thursday September 22, 2011

We spent most of today at the Newseum both exploring the museum and attending the 27th Isaiah Thomas Awards Ceremony. The RIT CIAS School of Print Media presented seven RIT alumni, including our very own(most favorite professor in the world), William Snyder the awards in publishing. The other alumni included Stan Grossfeld, Ken Geiger, Dan Loh, Paul Benoit, Robert Bukaty, and Anthony Sua. All seven of these alumni did some incredible work and it was exciting to see them be awarded for their great work.

I think the most exciting part of the ceremony was seeing the winners photos on a screen as they were being awarded. These photos are well-known, photos you react to, and most importantly, photos you always remember. You don't really think about who took them, you just know that they are there. To see put a face with the photo was nice, to know who took those photos you always see and remember, and we were fortunate enough to speak with several of these people.

I guess I didn't expect people/photojournalists who took and can still take photos like the ones shown to talk to someone like me. But I was wrong. These guys actually wanted to talk to us. They wanted to hear what we are doing and what we want to do. We are the future of photojournalism, and they are the ones inspiring and guiding us.

After the awards we had an awesome lunch and headed out to explore the Newseum. The place is huge, and I got to see some of the world's greatest news history. There was a 9/11 exhibit which was put together in an amazing way. There was a wall full of every 9/12/01 front page from all over the world. In the center of the exhibit was a piece off the top of the world trade center with worldwide stories surrounding it. There was also a room where you could watch a video on the event. The video was of several journalists, photojournalists, radio and tv broadcasters telling their stories of 9/11. They were all doing different things that day and expressed all sorts of emotion, but there was something they all had in common apart from being caught in one of the world's most tragic events. On September 11, 2001, all of those news media staff were something other than reporters and photographers and broadcasters, they were human beings. They, just like any other person that day in any of the places attacked, were humans and they were running for their lives. They still went on with their work though. They got the job done in the best way they could, it was a story that had to be told, and it was, and will forever be remembered.

"Journalism is the first rough draft of history."-Philip Graham,publisher, The Washington Post

Unfortunately, the Newseum is huge and I was not able to see everything before it closed for the day. From what I did see though, it's a pretty cool place with some seriously historic news and photographs. I would definitely recommend it, even if you're not so into the journalism thing, it's something that would be good for just about anyone to see.

Prisca and Joe bonding on the roof.