Representatives of four photojournalism projects held a collaborative presentation in Jody Richards Hall’s auditorium Friday.
The lecture, titled “The Changing Story: Four Photography Projects That Document Kentucky’s Past and Present,” featured discussions from representatives of Mountain Workshops, Picture Kentucky, Boyd’s Station, and The Kentucky Documentary Photographic Project.
Mountain Workshops is an annual series of workshops directed by WKU’s Visual Journalism and Photography program. The workshop allows for visual storytellers to document stories in a different area of Kentucky each year.
Mountain Workshops consists of three workshops: photojournalism, video storytelling and picture editing. Each workshop provides a unique opportunity for participants to hone their skills and apply them to new environments.
WKU professor and Mountain Workshop Director James Kenney, who presented at the lecture, emphasized the mutual respect between workshop participants and their subjects.
“We serve the community by telling their stories genuinely and ethically, with kindness and compassion,” Kenney said. “With cameras and microphones pointed at them, they open their businesses, schools, homes and hearts.”
Picture Kentucky, a similar photojournalism workshop, is hosted by the University of Kentucky’s School of Journalism and Media, College of Communication and Information, and the Kentucky Kernel, UK’s independent student newspaper.
Participants of Picture Kentucky spend four days learning about photojournalism and short filmmaking in small groups.
Picture Kentucky changes locations from year to year, having focused on Frankfort from 2021 to 2023 before switching to Lawrenceburg for 2024 and Hazard for 2025.
UK associate professor and Picture Kentucky Workshop Director David Stephenson, who represented Picture Kentucky for this lecture, spoke on the profound effect the workshop has had on its participants.
“Many students participate in the workshop for multiple years and year after year, the students tell us that the workshop is a life-changing experience for them,” Stephenson said. “They look at journalism much differently, even if they don’t intend to be professional photographers when they graduate.”
Unlike Mountain Workshops and Picture Kentucky, Boyd’s Station, a non-profit arts and journalism organization, offers a far more exclusive workshop with Project 306.36.
Open to only two student photojournalists each year, Project 306.36 houses its participants in Harrison County for 12 weeks as they work to document the region’s many stories, and offers participants weekly critiques from renowned photojournalists.
Jack Gruber, founder and executive director of Boyd’s Station, discussed Project 306.36’s reliance on the greater photojournalism community, as many of those involved, including the photojournalists offering critiques, are volunteers.
“It’s rooted in community and volunteerism,” Gruber said. “Everything is driven by just a few key things.”
The Kentucky Documentary Photographic Project began in 2015 as an effort from a small team of photojournalists to document all regions of Kentucky.
The project seeks to photograph Kentucky in 40-year intervals, building off the similar photojournalism work of the Farm Security Administration from 1935 to 1943, and the original Kentucky Documentary Photographic Project, which ran from 1975 to 1977.
The current Kentucky Documentary Photographic Project concluded its work in 2024, and plans to pass the project on to a new team of photojournalists in 2055.
During her presentation, documentary photographer Brittany Greeson, who participated in The Kentucky Documentary Photographic Project and presented on its behalf, focused on the lineage of the project and the feelings that come with carrying its legacy.
“I think something that’s been really beautiful is building on all these generations of photography in Kentucky…” Greeson said. “I think that’s something really special about this project.”
