AN EXPERIENCE WITH A PULITZER WINNER PAPER DISCOVERY FALL 2013
YUXUAN JIA
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Foreword This shadowing experience was just a homework assignment at first, but at the time I met with Tom Gralish, it became something far more amazing. The tension I had, the rejection I received, and all the waiting, became worthy. He is a Pulitzer Price Winner, but all I saw from him, was hard working for any assignment and the love for photography. I was not only watching how a professional photographer work, but also how happy a person will be when he is doing something he like.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS TOM GRALISH ---------------------- 8 EARLY EXPERIENCE
PULITZER PRIZE
SHADOWING ------------------------ 18 ASSINGMENT EDITING
WORKS CITED --------------------- 30
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Tom Gralish
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It all started when he was 7 grades. He lived in Japan at that time. One day, a Japanese high school kid came by with a camera and took pictures about he and his friends playing. After that, he totally forgot this. But about a week after, the high school kid came back with all the pictures, they were beautiful prints, 5 by 7, and they are shinny and glossy. He never saw something beautiful like that, because the prints at that time usually were yellow. So, he tried to figure out how they made it. He began to learn how to develop films, and he also bought cameras. He just did it for fun at the beginning, but at high school, he began to take photos for the school 10
newspaper and work for newspaper at summer time. He did not have a collage degree, he can easily found job because “he is good and cheap�. He used to work at Los Angeles, than he became a free lancer at England. After that, he came back to American and finally moved to Philadelphia because his wife is from Pennsylvania.
Early Experience
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PHOTO BY TOM GRALISH
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“I hooked up with one little group. It was like a community — enough vendors to be nice to them, enough steam grates, a liquor store nearby, a hospital, lots of commuters to panhandle — everything they needed.” ---- Tom Gralish
Pulitzer Prize
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Tom Gralish won Pulitzer Prize on 1986 for his April Inquirer Magazine photo assignment about Philadelphia homeless peoples, and he was just 29 years old at that time (Inquirer). At beginning, the reason why they pick him to do this assignment was because there are no photographers available. It is the biggest thing he ever done at that time, they gave his lot of time and he finished it on 3 weeks. The homeless peoples did not allow him to take photos at first, so he kept going by, said hi to them and introduced himself to get friendly. “They are regular people too,� he said, so they became friendly 14
to him and allowed him to take photos. Sometimes they even will felt jealous when he talked to other homeless peoples, so when he came back to talk to them they will try to become more friendly to him. But he thinks this story did not change the situation much. Because in that time, there was no Internet, so not a lot of people saw those photos, most people just saw the one that a man setting inside the box.
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Shadowing The shadowing is on November 15, 2013. Tom Gralish is perfect photographer to shadow with, he is nice and he explain everything he does, he also tell me how he finds the shooting angle and what, where and when he thinks is good to shoot. He just likes a tutor for me.
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The first assignment he does that day is a portrait of a couple of developers who want to create a high-end movie theater inside the old Boyd Theater on Chestnut Street.
Assignment
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The Boyd Theatre was built in 1928 and operated as a movie theater for 74 years, operating under the name Sameric as part of the United Artists theater chain, before closing in 2002 (cinema treasures). 22
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The second Assignment he does that day is shooting some wines, foods and some plates and cups that will be on the Inquirer Christmas gifts guide list. The shooting is on Inquirer’s studio, so I get the chance to see the Inquirer’s newsroom and studio, which make me so exited.
Inquirer News Room 24
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Inquirer Studio
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After the first assignment, he finds a coffee shop to edit the photos he take the day before, because he had too much assignments that day, so he did not have time to edit it. The assignment is a story
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Editing 28
interviewing people what they are doing when the president Kennedy was killed. He went to a family that the wife was working at a phone company that time. He took the photo about her in her kitchen and also the old photo when she is younger. The apps he use to edit photo are mainly Photoshop and Photo Mechanic. He also explains to me how he edits photos, he does not like to change the photo too much, but he may add more light in some specific place on the photo. He also shows me the Inquirer’s “Photo of The Day” and tells me how they took those photos.
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Works Cited “Tom Gralish’s Pulitzer-winning photos on the homeless.” Inquirer. Philly. com. August 12, 2007. Web. November 24, 2013. http://www.philly.com/philly/gallery/ Inquirer_Photographer_Tom_Gralish_s_ Pulitzer_Prize_winning_photo_essay_on_ the_homeless.html Mike Geater, George Quirk, Howard B. Haas. “Boyd Theatre.” Cinema Treasures. Cinema Treasures LLC. Web. November 24, 2013. http://cinematreasures.org/theaters/1209
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