Photo courtesy of sacbee.com
SUNY New Paltz Journalism: Teaching In Focus Renee Byer, Pulitzer Prize winning photojournalist, joins SUNY New Paltz for a groundbreaking semester. Kate Blessing
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or the first time, in the spring of 2010, SUNY New Paltz is bringing home a local. Renée C. Byer, raised in both Yonkers and in Rosendale, N.Y., is a Pulitzer Prize winning senior photojournalist at Sacramento, California’s Sacramento Bee, and she will be joining SUNY New Paltz as the new face of the James H. Ottaway Sr. Endowed Professorship. Byer, a New Yorker, was born in the Bronx and graduated from Ulster County Community College, as well as Bradley University in Illinois, before switching coasts. She is returning back east for a groundbreaking semester as the face of a new style of teaching at New Paltz. The journalism department brings in honored professionals yearly in hopes that they, the Ottaway Professor, can provide students with the “skills to be courageous journalists and better writers,” according to SUNY New Paltz’s website. Skills
that, in the past, have been attained through a 15-week (one semester) course offered only to the journalism department’s star pupils (about 15 students). In the spring of 2010, this will all change. “It’s been a great experience for the 15 students who get this person, they really get a rich experience,” said Rob Miraldi, professor of journalism, and the person responsible for bringing in Ottaway Professors. “Maybe this is better that a lot of people get a little bit of this person. She’s going to do two weeks with us.” Because Byer is in the thick of her career, she has given the school the opportunity to hire her for this shorter period. Miraldi will keep her moving for those two weeks by having her participate in class discussions throughout the journalism department, as well as speaking to fine art photography students. According to Miraldi, “it’ll be a busy two weeks for her and I think that we’ll get a lot of bang for our buck.” As with any Ottaway Professor,
Photo courtesy of sacbee.com
Renee Byer, courtesy of sacbee.com
Byer will have a public performance in the form of a lecture and likely a slide show. She will also have an exhibit up in the Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art on campus whicch will open in January. The first photojournalist of the Ottaway Professorship, Byer will join acclaimed reporters, editors, foreign correspondents, and sports writers in the legacy of this professorship at SUNY New Paltz. She will accompany students for what could be considered a new style, even standard, of professorship within the journalism department. In college, Byer had studied both art “Talfi Yattara carries an ax as he recalls gathering wild rice in Bankoand media communications; a choice that, re 1-7 Koura village.” Photo and caption from Seeds Of Doubt, 2004 paired with her first internship, helped pave new, somewhat uncertain direction. This style of the way for her career in photojournalism. She truly enjoys teaching and giving lectures and finds teaching allows the ability to bring in journalists it very similar to her daily work at the Sacramento Bee. at the peak of their career to talk to students about “Not that much really changes in life, I don’t think what is happening now, and not just about how people realize that,” said Byer. “In my profession the industry has come to be where it is today. Influenced by the stories her grandmother told I’m always educating either editors or reporters, or my subjects as to what I do.” She hopes to cater about her great grandfather, a doctor from Rosendale, her lectures and talks to the specific needs of the Byer takes on a proactive role in journalism. She student body at SUNY New Paltz and will be working tells how her great grandfather died poor because closely to Rob Miraldi to make sure that happens. he would treat people for free and refused to raise The industry right now is fluid and moving in a his rates when his colleagues did; he was a local humanitarian. This seems to be the fuel to Byer’s fire. “I’m very interested in medical Byer’s Journey issues and trying to help the less fortunate,” she said. She attributes her tenacity 1978: Graduated from Ulster County Community 1978 College. to her New York roots. “I love the foundation of being a 1980: Graduated cum laude from Bradley University. 1980 New Yorker,” she says proudly. “And I feel, but I don’t know 1996: Mentored and helped edit freelancer Stephanie 1996 why, that being a New Yorker Welsh’s Pulitzer Prize winning photos of a female circumcision rite in Kenya. has given me some sort of stamina,” a stamina that 2005:: Honored with the World Hunger Year’s Harry Chapin Media Award for 2005 has driven home a can-do Photojournalism, for “Seeds of Doubt.” attitude throughout her life. Byer has worked with ex 2005:: Awarded the McClatchy President’s Award for her photographs “Woman at 2005 War.” gang members, women in Africa, childhood cancer, 2007:: Received the Pulitzer Prize for “A Mother’s Journey.” 2007 women in the military, among others. She is 2009:: Honored to be a speaker at TEDx Tokyo. 2009 currently working on a story about issues raised
Photo courtesy of sacbee.com
impoverished.” These are not simply pretty pictures; these are real stories with a conscience and a purpose. A Mother’s Journey, her Pulitzer Prize winning feature, is an example of how it is not about where she travels, but whom she meets. Byer worked with local Californians, a mother, Cyndie French, and her son, Derek, for a year, documenting his losing battle with cancer. She said, “That story was pretty much
shot at the person’s home in the community here and in the hospital. It gives you a really good idea of what you can get if you just look at your local backyard” She has worked hard to become the successful humanitarian that she is today and hopes to encourage students to follow their dreams. “I believe that if you really determine that you have a passion for something, you will be successful at it,” said Byer. “It could be hard work to accomplish that because everyone isn’t a natural at what they choose to do in life, but I think that if you really focus on something you can achieve it.”
Renee Byer, courtesy of zreportage.com
in society about autism in adults as well as a story about a homeless family that is living in their car. Byer works hard to help raise awareness and tell a story for those who cannot tell it themselves. She has been published internationally in publications such as Paris Match, Marie Claire, Newsweek Asia, El Mundo and Days Japan, and has won numerous awards including 16 in 2007 alone. In her 20 years as a journalist, she has lectured at many professional workshops all over the world making her famous in places like Madrid, Spain, Palm Beach, Fla., Yokohama, Japan, Siem Reap, Cambodia and Charlottesville, Va. “I think all of us have a journey in life and I feel blessed that mine is to bring awareness to important issues,” said Byer. “When I go home at the end of the day I feel like I’ve contributed something worthwhile through my photographs.” For her, the story is not about the location, but about the people she meets and the spirit they bring. She travels all over the world for her stories, to raise awareness of difficult situations and the “where” is always secondary to the “whom”. “Africa was a very special place for me because of the amazing spirit of the people there and their ability to just go on although they were
Photo from “Tour Of Duty,” an article from zreportage.com that used Byer’s photos from her own series, “Women At War.” A military woman assembles her weapon.