At the first ever workshop by the renowned VII photo agency, the agency's photographers offered two days' worth of presentations sponsored by the University's Institute for Global Leadership (IGL) and Canon.
The workshop allowed the photographers to display their work and discuss issues in photography and photojournalism.
"An important component of what we do is education, which is implicit in journalism itself," said TIME Magazine and VII photographer James Natchwey.
Nachtwey and the eight other photographers in the agency are regarded as some of the most talented photographers in the world. In addition to presentations of their individual works, all VII members sat on a panel discussion entitled "Is anyone out there Listening? The Relevance of Photojournalism Today."
"This job has never been [easy]," Nachtwey said. "It was really tough then and it's really tough now."
"There's a certain pessimism around photojournalism," VII photographer Lauren Greenfield said. "We're not in a time where you work for one magazine and that funds all your work, we're not in a time in America where people work for one company for the whole life anymore."
Evolution in photojournalism and photography has required photographers to change as well. According to VII photographer Gary Knight, the Internet and the VII group's publishing capacity allows for more freedom. "As a group, we've been very prolific in publishing books," Knight said. "We have a Web site with a lot of topics - we've been more in control of what we're all seeing in the last three years than ever before."
Digital photography has taken a lot of the expense out of photography, VII photographer John Stanmeyer said. "The options are limitless, you can just take photography and then just use it," he said. "It's a hammer a nail, you can hammer it and hammer it and hammer it ... you can work it and work it and it doesn't cost you $16 a roll [for printing and developing]."
The photographers also discussed the difficulty of portraying the suffering of fellow humans. "As a creative individual and a communicator, we try to be as creative as we can in various areas," VII photographer Ron Haviv said. "There's a criticism that works we do with people's tragedies shouldn't be considered as works of art. I don't think that's necessarily true - agenda of venue isn't established by critics, it's established by viewers."
Fellow VII photographer Christopher Morris agreed. "We're not there to make people happy with our work, especially if it's in the Sudan or Somalia," he said. "You want to make people learn. [There are] pictures I've taken that I know will never be published. I want people to be shocked about war."
Nachtwey, who specializes in war photography, said that there are times where he stepped out of his role of photographer. "I have helped people out of riots. I have carried people to food-centers. However, when other people are helping that is when I do my job as a photographer."
"I only film places that I think have hope. I believe that the free-flow of information is critical. That is the valuable role," Nachtwey said.
The panels offered inspirational and technical advice to camera-toting crowd members from all over the country who packed into Cabot Auditorium.
"Style is important, you must define the voice and your own message," VII photographer Antonin Kratochvil said.
"Use your internal fire," Stanmeyer said. "Don't be pessimistic. I don't think anything is dead in this business, it's an enormous opportunity."
Tufts has had a longstanding relationship with the VII photographers. In 2004, Natchwey was given the University's Jean Mayer Global Citizenship Award, and presented ReThink: Causes and Consequences of Sept. 11, Envoys of War, and Evidence: The Case Against Milosevic.
Out of the collaboration between the IGL and Nachtwey emerged Exposure, a program between the VII photographers and the IGL. Now in its second year, Exposure displays photography both from students and VII photographers, as well as funding for photography-related student research.
- Kat Schmidt and William Bendetson contributed to this article
