Perryville hosts Missouri Photo Workshop this week

The city of Perryville, Missouri, will be hosting some special visitors this week.

More than 40 photographers from 18 U.S. states and six foreign countries will gather in Perryville for the 67th Missouri Photo Workshop.

A small Missouri community is selected to host the event each year. From Sunday to Sept. 26, participating photographers will focus on researching, shooting and editing photo stories, with an emphasis on ethical practices. They are encouraged to follow the words of founder Cliff Edom to "show truth with a camera" as they visually tell the stories of various members of the community.

For their part, Perryville residents are housing some of the photographers, who travel at their own expense, and even answer requests to loan bicycles to the visitors.

Faculty involved in this year's workshop include photojournalists, editors and educators from several publications and institutions, including National Geographic, the Washington Post, the Columbia Missourian and the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. The Missouri School of Journalism, the Missouri Press Association Foundation and Nikon are workshop sponsors.

The journalism school in a news release shared information about a few photographers it says "typify the goals of all 41 who will be traveling to Perryville."

They include Jasper Doest, a 36-year-old award-winning photographer from the Netherlands who works mainly on wildlife and nature-conservation stories. His editorial clients include National Geographic, Natural History Magazine and BBC Wildlife Magazine.

After winning the 2015 GDT European Wildlife Photographer of the Year Award, Doest decided to turn his focus toward developing his documentary skills "on the human level."

The workshop "forces me to work on my social documentary skills," he said in the news release, "and I would really like to learn from the experienced instructors within the workshop, working on my visual voice, creating a photographic narrative and growing as a social documentary photographer."

Christine Pearl's journey to Perryville started in Washington, D.C. She had 25 years as a project manager in the design and construction industry under her belt before picking up a camera in 2010.

"I'm not your typical photojournalism student," she said. "I'm older, disabled and lacking formal training in photojournalism."

She considers photography her physical therapy and has turned her walker into a tool capable of many uses -- a kind of tripod to steady her camera, a conversation starter and a way to disarm strangers.

Pearl said her interest in the workshop stems from an interest in "taking my documentary projects to the next level while working with others."

Also involved in the event are 17 University of Missouri photojournalism students who will staff the workshop, download, archive and print 400 of the roughly 16,000 digital images made during the week. Those 400 photos will form a public exhibit that will be on display from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Sept. 26 in the main hallways of the Perryville Park Center, 800 City Park Lane.

srinehart@semissourian.com

(573) 388-3641

Pertinent address:

800 City Park Lane, Perryville, Mo.