Photojournalism students mark 20 years of fall workshops

Photographers along a waterway in the foreground look in their viewfinders with fair rids and tents in the background.
Frank Lowery, Lauren Coughlin and Anna Kadet photograph the Georgia National Fair during the annual fall photojournalism workshop on Oct. 3, 2025. (Photo/Chamberlain Smith (ABJ '18))

Photojournalism students mark 20 years of fall workshops

October 15, 2025

When Mark Johnson started teaching photojournalism classes at Grady College in the fall of 2005, he wanted to provide his students opportunities to view different perspectives through the lens. He also wanted to give them different voices to listen to and learn from, which is why he reached out to industry friends and colleagues to help serve as mentors.

The result was the creation of weekend photojournalism workshops where Johnson’s advanced photojournalism students travel one weekend each semester with a group of industry professionals who provide constructive critiques and guidance for each student to hone his or her own visual voice.

“Successful photojournalism is about being present, it’s about bearing witness, it’s about listening and immersing yourself in a story,” Johnson, a principal lecturer at Grady College, says. “Successful photojournalism education is about experiencing things for the first time or from a different perspective in an environment where you can practice, fail and try again.”

A tear sheet from The Red & Black featuring Homecoming pictures.
The first weekend workshop for photojournalism students was in 2005 and focused on photographing UGA Homecoming. This is a sample of photos featured in the four-page photo spread in The Red & Black. Bowen Reichert Shoemaker (ABJ ’06), who was crowned Homecoming Queen in 2005 (bottom photo), was a public relations major and is an assistant United States attorney in the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Middle Georgia.

The most recent group of students to experience the Fall Weekend Workshop traveled Oct. 3-5 to the Georgia National Fair in Perry, Georgia. This year’s group included 17 students and eight mentors, four of whom are alumni of the Grady College photojournalism program and Johnson’s weekend workshops. Alumni mentors included Andrea Briscoe (ABJ ’12, PhD ’21), clinical assistant professor at Grady College; Allison Carter (ABJ ’09), a UX researcher and photography specialist at Georgia Institute of Technology; Chamberlain Smith (AB ’18), senior photographer with UGA Division of Marketing & Communications; and Evey Wilson Weatherbee (ABJ ’12), a journalist in residence at Mercer University.

Caroline Newbern, one of the students in Johnson’s class who photographed the fair, said experiences like this break the monotony of taking pictures in a scenario the student sees every day, like campus.

“The variety of attendees, old and young, from various walks of life, all going to the fair for something different, made it more challenging,” Newbern says. “Because of this, the fair photographs are relatable. Everyone can recognize child-like joy. Across ages, that is the one word I would use to describe the fair: joy. To me, joy makes some of the most powerful photographs.” 

Johnson has taken his students to the Georgia National Fair the past 11 years and partnered with a variety of media outlets which publish the students’ work including the Macon Telegraph, Georgia Public Broadcasting, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution (AJC) and the Bitter Southerner. Prior to 2014, the workshops took place at the Petit Le Mans at Road Atlanta, which was a partnership with the American Le Mans racing series and AutoWeek magazine. The first year, 2005, the students covered Homecoming and The Red & Black published the photographs. This year, the AJC published an online gallery of representative images from the fair.

While students in the fall travel to the fair, Johnson’s students in the spring usually travel to a different county in Georgia each spring to document life in that community.

Johnson’s goal for his students is to not just show what’s going on in an image, but to tell a story about what it’s important. Students are assigned to talk with the people they are photographing and learn about their stories.

“The students were charged with showing not what the fair looks like, but what it means – and it means different things to different people,” Johnson explains. “For some, it’s date night or a family outing. For others, it’s the culmination of months of training their livestock. For everyone there, it means compassion or commitment or community.”

Photojournalism mentors providing insight

One of the unique aspects of the weekend workshops is the group of mentors who attend with the students. The mentors are professional photographers who work in media or faculty at UGA and other colleges. The mentors spend time with the students throughout the weekend planning the best way to tell stories through images, shadowing the students to provide on-scene guidance and providing constructive feedback once the images are rendered.

Chamberlain Smith says the photojournalism workshops were a highlight of her time as a student and that she came away from each workshop with increased confidence in her photography skills.

“Learning to be patient and ‘work a scene’ was one of my biggest takeaways as a student,” Smith says. “That still applies to my work today and is a message I continue to preach when mentoring. Giving the proper time and care to what you’re covering makes all the difference in leaving with a good photo.”

Participating in the workshops now is a rewarding experience for Smith, especially since she is able to continue mentoring the students and serve as a resource after the workshop.

A student with a camera sits in the backset of a car and photographs a man through his rear view mirrow.
Ansley Kelly photographs Clay Collier at the Georgia National Fair during the annual fall photojournalism workshop. (Photo/Chamberlain Smith)

“The students are eager to learn and it’s inspiring to watch their progress over just a few hours,” Smith continues. “I hope to be the industry professional now that I would have benefitted from knowing as a student myself.”

Another mentor, Mike Haskey, has served as a mentor during 36 of the 38 fall and spring workshops that Johnson has coordinated. Haskey, who is the chief photographer and a journalist at the Columbus Ledger-Enquirer, says that the biggest change he has seen over the years is the pace that students are able to pick up the technology today and how they integrate that technology to make better pictures.

While there have been a lot of changes, some things have stayed the same.

“One thing that’s remained consistent through the years is the overwhelmingly positive attitude and energy students bring to the workshops,” Haskey says. “They have also always been very receptive to constructive criticism and willing to apply the coaches’ advice and suggestions the next time they go out to make photographs. I’ve often said I wish I could bottle that and bring it into professional newsrooms.”

For the students, their work with the mentors provides not just skills to take better pictures, but lessons in how to see a scene differently.

Newbern said that one of her mentors, Kyser Lough, associate professor at Grady College, instilled in her the fact that while there are thousands of pictures made at the fair, no one will see it in the same way that she does.

“This was not just momentary reassurance but something that rang true,” Newbern concludes. “Photography is more than ‘button-smashing;’ it’s intentionally capturing a moment as you see it. I’d never seen it as unique as it is before going to the fair and reflecting on our work.”

Traditionally, the spring and fall workshops teach lessons beyond skills and learning to see a scene differently. Haskey recalls a spring workshop a few years ago where he and the student photojournalist he was mentoring met a young man who was hiking the Appalachian Trail after being encouraged by his wife who had just died.

“I hoped it was a chance for the student to see the tremendous opportunity and responsibility we have as photojournalists to share people’s stories,” Haskey recalls. “He didn’t want to be photographed, and we respected that choice. Sometimes, it’s about more than making photos.”

Below is a sampling of photos from this year’s weekend workshop at the Georgia National Fair. Click on an image below to view it in a larger size.

Author: Sarah Freeman, freemans@uga.edu