Thursday, October 7, 7:30 PM
The Silver Spring Camera Club is pleased to welcome, Joe Newman, who will discuss his new photo book, Transition: The End of an UnPresidented Four Years. It documents what was happening in the streets of the nation’s capital during the tumultuous last few months of the Trump administration. Joe edited and curated the book, which includes the work of 37 photographers. He will talk about how he selected the final 122 images from the thousands submitted during an open call and the critical step of sequencing the images as part of the storytelling process. He will also share some insight into photo book publishing. Transition is the third photo book he has edited and published, following UnPresidented (2017) and Chasing the Great American Eclipse(2018).
Creating a non-profit organization with a mission to support visual storytelling that has a social impact was a natural transition for Joe, whose career has been working for the public interest. Currently, he works at ReThink Media, helping nonprofits with media strategy and engagement. Until 2016, he served as the director of communications at the Project on Government Oversight, a nonpartisan, independent watchdog that investigates corruption in the federal government and champions good government reforms. Before that, he was the deputy director of communications at Public Citizen, a nonprofit consumer advocacy organization, where he helped develop the organization’s social media strategy. He started his career in Florida, where he worked as an award-winning reporter and editor at the Orlando Sentinel, St. Petersburg Times and Palm Beach Post.
Joe is the founder and president of Focus on the Story, a 501c(3) nonprofit based in Washington D.C., with a mission to support and encourage visual storytellers of diverse backgrounds in bringing attention to critical issues, bridging cultural gaps and sparking social change. Focus on the Story grew out of his many photography-related activities in the Washington D.C. area. Prior to incorporating Focus on the Story in July 2018, Joe worked as the U.S. media strategist for a German lens manufacturer, led photography workshops in Cuba, published two collaborative photo books financed through Kickstarter campaigns (his third was published this past month), took on photography assignments for various NGO clients, and founded the Focus on the Story International Photo Festival, which has grown to become a month-long celebration of photography in the nation’s capital.
You can learn more about Focus on the Story, events, highlighted issues and photographers at: www.focusonthestory.org. A few of the book’s photographs are reproduced below.
