Archive » Brosher’s work tops LA Times for March NPPA multimedia award

Shannon McEnerney | April 26, 2010

Photo by James Brosher

Senior James Brosher used black and white photography for the basis of his multimedia package about singer-songwriter Sharlee Davis, who is losing her eyesight. The piece won first place in March’s NPPA multimedia contest.

James Brosher knows moments.

He knows when a snowball fight rolls into something epic. He knows when a walk along the side of a pool is more of a challenge than just staying away from the edge.

Brosher, a senior, recently won the National Press Photographers Association monthly contest award for his multimedia project on Sharlee Davis, a Bloomington musician who has learned to accommodate 20 years of progressing blindness.

Earlier this year, the 2009 Indiana News Photographers Association named Brosher College Photographer of the Year. He’s also won numerous awards and accolades for this photography at the Indiana Daily Student and other publications, and the NPPA award is for work that appeared in the (Bloomington) Herald-Times, where Brosher is an intern this spring.

But the honors come after four years of hard work for the Indiana native, who began his photography career when his parents gave him his first digital camera in high school, the camera that became a prized possession.

“It is the one thing I won’t get rid of,” Brosher said, who was quickly hooked on experimenting with images as storytelling.

Brosher’s piece on Davis tells her story. Davis has gradually lost her vision throughout the years. Now, she can see only light and dark patches and can’t see any definition, such as people’s faces. Legally blind, Davis continues to sing and write music, performing frequently with musical partner Will Devitt. She carries on her normal routine, including swimming.

Herald-Times photo chief David Snodress assigned Brosher the task of shooting Davis swimming at the YMCA, photos that would appear with a feature story on Davis’ determination to continue with the joys of her life even while losing her sight.

Photo by Zach Hetrick

James Brosher has accumulated several honors during his collegiate career, and now looks forward to joining the multimedia journalism work force.

But when Brosher watched Davis at the YMCA, he knew there was more to the story. He asked Snodgress for more time to work the story further. Aside from photos of her swimming, Brosher shot more scenes of Davis outside the YMCA, at home and during musical performances.

“James really threw himself into the piece,” Snodgress said. “It started out as a single assignment to go and shoot a picture of this woman in the swimming pool and he just built it into quite a bit more.”

Snodgress and Brosher looked through the pictures together and sorted out a sequence to match the audio Brosher had gathered to make the audio slideshow, which ended up winning in the multimedia category of the NPPA contest.

“It was a great learning experience for him and a superb piece for us,” Snodgress said.

Brosher was no stranger to NPPA’s contest. A year ago, he placed third in another monthly NPPA contest for his photo of IU’s snow day, a photo that went on to capture other awards.

After submitting the Davis piece, he didn’t think much about it. Taking photos, making slideshows, recording and editing audio – all of this is part of his photojournalist routine, Brosher said.

Then, while in IU journalism professor Jim Kelly’s J444 Advanced Photojournalism class one day, Brosher and his classmates were browsing the NPPA Web site, which offers good tips for photographers. He clicked on a link that led him to the announcement of the March winners for the individual audio slideshow contest.

He saw that he had won – beating out two L.A. Times pieces.

“It’s more of an honor than anything,” Brosher said. “It’s pretty nice because first place in a national competition – that is really cool.”

But it’s more than that.

Photo by Brandon Foltz

Senior James Brosher, wearing three cameras while shooting IU women’s basketball, started taking photos while in high school. He has shot news and features, and, using his reporting skills, has learned to craft multimedia stories.

“It’s an extremely good piece,” Snodgress said. “Contests are kind of hard to predict… so it’s really nice to have your work recognized, especially as a college student. It is kind of an extra level of justification that you are doing good work.”

Brosher said perhaps, in comparison to the L.A. Times pieces, judges liked the small town community angle of his piece. Brosher’s audio slideshow is composed of all black and white photographs, inspiration that came from the (Jasper, Ind.) Herald, an award-winning small newspaper that frequently uses black and white photos to tell stories.

“This was probably my favorite piece,” Brosher said. “Sharlee’s pretty awesome, so it was nice to tell her story visually. It’s a story where I was able to hang out and be a fly on the wall – which is pretty cool.”

Brosher, Snodgress said, can relate to his subjects and his co-workers well, which means that when the photo moments come, they are more easily captured.

“He has a real keen vision as to what moments make good photographs,” Snodgress said.

In two weeks, Brosher will graduate from IU. At this point, he’s unsure of what will happen next, but he knows that he will continue to tell stories.

“You have to be able to do everything – you can’t just be a photojournalist, you have to be a visual journalist,” Brosher said. “I enjoy doing it. It’s an important way to tell stories.”