Ed Kashi: Reiter

I went into this lecture running from field hockey practice five minutes late, a sandwich and chips dangerously balancing in my hand debating whether or not this extra credit point was really worth all this mess. And it was. Really worth it.
I switched to magazine this semester from broadcast journalism. One of the reasons I switched out of bj was because the reporting we did felt too formal and I really wanted to cover stories, features, human interest like stuff. I had a hard time deciding between TRF but ultimately decided on magazine in the hopes that one day I will be a talented writer with the opportunity to travel the world and report on it. I decided by the end of the lecture that I wanted to be Ed Kashi.
A few of the things that really stuck out to me were his points on advocacy and learning something so deeply and fully. As a journalists (and even just students of communication) we have so much power to influence people and use our influence for good. (sounds cheesy, but its true!) I think that this would be one of the best parts of the job so I really enjoyed hearing him talk about it. One of the quotes I really enjoyed was when he said we are "the voice for people that don't have a voice." On that note he also described how his work subjects are always tied to his life forever because of the advocacy work and also because he spends so much time working on each project. This time really allows him to know everything about what he is shooting and reap the benefits of knowing something to completely. My dad sometimes stays up for hours at night reading about events in history on the internet. That sounds terribly boring to me. However, it is the same idea of knowing everything about a subject. Knowing something that intimately and fully brings a connection that only someone who spends years on a project can gain.
I also really enjoyed hearing his project on aging America and I think its a brilliant idea. His videos of pictures with sound were wonderful and the one of the one remaining parent between his wife and him was so touching and it probably lasted a whopping total of 4 minutes. Ed Kashi really demonstrated how to make a good story and how to demonstrate it. One of the things that I was left with was his question "how can we tell stories that wake people up?" I think this a great thing to think about whenever looking for a new story.
Overall, I am in love with Ed Kashi. I hope he comes back soon. This time I won't be 5 minutes late.