Workshop Co-Directors

MPW.57 Behind the Scenes is coming Soon!

"Don't go for the easy story. Find something that challenges you, that scares you."
—Lois Raimondo / MPW.57

MPW.57 Rangefinder PDFs

Photo By Kainaz Amaria / MPW.57
PHOTO BY SAMANTHA CLEMENS/ MPW.57

Bettie Fisher, 20, and Norman Miller, 22, are navigating life on a thin line-financially, physically and emotionally. Verbal and physical abuse run in both their families. Bettie left her home at the age of 17, pregnant with Norman's child. Norman was born with a spinal birth defect which prevents him from standing upright and joining the mainstream workforce. The young father projects a tough exterior while responsibly attending to his duties as a father. Burdened with a turbulent past, Bettie and Norman find strength and purpose in the future, their two "baby girls" Sara, 3, and Natasha, 1.

Teetering between closeness and separation, laughter and heartache, Bettie and Norman hold onto each other tightly enough to raise the girls even as their grip on their seven year relationship loosens. The stress of living on disability, family service checks, and medicaid, is increasingly pulling them apart. As familial cycles repeat, Bettie suffers from Norman's verbal abuse, threatening to leave with the girls, but says she still loves him. Although their once passionate teenage flame has dimmed, it still glimmers in the faces of Sara and Natasha.

Bettie and Norman's coexistence is redefined hour-by-hour and day-by-day. From warmth to contempt, affection to abuse. Looking ahead Norman strives to finish his culinary degree, while Bettie dreams of going to college to become a nurse, like her mother. Coping with their turbulent past and uncertain future, they struggle to walk together as a family on a bridge from the reality they face today to their hopes for tomorrow.

Photographs from the 56th Missouri Photo Workshop are available available online through the Year-by-Year page, or through the MPW.56 homepage

History of the Missouri Photo Workshop

The roots of the Missouri Photo Workshop are embedded firmly in a half-century of rich tradition; current workshops carry on principals present from the beginning.

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When the late Clifton C. Edom of the Missouri School of Journalism founded the Missouri Photo Workshop in 1949, he too, looked to the past to map the path for photojournalism's future. Inspired by the gritty, content-rich photographs of the documentary photo unit of the pre-WWII Farm Security Administration, Edom promoted research, observation and timing as the methods to make strong story-telling photographs. FSA director Roy Stryker and photographer Russell Lee worked closely with Edom in the creation of the Workshop and served as faculty members during its early years.

In subsequent years, faculty members have been many of America’s leading newspaper and magazine photographers and photo editors; a roster of faculty and students reads like a Who’s Who of photojournalism. Faculty of today includes some of the most energetic, productive and articulate documentarians currently working. All are experts dedicated to passing on the fundamentals of photo research, shooting and editing to those who hope to carry on these values and techniques in the future.

The workshop still follows Cliff Edom's credo:

"Show truth with a camera. Ideally truth is a matter of personal integrity. In no circumstances will a posed or fake photograph be tolerated."

MPW.57 Participants

TEAM A

TEAM B

TEAM C

TEAM D

TEAM E

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Reproduction in whole or in part without permission is prohibited.

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