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 Chris Courtney / MPW.57
PHOTO BY SAMANTHA CLEMENS/ MPW.57

Matthew Vereyken sits alone at the largest table in the cafeteria of Marshall High School. No one says hello. No one teases. No one laughs. Matthew sits alone.

Vereyken is the victim of ADHD. Heavily medicated, he spends his days alone and isolate, seemingly in another reality. He is alone at home, alone at school, alone in a crowd.

Matthew doesn't have any trouble carrying on an intelligent conversation. He can speak with authority on a number of subjects. But he won't, not unless it is initiated by someone else. When he does speak it is in an authoritative tone with the threat of impending violence lurking just below the surface. If he is challenged or contradicted, and violence has been an issue for Matthew. That's why he is so heavily medicated.

According to his mother, 32-year-old Saundra Vereyken, when Matthew is not on medication he has attacked both his mother and his sister, Carrie.

A single mother of five children, suffering from clinical depression, Saundra Vereyken is separated from a husband. This leaves Saundra in the fourth generation of women in her family raising children alone. Like many in Marshall, Mo, she straddles the poverty line. Often moving forward with the help of agencies such as the Missouri Valley Community Action Agency (MVCAA) and then backsliding under the weight of her overwhelming burden.

Matthew is not the only member of the family on medication. The morning ritual consists of cupfuls of medications and fists full of candy for the whole family. The other two boys, Ryan, 11, and Eric, 6, both suffer from forms of hyperactivity. The youngest sister, Winter, 8, has been diagnosed with a milder form of autism, although Social Security is contesting the severity of her disability. The oldest girl is Karrie, 12, and she is on a regimen of anti-anxiety and anti-depression meds. This is my "real world" states Vereyken, referring to the lack of MTV-like glamour and levity in her own life. Listening to Vereyken is a contradiction in terms. There are no street drugs, alcohol binges or exceedingly violent men in her past or present. All the children were from Saundra's nine-year marriage to Brandon, who lives less than two hours away in Kansas City. Brandon and Saundra have a civil relationship; Brandon even pays court-ordered child support on a regular basis.

It would appear that Saundra attempts to make the right choices for herself and her family but a disheveled household, the stacks of plastic bins, even a new futon still in its box since Christmas, speak of neglected for the space and its inhabitants. Toast for dinner and tootsie rolls for breakfast deliver home the point.

For Matthew, who is aware of all these issues, there is no choice but to love and protect his mother with all of his being. Dad often cancels on visitation, opting to buy his way out with pizza, video games and television sets. The consumption of fast food and junk food and games and medications are the quick fix and there seems no prospect of a long term solution to the family's myriad problems.

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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