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50 cameras focused on Chester: SIUC School of Journalism to document town

Lights, Camera, Action! Chester will soon be the center of focus when around 50 photographers invade town the weekend of September 28, 29 and 30.

The School of Journalism at Southern Illinois University in Carbondale will send its photojournalism students - along with professionals from all over the country - to document life in Chester with the multimedia workshop, "A Weekend in Chester."

It's called the South of 64 Weekend Workshop - an opportunity for young photojournalists to experience an intensive dose of the real world of photojournalism. The students will pull from the communities that attend the Chester school district - which include Chester, Rockwood, Bremen, Ellis Grove and Kaskaskia Island.

Students, coached by professionals, will set out into town and be expected to photograph the people, schools, businesses and the everyday life that makes up Chester. Previous communities documented include Murphysboro, Cobden and Alto Pass and Carterville.

Among the students participating will be Chester High School alumnus Jennifer Gonzalez.

Gonzalez was the editor-in-chief and a photographer of the high school's newspaper, The Sting. She is currently majoring in photojournalism and is in her final semester at SIU-C.

"I'm excited to bring the workshop to Chester," Gonzalez said. "I think it will be a great opportunity for the students as well as the community - it will help bring us together."

Mark Dolan, associate professor at SIU-C, created the South of 64 weekend workshop after he established similar workshops at Syracuse University.

"I knew from my experience at Syracuse what an incredible positive thing it was for the students and community and knew it was something I wanted to institute here. We are very fortunate we got the support of the former Dean Gary Kolb to make the first workshop happen," Dolan said.

"The success of the first one, combined with the strong interest of the communities, resulted in further support from Chancellor Rita Cheng to make the (events) happen. All the projects have been very well received from the communities we have been involved with," he added.

Gonzalez has been working with Dolan, as well as community members, for the past year to have Chester selected for this year's workshop site.

"What a great opportunity for the city of Chester to work with the SIU photojournalism class on promoting the city as a whole," Nancy Crossland said. " It's nice to see the community come together to provide housing and meals for these students."

Students are slated to arrive Thursday evening, when they will gather into teams and meet their assigned coaches.

The 15 visiting faculty newspaper photographers are: Chris Berry, The State, Columbia, S.C.; Robert Cohen, St. Louis Post-Dispatch; Elizabeth Conley, The Detroit News; Daron Dean, The St. Augustine Record; Danese Kenon, The Indianapolis Star; Erin McCracken, The Evansville Courier; Paul Newton, The Southern Illinoisan; Todd Panagopolous, The Chicago Tribune; Julia Rendleman, The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, and Rich Saal, The Springfield State Journal-Register. Other visiting faculty include Scott Allen, a freelance photographer and regional director for public affairs, U.S. Department of Labor; Dominic Bracco II, a freelance photographer based of Mexico City and sponsored by The Pulitzer Center for Crisis Reporting; Preston Keres, editor-in-chief, Airman Magazine, a former staff photographer for The Washington Post; Jeremy (J.T.) Lock, United States Air Force and six-time Military Photographer of the Year recipient, and Jim Merrithew, picture editor, Wired.com.

Students are expected to photograph from sunrise Friday through sunset Sunday.

In years past, the school has been able to produce a book, entirely put together by students, featuring the work from the workshop. Dolan said he hopes to be able to do the same thing this year.

"While it's no secret that the economic situation in Illinois, along with the whole country, makes budgets very tight. While there is no guarantee, we believe we are confident in producing the books because they have been well received in the communities we have covered and the university community," Dolan said.

The workshop headquarters will be located at the Cohen house. Meals are being provided for the workshop participants by area churches.

This marks the first year that students will be staying in the community for the duration of the workshop. St. John's has donated the use of their school gym for the students to stay. The Red Cross has donated cots for the students to use as well.

"As I have organized many of these types of workshops both here and at Syracuse, at all of the workshops we have never had students staying in the same place, I am very excited about that. The students having access to community from the moment they wake up and for the potential it has in building comradery for the students," Dolan said. "This absolutely can not happen without the visiting faculty, they are the ones that provide the magic for this to come together as it has. We are incredibly grateful and I am personally humbled to have them come in and work with our students."

Students are currently visiting Chester in search of stories and/or subjects to photograph urging the workshop. If any community members have a suggestion for a story and/or subject please contact Mark Dolan at 1.315.882.2446, or Carrie Myers at the Randolph County Herald Tribune at 1.618.826.2385.