UConn, Notre Dame Meet Media Before Title Game
Hartford Courant
UConn coach Geno Auriemma, Notre Dame’s Muffet McGraw and their teams were available on Monday to the media for the final time before Tuesday’s national championship game.
When I was growing up, I couldn’t wait for Life Magazine to come in the mail every week. I loved poring over the picture stories shot by their talented photojournalists. So when my best friend in high school asked me to take a photography class with her in our senior year, I instantly agreed. I bought a used Pentax camera and soon became enthralled with the magic of photography. I studied fine art photography and photojournalism at PhotoGraphics Workshop in New Canaan and the University of Bridgeport. My first job working for a weekly newspaper cultivated my love of photojournalism. For the past 27 years, I’ve worked as a staff photographer at The Courant, a paper with a rich visual tradition. My education is ongoing with each new assignment, each new technology, each challenge in the rapidly changing world of journalism. The power of the still image motivates me to regard each assignment as an opportunity to capture a compelling moment, to tell an inspiring story, and to share it with readers. Whether it’s covering a funeral for a slain police officer or a clown wedding, each photograph has the potential to move us in some way, connecting us through shared emotions and experiences.
I graduated with a BFA degree in photography from Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, New York in 1974. Two years later, I was hired by the Hartford Courant for the position of photography lab technician. Soon after, I was promoted to staff photographer. In my years at the Hartford Courant I have covered major news events and national stories and political campaigns. I have covered World Series, Final Fours, and Super Bowls. I have traveled to China to watch a Hartford surgeon teach the Chinese how to perform coronary bypass surgery. I’ve been sent to Central America and Europe. I have worked on assignment in Saudi Arabia one year after 9/11. There are stories I have spent a year or more working on. I think I’ve driven most every road in the state. I have spent a lot of time getting to know my subjects and hear their stories. I’ve seen pure joy and utter pain. I’ve seen failure and hope. I have met incredible people who inspire. I work with colleagues who are as passionate as I am.