Brooks Institute Welcomes PF Bentley

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|| SportsShooter.com: News Item: Posted 2002-09-23

Brooks Institute Welcomes PF Bentley
Bentley hired as the newest member of the Visual Journalism Faculty

By Inge Kautzmann, Brooks Institute of Photography

(Ventura, California) Brooks Institute of Photography is proud to announce the latest addition to the who's who listing of faculty for its Visual Journalism Program, Five-Time First Place Pictures of the Year award winner, PF Bentley. Beginning January 2003, PF Bentley will begin teaching in the Institute's Visual Journalism program.

Like most instructors at Brooks Institute of Photography, Bentley will maintain his professional life. He will continue to work on assignment for NEWSWEEK, as well as continuing work on his various video and editing projects. "An active shooter is exactly what we wanted in this position", says Dean of Academics, David Litschel. "The success of Brooks' programs is due in large part to the fact that many of its faculty continue to work in their area of specialization."

As a photojournalist, PF Bentley specializes in covering domestic and international politics. He returned to Washington after September 11, 2001 for NEWSWEEK Magazine to be with lawmakers behind the scenes in the wake of the terrorist attacks and Anthrax crisis. Included in this coverage was his widely acclaimed photograph of President Bush in prayer before speaking to a Joint Session of Congress on September 20th.

Bentley was the first photojournalist to shoot on the House floor while in session and was behind the scenes with President Bill Clinton for his last week in office. Bentley has covered every presidential campaign and photographed every serious presidential contender since 1980. Bentley's list of awards and acknowledgements span a period of over fifteen years. He has received numerous first place wards from the University of Missouri School of Journalism prestigious Picture of the Year Competition. He has been a Special Correspondent for TIME Magazine and has been published in the New York Times Magazine, The Washington Post and in newspapers and magazines around the world.

Bentley's skills in getting close to his subjects without intruding on the events being recorded are evident in his two best selling and critically acclaimed books, Clinton: Portrait of Victory, based on his coverage of the 1992 Campaign for TIME and Newt: Inside the Revolution based on another assignment for TIME during which he documented Newt Gingrich's first 100 days of office. He is currently working on a documentary for PBS and co-producing and filming a two-hour National Geographic Special "Inside the Capitol".

This July, Brooks Institute of Photography celebrated the one year anniversary of its Visual Journalism program. With enrollment of 142 students in the program's first year, the Institute continues to enhance the curriculum through an advisory board that includes Former Senior White House Photographer for TIME Magazine, Dirck Halstead, Tom Kennedy, Director of Photography and Graphics, Washington Post, Director of Photography, National Geographic Magazine, Kent Kobersteen, and Brian Storm, Vice President of News and Editorial Photography, Corbis Images.

Director of the Visual Journalism Program at Brooks, Jim McNay, says we believe in arming photographers with the four tools: the still camera, the digital still camera, the computer, and digital video skills as well as important storytelling skills that will give graduates of the program an edge in the marketplace. PF Bentley's unprecedented skill in these mediums is just what the Institute was looking for in its search for new faculty. The Institute has plans to tailor make a course that is the perfect fit for PF's knowledge of the industry today. The curriculum will be modeled after NEWSWEEK's way of gathering data and working with their shooters while they are in the field. The class entitled "Real World Photojournalism" will utilize all of the current day technologies by requiring students to shoot using digital cameras and send their captioned files, still and video, from remote locations via FTP to their instructor.

Brooks is one of the few schools in the world that is putting this kind of emphasis on the rapidly evolving field of photojournalism. The world of communication has become a world where audiences want storytelling brought to them in new ways. The photographer storyteller with multiple skills has the best chance of delivering the story to the audience they want to reach. That is why Brooks Institute has created this new non-traditional program using the name Visual Journalism. The photojournalist of yesterday must today be cross-trained in still cameras, computers, and digital video cameras.

Brooks' time tested philosophy of "learn-by-doing" is the foundation upon which the Visual Journalism program is built. The Institute is committed to arming the next generation of visual journalists with the skills AND technology necessary to compete in today's world of on-line, in the moment news.

For more information, please contact Brooks' Visual Journalism Program Director, Jim McNay at 805-569-0758, extension 2001 or via e-mail at jmcnay@brooks.edu or you can reach Inge Kautzmann at 805-879-8601 or by e-mail at ikautzmann@brooks.edu you can also visit the school on the web at http://www.brooks.edu

Related Links:

Brooks Institute of Photography

Related Email Addresses:

Jim McNay: jmcnay@brooks.edu

Inge Kautzmann: ikautzmann@brooks.edu