Jaguar Student Media

By William Luther  

The novel coronavirus has brought challenges in both my teaching of Photojournalism I and my photography at the San Antonio Express-News. It has also brought some unique opportunities to show the impact, in real-time, of how photojournalists can make a tangible difference in the communities in which they work.  

Adjusting to the reality it was simply unsafe to send my students into the field to cover events as I normally do I instead had my students view a couple of recent documentaries about photojournalists. One of those documentaries was “ Hondros ” a 2017 film about the life – and death – of war photographer Chris  Hondros, a contemporary of mine at Ohio University. The students wrote about the movie and talked about what they learned from it. One specific image taken in 2003 during the Liberian civil war that helped bring UN assistance to the country was talked about often. But many students, while expressing their admiration for Chris  Hondros and the impact his work made, said they could never be conflict photographers.  

Immediately on the heels of watching and writing about “ Hondros”, I photographed an event for the Express-News which allowed me to show the students you don’t have to travel around the world to make a difference as a photojournalist. On Thursday, April 9 the San Antonio Food Bank held an emergency food distribution event at the Traders Village flea market on the city’s southwest side that drew 10,000 people and distributed more than 1 million pounds of food. A drone photo I took of the lines of cars waiting for food started going viral Thursday afternoon and by the time it was in print Friday morning it was being used by media outlets across the country.  

What was most important – and what I was able to show the students beyond just the pride of a job well done – was the image moved people to action. The Food Bank reported on the day the image was published on the Express-News front page they received more than $500,000 from 3,500 online donations. A few days later, San Antonio author  Shea  Serrano tweeted to his followers a copy of the front page asking his followers if they could add to the contribution he made to the non-profit. Within eight hours his followers raised $100,000.  

While the second half of this semester has been challenging both as a teacher and a photojournalist it has also been unique and enlightening for my students. As we near the end of the semester I look forward to seeing their final projects which will be a look through their eyes and their cameras at how the coronavirus has affected them.  

About William Luther:  
William Luther is a photojournalist for the San Antonio Express-News and an adjunct photography professor in the communication program at Texas A&M-San Antonio. On April 10, the San Antonio Express-News published one of Luther’s photos of an overhead view of thousands of cars, waiting for a grocery giveaway organized by the San Antonio Food Bank. The photo, said fellow staff writer  Marc Duvoisin,  was “showcased on CNN, 60 Minutes, ABC News and other news outlets. It was reprinted in the New York Times and in a two-page color spread in Time magazine. It helped trigger millions of dollars in individual and corporate donations to the Food Bank.” We caught up with William Luther to learn more about his photography and teaching during the COVID pandemic.