Deanne Fitzmaurice, Pulitzer Prize Photographer Visits Rowan University

By: Erin Haskell

“Effective storytelling includes making pictures with your heart,” Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer Deanne Fitzmaurice told students Oct. 6 in a speech at Rowan University. Fitzmaurice gave pointers to students on effective visual storytelling.

Fitzmaurice started her photography career at the Academy of Art University in San Francisco. While a staff photographer at the San Francisco Chronicle, Fitzmaurice won the Pulitzer Prize in 2005 for documenting Saleh, a 9-year-old Iraqi boy’s struggle for life after sustaining near fatal wounds during a bomb explosion.

Fitzmaurice lectures frequently on photojournalism and upcoming multimedia in the field.

In her speech, Fitzmaurice commented on where journalism is going.

“The audience has shifted from print in newspapers to online and that audience is growing,” said Fitzmaurice. “But let’s not forget as great as these new tools are we still have to have a good story and strong images.”

Fitzmaurice stressed the importance of knowing the key elements in order to find and write an effective and interesting story.

“It’s about seeing, it’s about making pictures with our hearts, our minds, and our souls,” said Fitzmaurice. “It’s about being curious and being passionate. No matter what technology you use you have to have a good story.”

Building and maintaining relationships with people is an important part of what Fitzmaurice does. It is also an important part of the profession of photojournalism.

“I try to understand the lives of the people I photograph,” said Fitzmaurice. “I find that it puts people at ease and I get much more real photographs when I connect with my subject.”

She also discussed various multimedia and how having audio builds a lot of depth and richness into her stories.

“We’re in the midst of an evolving profession,” Fitzmaurice said. “The future is in new media.”

While using audio, it is important to note that the audio is the most important part of the piece. Pictures to go with the audio are often added around it so that the audio flows the way it should.

“Each time you add something, you add another dimension to the piece,” said Fitzmaurice. “Really start listening to the audio.”

Fitzmaurice shared her work with the Rowan community, including her Pulitzer Prize winning story about Saleh. His story was told through interviews with him and photographs of him at the hospital, and now at age 16, living with his family in America. He hopes to become a basketball player some day.

While sharing things she’s learned throughout her career, Fitzmaurice stressed the importance of being honest.

“Storytelling is about trust,” said Fitzmaurice. “One of the things that I’ve learned is to really speak from the heart and to really be honest.”

For more information on multimedia, visit NPR’s website www.npr.org, Media Storm www.mediastorm.org, and The New York Times Lens Blog http://lens.blogs.nytimes.com.