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Two-Time Pulitzer Prize Winner Craig F. Walker Will Be Among the Speakers

Feb. 13, 2013 – Allegheny College will host a two-day conference, “Documents of War: the Ethics and Challenges of Visual Storytelling,” exploring the role of photojournalism and film documentaries in the context of armed conflict, on March 8 and 9. The conference, which is free and open to the public, requires no preregistration.

The conference will feature presentations by two-time Pulitzer Prize-winner Craig F. Walker of The Denver Post; professor, author and filmmaker Ken Kobré; Allegheny professor and international journalist Cheryl Hatch and University of Alaska Fairbanks photojournalism student JR Ancheta; and filmmaker Pamela Yates, director of the award-winning documentary “Granito,” about the Guatemalan civil war.

All events will be held in the Vukovich Center for Communication Arts at Allegheny College, and all presentations will include time for questions and answers.

Ken Kobré will present his film “A Deadline Every Second,” at 7 p.m. on March 8. The film follows the work routine of 12 Associated Press photographers, sometimes under dangerous conditions. A professor of photojournalism at San Francisco State University, Kobré is also the author of “Photojournalism: The Professionals’ Approach.”

Cheryl Hatch and JR Ancheta will show their work in a presentation titled “Generations of War: From Africa to Afghanistan” at 10 a.m. on March 9. An independent photojournalist, Hatch covered conflicts in Africa and the Middle East for a decade. In 2011, she returned to a combat zone when she and her former student JR Ancheta embedded with soldiers of the 1st Battalion 5th Infantry Regiment 1/25 Stryker Brigade Combat Team in southern Kandahar Province. They documented the life of U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan, including women serving with the Female Engagement Team.

Craig F. Walker will present his two Pulitzer Prize-winning photo essays at 1 p.m. on March 9. “American Soldier” tells the story of Ian Fisher, a teenager who joins the Army at the height of insurgent violence in Iraq. “Welcome Home, The Story of Scott Ostrom” is a portrait of an honorably discharged veteran who returns home from Iraq and struggles with a severe case of post-traumatic stress disorder, commonly referred to as PTSD.

Walker joined the staff of The Denver Post in 1998 and has covered a broad range of stories including the aftermath of the collapse of the World Trade Center in New York, the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, the U.S. military, the Occupy movement and daily life in Colorado.

Pamela Yates will present her documentary “Granito: How To Nail a Dictator” at 7 p.m. on March 9. An official selection of the 2011 Sundance Festival, “Granito” spans 30 years and portrays seven individuals in Guatemala, Spain and the United States as they attempt to bring justice to violence-plagued Guatemala.

In addition to the presentations, an exhibit of photos will be shown from the Nuremberg Collection of the Robert H. Jackson Center. A leading lawyer of the New Deal Era, Jackson served as the chief U.S. prosecutor at the Nuremberg War Crimes Tribunal.

The Documents of War conference is sponsored by the college’s Center for Political Participation, the Office of the Provost, the Robert H. Jackson Center and The Campus, the Allegheny student newspaper.

For more information, contact Rich Sayer at rsayer@allegheny.edu, Cheryl Hatch at chatch@allegheny.edu or Mary Solberg at msolberg@allegheny.edu, or call 814-332-6202. More information can also be found on Facebook.