Falling into a captivating career
Marsha Peters is in love with photojournalism.
And her reason? Instant gratification.
“It was like total magic that what you did the night before was there [in the paper],” said Peters while recounting a tale of running around Rhode Island in excitement to see some of her first work appear in the Providence Journal-Bulletin.
Peters, who spoke to University of Iowa students during her October visit as a Professional in Residence, didn’t always know that she wanted to work in journalism. With a masters degree in American history from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, she spent seven years working with photo collections of historical agencies.
During this time, she worked at the State Historical Society of Wisconsin in Madison, and the Rhode Island Historical Society in Providence. Peters explained that this experience gave her visual training, but she had to learn to think in journalistic terms for the next phase of her career.
This historical work led to Peters taking a part-time
position as a photo editor and critic with the Providence Journal-Bulletin, which later evolved into a full-time position. After briefly working with the Chicago Sun-Times, she ended up applying and then accepting a position with the Chicago Tribune.
Currently Peters is a features photo editor for the Tribune, working with both daily and Sunday editions. She specializes in the home and garden, travel and transportation sections of the paper. Peters also works with the “Woman News” section, of which she is particularly proud since it is one of the only sections of its kind in the country.
In describing her daily routine, she explained that she works closely with art directors and photographers in
creating layouts. As a result of this working relationship Peters said that photo editors are becoming a primary voice at the Tribune.
In addition to sharing her personal experiences, Peters had a wealth of information and advice for students about photojournalism. She cautioned students to be careful
regarding what they show viewers through photos.
“Digital [photography] has made it really easy to
fool around with images … I think it’s really deceptive,” she said.
Peters also spoke at length about the importance of impact with respect to photography. She explained how quality photography has the potential to show the personality of the subject as well as the story and encouraged students to use their imagination when tackling photo assignments.
“Alternative storytelling is good for newspapers. I think you can lose people after a while [with just words],” Peters said.
