Women in Photojournalism, Ruth Fremson & MPD
You might have noticed that Ruth Fremson, a Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer at The New York Times, wrote the latest Lens Blog post, “Women in Photojournalism.” What you might not know is that Ruth is a Newhouse/Syracuse graduate who began her studies in graphic design before taking a photography course in Syracuse’s London Program taught by Robert Gilka, legendary picture editor and National Geographic Magazine director of photography for 27 years.
Ruth’s first staff photographer position was at The Washington Times, where she worked from 1989 until September 1994. Then Ruth joined the staff of The Associated Press. She was first based in Charlotte, North Carolina, and photographed a lot of sports, but she also covered the reinstatement of President Aristide in Haiti by the American armed forces and the end of the civil war in Bosnia. In 1996 she was transferred back to Washington, D.C., to cover the White House and spent the next two-and-a-half years documenting the Clinton administration, with short stints elsewhere for Princess Diana’s funeral, the Pope’s historic visit to Cuba, and the Atlanta Olympics, among other assignments.
Ruth was part of the AP team that won the Pulitzer Prize in 1999 for its coverage of the Clinton impeachment. In 1998 she was posted overseas in the AP’s Jerusalem bureau, where she covered the Mideast conflict, stories in Egypt, and the war in Kosovo.
She worked at the AP until The New York Times hired her in 2000 and brought her back to the U.S. to work at her “hometown” newspaper. Since then, her assignments have ranged from the presidential campaigns of John McCain, Al Gore, and Howard Dean, the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, and its aftermath in Pakistan and Afghanistan, the Salt Lake City Winter Olympics, the war in Iraq, and more trips to the middle east, where she continued to cover the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. From 2005 through 2011 she also made repeated trips to India, recording the changing and developing nation.
In 2012 she worked on the groundbreaking “Snowfall” project, which earned writer John Branch a Pulitzer prize. She then spent a year documenting the life of a homeless child, Dasani, which helped change New York City’s policy toward the homeless.
Besides being part of two NYT teams to win a Pulitzer Prize in 2001 — spot news and feature photography — she has earned awards from the White House News Photographers’ Association, the National Press Photographers Association and the New York Press Photographers Association. Her work has been exhibited in several shows and can be found in numerous books. (Source: imdb.com)
Ruth’s current Lens Blog post features images shot by renowned photographer Lynn Johnson, who teaches a special summer projects course for Newhouse/Syracuse students.
A Marine veteran who served in Iraq in 2004-5 and 2007-8 wearing a mask he made at a therapeutic art program. Photo by Lynn Johnson / Women in Photojournalism by Ruth Fremson / The New York Times / Lens blog