Award-winning photojournalist Lynn Johnson will work with students and give a public lecture during a three-day visit at Ithaca College, October 6-8. Johnson has the cover photograph and a photo feature in the October issue of National Geographic and is the author of Hate Kills, a forthcoming book about the impact of hate crimes on American society.
The lecture, also called "Hate Kills," will be at 7:00 p.m., Thursday, October 6, in Park Auditorium, Roy H. Park School of Communications. It is free and open to the public.
Johnson says she hopes Hate Kills “will promote community dialogue and help to change our national attitude from intolerance to understanding.” After 30 years of practicing photojournalism, Johnson sees her personal work moving from that of observer to advocate.
Johnson is known for her intense, sensitive work and divides her time between assignments for National Geographic and Sports Illustrated, where she is a staff photographer. Armed with her Leica cameras, she has climbed the radio tower atop Chicago’s Hancock Tower and dangled from helicopters in Antarctica to make her photographs.
Her favorite assignments, though, have been emotionally demanding stories about ordinary people. Among them, she cites a family struggling with AIDS (Life); the death of an African-American coach in Amish country (Sports Illustrated); native Hawaiians’ mission to cultivate traditional ways (National Geographic); and the impact of avian flu unleashed on Vietnam (National Geographic).
“Tracking the Next Killer Flu” is the cover story in the October 2005 edition of National Geographic, whose editor describes the story by Johnson and science editor Tim Appenzeller as a “high-stakes detective story” about a flu that has jumped from chickens to humans. Johnson also was a contributor to the recent special edition of National Geographic on Africa.
On October 7 and 8, Johnson will lead an intensive workshop with photojournalism students at Ithaca College.
