My Eddie Adams Workshop Experience (part 1) – Jason Prupas
After two attempts, I was finally accepted into the Eddie Adams Workshop XXVI (EAW) in July 2013. While I have experienced some incredible things in my life so far, from the places I have travelled and the people I have met, this workshop was one the most unique and incredible experiences of my life.
The day I found out, I got an email notification from Mirjam Evers the EAW executive producer. The subject line was “Congratulations”. Needless to say I was floored.
Arriving students walk up towards the barn on the first of day of the Eddie Adams Workshop. (Photo – Adnan Saciragic)
The workshop was created 26 years ago by photojournalist Eddie Adams, who spent his career covering 13 wars, including three tours in Vietnam where he shot the iconic Pulitzer Prize winning photo of the Viet Cong prisoner being executed. He photographed noted individuals from Ronald Reagan to Fidel Castro, which ran on the cover of magazines like Time and Parade.
Eddie’s intention for the workshop was to pass onto up-and-coming photographers all the knowledge he and his fellow photographers had gained over the years. He and his wife Alyssa designed the workshop to be a tuition–free gathering where 100 selected applicants (50 students and 50 professionals) would participate in an intensive weekend at his barn in Jeffersonville, New York.
We gathered at the B&H camera store in New York City for our two-and-a-half hour ride to the farm. I was nervous about the weekend and I had no idea what I was getting into. Some students in front of me were passing around their iPads trying to find reviews of the workshop before we got to the farm. Many of the other students I spoke with already knew what to expect. But I didn’t want to know any details. I wanted to be surprised by everything that was about to unfold.
When we were let off in Jeffersonville, we made our way up a long gravel driveway towards the barn. All the workshop faculty and volunteers were cheering our arrival. It was incredible moment for everyone.
Ben Lowy speaks to the students and faculty on the second day of the workshop. (Photo – Adnan Saciragic)
After our welcome, all the different teams gathered together for an introduction and briefing. There were ten teams of ten students and each team had a designated color. I was in Team Tan (nude).
Our group leader was Carolyn Cole, staff photographer at the Los Angeles Times and winner of two Pulitzer Prizes. Our team editor was Elissa Curtis, photo editor for New Yorker magazine. Our tech was Bob Houlihan, who is Editor-in-Chief for the US Air Force magazine The Airmen. And our team producer was Melanie Mclean, who is a freelance photographer / videographer at Flying Giant Productions in New York City. Melanie was in charge of finding each member of our team a story to work on over the weekend.
The Google Street View car makes an appearance at the farm.
The theme for all our stories was “willpower”. My story was about Tim Hillriedgel, a local of Jeffersonville. My assignment was to follow him bow hunting on Saturday and then on Sunday, meet Tim at a ranch where he practices steer wrestling. This is a sport where you ride horseback alongside a bull, jump onto its back, and then try to wrestle it to the ground. Fastest time wins.
Well needless to say, Tim is a badass.
(Part 2 of this article is here.)
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Jason Prupas is a culturally ambiguous Canadian photojournalist, based in Toronto, and a worldwide traveller. Some of his travel destinations include the Middle East, Southeast Asia, North Africa, Central America, Europe, and the Caribbean. He is a 2013 graduate of the Loyalist College Photojournalism program in Belleville, Ontario.
Jason’s passion for photojournalism started as a teenager while taking a photography course in high school. The following year, he completed a five-month internship at a Toronto community paper, Inside Toronto. He has also interned at The Windsor Star and Ottawa Citizen. Jason has also worked for such publications as the National Post, The Belleville Intelligencer, The Trentonian, and Reuters (Indonesia).
In 2011, he travelled to Indonesia, where he worked on a project about Muslim transgendered women living in a predominantly Islamic culture, and another project on sulfur miners in Kawa-Ijen who work in one of the most hostile work environments in the world.
