Winning Student Photojournalist Lehmann Mowed Down The Hearst Competition

 

By Donald R. Winslow

© 2007 News Photographer magazine

LINCOLN, NE (June 28, 2007) - After student photojournalist Brian Patrick Lehmann won the 47th annual Hearst Photojournalism Championship during a two-day shoot-out with five other finalists in San Francisco a couple of weeks ago, he had to rush home to Nebraska to mow the grass. Lots of grass. Because taking part in the contest put an additional delay into his already hectic mowing schedule.

"I started this lawn mowing business when I was 14 years old, doing 80 lawns a week," the new champion said. "It put me through college and it's kept me extremely busy. I've got two guys working for me now and the business keeps me financed so I can shoot these stories, but one of them is gone now and I had to catch up with the grass for a few days when I got back."

Now that Lehmann's won Hearst, and a big pile of Nebraska grass clippings have financed the journalism degree he just got from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, the photojournalist may start looking for a shooting job, he says. But not right away. He's got a second place scholarship from the Alexia Foundation that will pay for studying photojournalism in London for a while, and he's shooting a self-funded essay on Ethanol that he wants to finish before getting caught up in the job hunting process. And then after that he says he'll "see what I can find."

"I've always been taught that your best work comes from what you shoot for yourself, and that's why I want to finish this Ethanol story first," he said.

Mowing grass wasn't the only manual labor Lehmann did to get into photojournalism and out of college. At first he wasn't in school to be a photojournalist. He was a finance major. "I just didn't want to be cooped up in an office for an entire day, and decided finance wasn't for me." It was about that time that he met one of Nebraska's famous photojournalists, Joel Sartore, who's shot nearly 20 National Geographic essays.

"I went to Joel's house every once in a while and did hard labor, chipping cement off a stack of bricks, throwing six-year-old hay out of his barn, anything just so he'd pay some attention to me. He rewarded me with photography talks. That's what really got me started. I switched majors. Nebraska really didn't have a photography program back then. The photography professor had retired. There wasn't a photojournalism professor until they hired Bruce Thorson. I took one photojournalism class from a guy who shoots video and I got a C, maybe a D+ ... I think I had to argue with him for a C."

Now, just as Lehmann graduates, the program at Lincoln is quite different. "They hired Thorson. [Howard] Buffett's big donation came along. These things are big boosts to a program like that. I'll be shocked if the program isn't pretty successful pretty quickly. Buffett wants to see the student photographers traveling."

Lehmann says that this year when he got the phone call he didn't go to San Francisco to take part in the Hearst shoot-out with the idea of winning. It was his second trip to the competition; he was a finalist in the contest once before. "I was so excited just to have the opportunity to come back again," Lehmann says. "I just wanted to enjoy the experience and to shoot how I like to shoot. I didn't put any pressure on myself. The first time I went, I hadn't had any internships or much experience. But I was dying to go back, because the Hearst experience by itself is truly amazing. They make you feel like a million bucks."

And his Hearst photographs from this year show that Lehmann went out and did what he knows how to do best, and that the hard labor of mowing all that grass also benefits his photography. One of his winning photographs, of a San Francisco bike messenger who daily battles the hills and city traffic, came from the end of a long day of physical exertion and shooting. "I like remotes. I take them with me all the time, just in case. It lets me put a camera in a place where I can't go myself and capture moments that there's no other way to capture. You don't get the Hearst photo assignments until the night before. One of mine was to cover a bike messenger."

Late on the night before shooting, Lehmann used gaffer's tape to rig a remote camera pointed backwards off the rear of a bicycle. He knew the coming day would be a long one, and downtown San Francisco is one constant uphill battle after another. "I rode with that guy all day. After eight hours, the picture came in the last 30 minutes. I was kind of lucky, catching him riding through that shaft of light. But that's why I always carry remotes."

Sartore wasn't the only veteran photojournalist to have an impact on Lehmann's work ethic. As a student, Lehmann did internships at The Concord Monitor and at The Palm Beach Post. "Dan Habib at the Monitor and Mark Edelson at the Post totally whipped me into shape," Lehmann says. "That, and Joel's advice, is what got me here."

"Here" may be job hunting, or for the time being mowing more grass, but Lehmann is certain he wants to finish his Ethanol story first, regardless. "In Nebraska, Ethanol is a huge topic, and from working with Joel I'm really interested in environmental stories. I'm shooting it for myself, that's true, but hopefully I can also sell it. I hope a Nebraska newspaper will pick it up."

Lehmann has been an NPPA member since 2004. His first place finish in the Hearst competition leaves him with a $5,000 scholarship award.

Second place was Ben Fredman of the University of Missouri with a $4,000 scholarship award, and third place was Jonathan Woods of Western Kentucky University with a $3,000 award.

The other three photography finalists were Edward Linsmier of Western Kentucky University; Morgan Petroski of the University of Florida; and Brandon Thibodeaux of the University of North Texas.

This year the photojournalism judges were Leslie A. White, director of photography for The Dallas Morning News; Pim Van Hemmen, assistant managing editor for photography at The Star-Ledger; and Janet Reeves, director of photography for The Rocky Mountain News.

Photographs of Lehmann shooting during the Hearst competition are by Jakub Mosur

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