Sweitzer, Freed, To Receive Sprague Awards In Louisville

 

DURHAM, NC (May 18, 2008) – The National Press Photographers Association's Honors & Recognition Committee today announced that Steve Sweitzer and Sharon Levy Freed are winners of the 2008 Joseph A. Sprague Memorial Awards, the organization's highest honor.

An NPPA Life Member, Sweitzer is the News Operations Manager for WISH-TV in Indianapolis, IN, where he also serves as the chief photographer. He was NPPA's president in 1995, was a board member in 1983, and today is the chairman of NPPA's Advanced Storytelling Workshop and the National Press Photographers Foundation's Airborne TV Seminar. Sweitzer also teaches broadcast television news at Indiana University Purdue University at Indianapolis (IUPUI). He was a news photographer for WISH-TV from 1979 to 1982 before working in Louisville, KY, at WHAS-TV from 1982 through 1990, then he returned to WISH-TV.

In 1984, Sweitzer was the Indiana News Photographer of the Year and since 1983 his work has received 29 first or second place awards from AP, UPI, the Society of Professional Journalists, and the Indiana Press Photographers Association. From NPPA he's also received the Joseph Costa Award (2001), a Morris Berman Citation (1991), and four President's Awards.

Freed is the director of NPPA's NewsVideo Workshop held annually in Norman, OK. A Colorado native, Freed began her career in television news while interning as a student at the University of Colorado in Boulder. Afterwards, she took her first full-time television job as a videotape editor for KUSA-TV in Denver. After two years she left to finish a broadcasting degree at the University of Missouri, and while she was there she worked as a reporter, producer, and anchor for KBIA radio in Columbia. Then after graduation she went to KAKE-TV in Wichita, KS, as a photojournalist. About a year later she went back to Colorado, working as a photojournalist for KCNC-TV in Denver.

In 1990 and again in 1992 Freed won Emmy Awards from the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences for her public service campaigns.

After four years of shooting news, and six more years of writing, producing, and editing for KCNC-TV, it was time for a change and Freed went to work for Avid Technology as a senior instructor, traveling to television stations teaching photojournalists how to use Avid NewsCutter. Today she continues to work as a freelance non-linear editing instructor based in Englewood, CO.

"Both have given of themselves tirelessly for many years to support the education of photojournalists through the workshops they are involved in. Sharon is the rock behind the NPPA NewsVideo Workshop and Steve is the same to the Advanced Team Storytelling workshop," NPPA past president Alicia Wagner Calzada said. Calzada's also chair of NPPA's Honors & Recognition committee – the group who picked this year’s honorees.

"The education of photojournalists is at the core of the mission of the NPPA and this years Sprague Awards reflect a deep appreciation for immense amount of work required for such a mission to be realized, and a recognition that without these wonderful leaders, these events would never exist. Hundreds of photographers can trace improvements in their skills and advancement in their careers to the work of these two individuals."

Sweitzer and Freed will be presented with their Sprague Awards at a banquet on May 31 during NPPA's Convergence '08 in Louisville, KY. In addition to the Sprague Awards, the Joseph Costa Award and the Jim Gordon Editor of the Year Award will be presented at the banquet along with the 2008 Best Of Photojournalism awards in the still photography, picture editing, television photography and editing, and Web categories.

Established in 1949, the Joseph A. Sprague Memorial Award is presented to not more than two individuals each year and it is granted only if achievement is, in the opinion of the committee, of a sufficiently high standard. The Sprague Award may be given to a working photojournalist who advances, elevates, or attains unusual recognition for the profession of photojournalism by conduct, initiative, leadership, skill, and devotion to duty; or to a non-photojournalist whose unusual service or achievements have been beneficial to photojournalism, or for an outstanding technology advance in equipment or processes.

Sprague was a press technical representative for Graflex Corp., Rochester, NY. The firm manufactured Graflex and Speed and Crown Graphic cameras and flash units. Sprague is credited with the design of the Big Bertha, Magic Eye, and Combat Camera, and dozens of refinements to the Speed Graphic. He died in 1947.

"I was at the Advanced Storytelling Workshop when I heard about receiving the Sprague Award," Sweitzer said. "My first thought was, 'There must be a mistake.'"

"I've severed on the awards committee before and I know that the Sprague winners make up photojournalism's royalty. Some of my most memorable moments have been meeting past Sprague winners. I'll always remember sharing a drink with David Douglas Duncan, and listening to Joe Rosenthal tell about the day he shot the Iwo Jima flag raising photograph, and sharing a podium with James Nachtwey at NPPA's 50th anniversary convention. I consider many of the more recent winners among my friends. I've even shared a dorm room with Darrell Barton at the NPPA NewsVideo Workshop, and for the past 11 years I've spent one week in April with John Goheen at the Advanced Storytelling Workshop."

Sweitzer said, "I joined NPPA [in 1983] because I thought the membership card would work as a free pass to rock concerts. Little did I know what a rewarding lifetime experience it would become. I'm truly honored and humbled to join such a distinguished group."

On learning she would receive NPPA's Sprague Award, Freed said, "Never in my wildest dreams did I think I'd be recognized for the joy I get from teaching and helping others, or think that I'd be in the company of so many prestigious people who've received this award."

Freed said she was thankful for the people who nominated her, "and I'm extremely thankful for the miracle that Bob Brandon is around to be part of it all. But most important, I've produced many things in my life – and I'm thrilled to be recognized – but the most important think I've ever produced is my family. I thank my husband Jay and my kids Sam and Anna for their continued support. I never could have accomplished this without them."

Read more about NPPA's Convergence '08 here.

 

 

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