NewsVideo Workshop

Steve Hooker

Steve Hooker, Chief Photojournalist at WIS-TV, Columbia, South Carolina, is a regular faculty member of the National Press Photographers Association’s Annual Television News Workshop. He gained his reputation by delivering production quality lighting at the speed of news. In addition to lighting workshops, he conducts seminars on storytelling techniques in this age of "run and gun" television newsgathering to photojournalists around the world.

Steve recently joined WIS-TV as the Chief Photojournalist two years ago. He had previously worked as a chief photographer in New Orleans and was there during Hurricane Katrina. Before that, he worked in the Carolinas as chief photographer, and earlier in Great Britain with the BBC for eight years.

Steve had not settled upon a career until well after graduating from the University of Miami and serving in the army including a year in Vietnam as a combat commander. That experience focused his life and he knew what he wanted to do. Upon leaving active duty he moved to England. Two years later he graduated from The London Film School and entered the motion picture industry. Occasionally he freelanced in news. He quickly learned that news photography allowed him more control over his work than he ever had in the movies. That is when he joined the television industry. Ten years later, he returned to the states for a vacation and stayed.

Today, Steve approaches a news story as if it were a motion picture; striving for the best storytelling techniques he can muster. The time constraint of news work however, is a severe obstacle in achieving that quality. Over the years, he has developed a number of tricks and techniques to keep the quality high with little or no loss of time.

Steve became involved in the NPPA, first as a frequent award winning photojournalist and later as a faculty member of the workshop. He was elected by NPPA’s 10,000 members to three terms on the NPPA Board of Directors. He enjoys sharing his ideas and learning new ones from other photographers.

Throughout his professional life Steve continued his military service through the army reserves. He has served several tours in the Middle East during the Gulf War and the current operations there.

His civilian achievements include several Emmys, three Associated Press Photojournalist of the Year awards from Louisiana, North Carolina and South Carolina and awards of Radio Television News Directors Association Photographer of the Year. Steve has published numerous articles and is a frequent speaker at television industry functions and universities. Continuing in his civilian capacity, he has been an honoree speaker at the Defense Information School.

Steve divides his time among his family, WIS-TV, NPPA, and seminars at other television stations and universities.