You are Michael A. Schwraz, a photo journalist, three-time Pulitzer Prize nominee, calling your boss back in the States to see if your photos have reached him. You find out they reached him okay and that you have been photographed by another photographer when the Berlin wall is coming down and that you are on the front page of the Atlanta Journal Constitution. How’s that for being on assignment!
Today’s Club speaker was this same Mr. Schwraz. Now an independent editorial and corporate photo journalist based in Atlanta, he has over 27 years of experience, completed more than 6,500 assignments for publications like USA Today, Fortune magazine, The Chronicle of Higher Education, Sports Illustrated, Time, Newsweek, LIFE, National Geographic Traveler, U.S.News & World Report, Business Week, and Forbes.
His corporate clients have included: The Home Depot, UPS, and the Coca-Cola Company.
Mr. Schwraz has also received numerous awards from the National Press Photographers’ “Pictures of the Year” competition and was a winner of the Dag Hammarskjold Award for Human Rights Advocacy Journalism.
LIFE magazine chose Mr. Schwraz as one of the ten best young photographers in the U.S. He also collaborated with writer Ellen Spears on the book “The Newtown Story: One Community’s Fight for Environmental Justice”, published in 1998.
When asked if he had any assignments that stood out in his mind, he said James Brown and Warren Buffet. Mr. Brown was seven hours late for a photo session and Mr. Buffet, the billionaire investor, offered to help him carry his gear after a photo shoot. And he did. Mr. Schwarz likes to tell this story to other CEO’s …a little humility goes along way….
He is currently doing digital photography consulting for professionals and consumers through his affiliation with “Blue Pixel” and is a featured instructor of the Nikon Digital School
"How important it is for us to recognize and celebrate our heroes and
she-roes"
-- Maya Angelou
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