RIT Photojournalism Students Give a Voice to Rochester Community through Web site
These two Rochester residents are just a “snapshot” of the many fascinating, yet ordinary people featured on a new Web site created by senior photojournalism students at Rochester Institute of Technology. The Web site, www.voicesofrochester.com, shares 63 stories of residents, community activists, children, business owners, and artists through photographs and first-person audio accounts. The Web site will be officially unveiled during a reception from 6 to 8 p.m. on Thursday, May 25, in the Chester F. Carlson Auditorium in Building 76 on the RIT campus.
“We went out into neighborhoods throughout Rochester and started knocking on doors and stopping in at businesses and talking to people,” says John Narewski, RIT senior photojournalism student and managing editor of VoicesofRochester.com. “One thing led to another and soon enough people would let us take photographs and interview them about their everyday life.”
“I plan on having this as an ongoing senior project for our students so that it’s an emerging Web site of Rochesterian profiles,” says Doug Rea, RIT photography professor. “Each year we will build a new series of images so that viewers will have something to look forward to each spring.”
“We barely scratched the surface of the many unique people that make up the Rochester community,” says Narewski.
MEDIA NOTE: The media is welcome to cover the reception and interview the photojournalism students. Please park in Lot F. If the provided photo is used for print purposes, credit Heidi Hoffman as photographer.