Welcome to the new and improved MNPA

January 8, 2008

Welcome one and all to the new and improved Minnesota News Photographers Association. My name is Kyndell Harkness. I’m a staff photographer at the Star Tribune and your president for as long as you’ll have me.

A group of us have gotten together and challenged ourselves to make MNPA more than an annual contest. We want an organization, either online or in person, where photographers from around the region can get inspiration. Places and times where we can learn from each others’ successes and mistakes. An open forum year around. That’s where the website comes in: http://www.mnpa.org/

Nathan Berndt, of the Pioneer Press, has been gracious enough to rebuild our website with a features section and a blog page. It’s mostly a skeleton right now because we need content. So please email Nathan with questions and/or comments you want to post to the membership or any work you’re really proud of. The website can handle slide shows and video, so give us what you got.

This year we will have a silent print auction planned for late January-early February that will be open to the public to help raise money for the organization. You’ll hear more about that in a few days. Also the convention will take on a new look this year. The dates are April 11th-13th. There will be a full CPOY contest as well as the professional contest. There will be workshops on lighting, audio slide shows, video, and story telling. There will also be forums on Sunday discussing covering news at a medium to small town newspaper, the 35W bridge disaster, and the future of MNPA.

To make this a viable organization, a living and breathing entity, we need you to participate, to be active to be committed, to be involved. This the only way we will survive.
Mike Zerby, I swear, at the end of every meeting asks our little group ” Why are we doing this again?” Well I say that in a time where our industry seems to be swimming in a sea of uncertainty we need each more than ever. But as visual journalists in a growing visual world there is hope. I think this little organization can be a vehicle for that hope. Again a place where we can learn from and inspire each other.

My New Year;s resolution for MNPA can be summed up like this: keep learning keep growing, keep moving.

Here’s hoping you will join our band of silly people. Drop me a line if you have any questions.

Thanks for your time,

Kyndell Harkness

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