Barbara Davidson
Staff Photographer
Los Angeles Times

Barbara has been a staff photographer for The Los Angeles Times since 2007. Prior to LA, she worked at The Dallas Morning News, The Washington Times, and The Record in Ontario, Canada.

Barbara remains committed to telling intimate stories. She has documented humanitarian crisis brought on by war in Iraq, Afghanistan, The Democratic Republic of Congo, Israel, and Gaza. She documented the Tsunami disaster, Hurricane Katrina, and The China Earthquake. Her news assignments have also brought her to Yemen, Nigeria, and Rwanda.

She was awarded the 2011 Pulitzer Prize in Feature Photography for her intimate story of innocent victims trapped in the crossfire of deadly gang violence in Los Angeles.

Dennis Dimick
Executive Editor (Environment)
National Geographic

Dennis has participated in 15 MPWs as faculty and one as a student.

He is the executive editor for environment at National Geographic Magazine and believes that environmental issues are an underlying aspect of almost every photo story.

He likes MPW because it allows photographers to find their own voice instead of simply completing assignments generated by others. While in France, he ran into three of his former MPW students. About MPW, they admitted to Dimick, "That was the worst week of my life at that time, but I had no idea how it would change my life."

Melissa Farlow
Freelance Photographer
National Geographic

Melissa has participated in about 19 MPW workshops.

She is a freelance photographer for National Geographic. Melissa spent 18 years on assignment work for National Geographic. She is currently working on a website, www.olsonfarlow.com, with her partner and husband Randy Olson.

"I do this workshop because I believe in everything about it: connecting with subjects and building community-even with other photographers... I also learn things every year, and I think it is important to pass on to others what I have learned. I feel responsible to keep it alive."

Kim Komenich
Assistant Professor (New Media Journalism)
San Jose State University

>Kim started MPW in 1992 as a student and returned the following year as a faculty member. He has only missed one workshop since then.

He is currently an assistant professor at San Jose State University. He received the 1987 Pulitzer Prize for his coverage of the Philippine revolution, the 1983 World Press award for news picture stories, and the 1987 SPJ National Distinguished Service award.

One of his favorite aspects of the workshop is the camaraderie among the faculty. "You feel like you're starting up a conversation you left off a day ago. If you do this long enough, you end up spending a fraction of your life here," he said.

Brian Kratzer
Assistant Professor
University of Missouri

Brian is director of photography for the Columbia Missourian and an assistant professor at the University of Missouri-Columbia. He teaches photo desk management and staff photojournalism.

Kratzer has more than 18 years of professional experience as a staff photographer, photo editor and newsroom manager. His most recent position was assistant managing editor for online and multimedia for the Gainesville (Fla.) Sun, where Kratzer was instrumental in leading the newsroom in the transition to a Web-first environment.

Randy Olson
Freelance Photographer
National Geographic

Randy has participated in so many MPWs he can't keep track.

He is a freelance photographer for National Geographic and was POYi's Magazine Photographer of the Year for 2003 and Newspaper Photographer of the year for 1992. He is one of only two photographers to win the title in both media.

He was also awarded an Alicia Patterson Fellowship to support a seven-year project documenting a family with AIDS.

Peggy Peattie
Staff Photographer
San Diego Union Tribune

This is Peggy's third MPW.

She has won a long list of awards from the National Press Photographer's Association and the Picture of the Year International competitions, including the Region 10 Photographer of the Year.

"What I get out of my five days here - the enthusiasm and the inspiration - I am able to tap into the other 360 days of the year."

Lois Raimondo
Assistant Professor
West Virginia Univertsity

Lois started at MPW as a photographer in 1987 at Caruthersville. Two years later she came back as a faculty member and has since only missed five or six workshops.

Lois is an assistant professor at West Virginia University and spent four years as chief photographer for the Associated Press Bureau in Hanoi, Vietnam.

She values the workshop because photographers get to work on self-generated assignments. The stories that have stood out to her the most are the ones where the "photographers changed the most."

Craig Walker
Staff Photographer
Denver Post

This is Craig's second MPW workshop.

Craig is a staff photographer at the Denver Post and won the Pulitzer Prize in 2009 for his story "Ian Fisher: American Soldier." What he thought would take him a year to shoot turned into more than two years, including the month he spent embedded in Iraq. "It really turned into a story about growing up, it was less about [Ian] being a soldier."

Christopher Wilkins
Assistant Director of Photography
Dallas Morning News

This is Chris's 15th MPW workshop.

He is the assistant director of photography at Dallas Morning News.

He remembers sitting up at night with Cliff Edom talking about photojournalism until 4 in the morning. "Those were probably some of the best memories of my entire life," he said. "I think David and Jim and Duane, and most of the faculty are all disciples of his."

Chris said that the beauty of the workshop is that "everything has changed so much, but the mission of the workshop hasn't changed one bit."