Home of the Free National Exhibition

The Corcoran College of Art + Design continues our commitment to photojournalism with the presentation of the Washington Mutual Home of the Free Student Photojournalism Program’s National Exhibition. Under the tutelage of Pulitzer Prize-winning professional photojournalists, middle school students from the Chicago, Denver, New York and New Jersey metro regions have been competing since the beginning of the school year to capture the best photographic image of local civil servants at work. The student team from each region responsible for the best photograph overall will be invited on a professional photo shoot at the Pentagon led by award-winning photojournalist David Hume Kennerly. Sixty student images will be on view in the Corcoran's Hemicycle Gallery from July 14 through August 9, 2004.

The Home of the Free program is led by Chair David Hume Kennerly and Co-chair Carol Guzy, two of the country’s most distinguished photojournalists. Kennerly, who won his Pulitzer Prize for photographs taken during the Vietnam War, was the official White House Photographer during the Ford Administration and is currently a contributing editor for Newsweek magazine. Guzy was one of the first female press photographers and is a three-time Pulitzer Prize-winner. Together with photographic directors from Time, Newsweek, The New York Times, People magazine and the Corcoran College of Art + Design, they formed a panel of national judges who selected the best student photographs.

The Home of the Free program gave seventh and eighth grade students from participating middle schools the assignment to document the daily activities of local civil servants. Each participating school received a high-quality digital camera from Canon, a nationally approved curriculum and a $500 honorarium. Participating schools were chosen based on their proximity to a Washington Mutual FinancialCenter and the percentage of students receiving free or subsidized lunches.

Drawing directly upon the unique media resources of the nation’s capital, the Corcoran’s Bachelor of Fine Arts degree program in Photojournalism is an ideal training ground for a new generation of newspaper and magazine photographers and videographers. The faculty includes leading members of the White House News Photographers’ Association as well as world class picture professionals working at the National Geographic Society. These practitioner-teachers are widely acclaimed not only for their technical skills but also for their special understanding of the problems and responsibilities associated with creating images of national and world events, places and people. To learn moreabout the Corcoran's Bachelor of Fine Arts degree program in Photojournalism, click here.