Jennifer’s Joe Imel article

Xposure Journalism Workshop director Bob Adams refers to Joe Imel as “the poster-man for community journalism.”

In reality, Imel is photo editor for the Bowling Green Daily News, and as a journalist, he said it is his job to tell everyone’s story.

“We are the voice for those who don’t have a voice,” he said on June 6, while talking to the students attending the 2011 Western Kentucky University Xposure Journalism Workshop.

Imel said he has been a photojournalist for 27 years and first began taking photojournalism classes in 1984 at WKU. But after he graduated, he saw that the photos he was taking at WKU were “just pretty pictures,” and they weren’t content-related, as those for journalism should be.

“It’s about the moment,” he said. “It’s all about the people in front of me.”

Imel referred to himself as a “visual storyteller” and even a “self-proclaimed photo evangelist.” He said that photojournalism is truly his passion and calling, and he loves his job.

“I am the one who lets 25,000 people know what happens in their own backyard,” he said, referring to Daily News readers.

Always armed with two cameras hanging from his neck, Imel is ready to take photos in a moment’s notice. And that moment often comes from an emergency scanner that Imel said he monitors from 5:30 a.m. to midnight each day.

“You’ve got to be there when it’s happening,” Imel said.

As a journalist, Imel has taken it upon himself to post some of these notifications on his Twitter page, which can be found at http://twitter.com/#!/joeimel. And his Tweets have quite a following. He currently has more than 1,000 followers on his site. And he told a story in which one man told him that his mother, in California, follows Imel’s Tweets.

During his talk with Xposure workshoppers, Imel offered some advice about photojournalism. He explained that staging a photo does not capture a story and that real journalistic photography catches people in action.

He said an important part of getting good photos is to tell stories and “get in amongst the people.”

Imel said that journalism is all about people, what they have to say, and what they want to see.

“People don’t want to see pictures of the press conference,” he said. “They want to see the three-legged dog running down the street and getting caught in a manhole.”

Imel said that hard work will pay off. He explained that he may not be as good as other photographers, but he will come earlier and stay later than them.

“Do a good job, and you’ll be welcome every time,” he said.

Xposure student Seth Fischer aspires to be a photographer, and he said Imel inspired him.

“Joe Imel is just fantastic,” he said. “He always does a good job and never complains about the bad parts.”

As passionate as Imel is about his job as a community photojournalist, he didn’t always want to report for a small paper. Imel said he wanted to work at a metro paper, but would have felt guilty if he made his family move for his work.

But now, Imel loves his job.

“I yearned to do bigger stories,” he said.  “But now I know that the best stories are in your own backyard.”