Doug Lawhead

Getting the Picture
A Photographer's Life

Doug Lawhead, Department of Journalism

was the kid who always had a camera in his backpack on Boy Scout campouts. It was a little Kodak Brownie Hawkeye II that I got for, I think, my 13th birthday. My mother bought it at Thompson's Drug Store, which used to be on the south side of the Robinson Square.

After high school I came to Eastern, where after four years of attempting to study math and then biology I figured out that what I really wanted to do was take pictures. Not just any pictures, but news pictures. That took me back to Robinson, and to Lincoln Trail College's new darkroom, which literally became my home for the next two years. I know I pulled more all-nighters during those two years making photographs in that darkroom for the yearbook and student newspaper and the college than I pulled studying the previous four at EIU. I also managed to buy a used, but nice, 35 mm Bell and Howell camera that allowed me to really start growing as a photographer.

Robinson was also home to the Wabash Valley Camera Club. Some of the finest photographers I have known were in that club. Dick Gray, Dale and Lois Goff and Glain Linkafelter were just some of the great WVCC people to learn from, and they did not mind teaching me the art of photography. Wib Powden, who still owns and operates Rembrandt Studios on the Robinson Square, always found time to talk to me, explaining the mechanics of cameras and photography and giving me advice and tips on how to improve my work. Under their guidance I started winning a lot of amateur photography contests in the state.

That landed me a job at the Robinson Daily News, where I learned to incorporate the art of photography with journalism. After 12 years at the Robinson Daily, I accepted a position with the Times Courier and Journal-Gazette. In 1995 I began teaching photojournalism part-time here at EIU, and five years ago I accepted a full-time position as the Macintosh Computer support specialist for the journalism and art departments.

I continue to teach part-time. Teaching serves two purposes for me. First, it keeps me in touch with the needs of teachers who work in a digital classroom and thus helps me better support the computer labs. The second reason I teach is that it's my way of paying back Wib and those folks in the camera club for the time they spent teaching me.

I also enjoy it.

Even though my job does not require it, I still shoot a lot of photos. The camera is almost never far away. Every summer I take a week of vacation and shoot Premier Boys State for the American Legion, and I am currently working on a series about Route 40 in Illinois.

Fox Ridge State Park , Charleston, Ilinois

Maintaining a level of artfulness is something I always tried to do as a photojournalist. Understanding how to use light, form, texture, structure, balance, color and all that other “arty stuff” is as critical in photography, including photojournalism, as it is in painting, sculpture or any other art form. I sometimes think photojournalists stray from that. They get caught up in the notion that their job is to tell a story visually without worrying about the art. I would contend that even though some stories do not offer many opportunities for artistic expression, most do. The photojournalist should always be alert to opportunities to incorporate the art into the story as long as that does not alter the image’s truthfulness.

What follows is a collection of photos I shot before, during and after working at the newspapers. I hope you enjoy them. If you want to see more of my work I have several pages of photos on my website at http://www.ux1.eiu.edu/~rdlawhead/ . Click below to jump into the photos I prepared for Agora. Enjoy.

Robinson Municipal Swimming Pool, Robinson, Illinois

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