Missouri Photojournalism Hall of Fame induction is Oct. 18
The Missouri Photojournalism Hall of Fame in Columbia will induct three award-winning photojournalists and teachers of photography and journalism on Oct. 18.
This will be the 14th group of inductees since the founding of the Hall of Fame in 2005. Inductees are David Rees of Columbia; Dave Marner of Owensville; and the late Thelma Blumberg.
Photographs made by the inductees will be on display during the 4 p.m. ceremony and reception in the Palmer Room at the Reynolds Journalism Institute on the University of Missouri campus in Columbia. Those photographs will join the Hall of Fame’s collection of work by inductees.
The Photojournalism Hall of Fame was founded at the urging of Bill Miller Sr., publisher of the Washington Missourian twice-weekly newspaper, to recognize outstanding contributors to visual communication with ties to Missouri.
Information about the Photojournalism Hall of Fame and previous inductees can be seen at photojournalismhalloffame.org
— Thelma Blumberg —
Thelma Blumberg was born November 23, 1920, in St. Louis. She learned about cameras and photographic equipment while serving in the U.S. Navy Women’s Reserve during World War II. Following her three years of service, Blumberg studied the art of photography at the Chicago Institute of Design on the G.I. Bill. She also studied photography at the Art Center in Los Angeles, where she met and took instruction from the likes of Ansel Adams, Berenice Abbott and Dorothea Lange.
Blumberg created a large volume of photographs during her work as a free-lance photo journalist in the late-1950s and 1960s in what would become known as Gaslight Square. Her photographs documented the neighborhood as it changed from a quiet antique row into one of the country’s most popular entertainment districts. In the 1960s, her journalistic photography often appeared in the Sunday Magazine section of the St. Louis Globe Democrat, in St. Louis Scene Magazine, and in St. Louis Magazine. She also served as the house photographer for Gaslight Square’s own play house, the Gateway Theatre.
In 1991, the Western Historical Manuscript Collection-St. Louis purchased more than 5,000 of Blumberg’s photographs. Her Gaslight Square and other photojournalistic subjects can be viewed as part of the collection at the University of Missouri-St. Louis. Due to severely debilitating rheumatoid arthritis, she was forced to give up her camera in her early 60s, however she continued to control her work, primarily through UMSL, until her death on May 2, 2012, at the age of 91.
— Dave Marner —
Dave Marner has been a journalist since 1979 when he began stringing sports and taking photographs at the age of 17 for the suburban Chicago Wheaton, Ill. Daily Journal while still in high school. He studied photojournalism at the University of Missouri while attending from 1980 through his 1986 employment at The Fulton Sun, where he was a staff photographer. After leaving the Sun in 1989, he worked briefly at The News Tribune and Capital Daily News in Jefferson City and then with The New Haven Leader and The Hermann Advertiser-Courier.
In 1992, he joined the staff of The Gasconade County Republican, a weekly newspaper in Owensville as the sports editor. He now serves as managing editor and has been responsible for general news coverage through writing, editing and photojournalism. In 2017, he helped Warden Publishing launch a new weekly newspaper, The Maries County Advocate.
Throughout his career, he has won numerous awards for his photography and other journalism work, as well as helped other journalists to better understand the concepts behind good photography. He has worked with local high school yearbook journalism and vocational-agriculture instructors and their students on writing and photography projects, and he has taught photography courses through the local school district.
While studying photojournalism at Mizzou, Marner worked as a darkroom technician for the Missouri Photojournalism Workshops in Mt. Vernon (1983) and Forsyth (1984). He helped print the Forsyth exhibit at Cliff and Vi Edom’s home. Marner also participated in shooting the Poplar Bluff (1985) and Fulton (2002) workshops.
— David Rees —
David Rees taught photojournalism at the University of Missouri School of Journalism from 1986 until his retirement in 2018, working with hundreds of students who have gone on to have meaningful careers in journalism and photojournalism. He was chair of the photojournalism faculty, director of the Angus and Betty McDougall Center for Photojournalism Studies and co-director of the Missouri Photo Workshop. He also has led all of the university’s landmark professional programs, including Pictures of the Year International and College Photographer of the Year, as well as overseeing development of the Edom Photojournalism Laboratory. Rees was named the O.O. McIntyre Distinguished Professor in 2003.
A former high school English teacher, Rees began photographing in a small town and shooting with a twin lens Yashica-D. The bulk of his professional experience came as a staff photographer and then photo editor for The Columbia Daily Tribune. He was a lab crew member of the 1975 Missouri Photo Workshop in Nevada and a faculty member of the Bolivar and Washington workshops.
In addition to helping the university’s curriculum develop and evolve as photography has evolved, Rees has participated in seminars for the Poynter Institute, Scripps Howard and National Press Photographers Association and in workshops on newspaper picture desk management. He has authored one book on the University of Missouri and was one of 38 photographers on the 1996 Discovering Ecuador book project. He maintains interest in grassroots photojournalism and in online publishing.
