Ben Seelig
NSPA Individual Award Entry 2024
Reflection on 23-24 school year
Between the parental rights act, the “Don’t Say Gay” bill, and other restrictions enacted in Florida, accurately portraying the personalities of students seemed treacherous. Even though the singular “they” pronoun was accepted by AP style in 2017, subjects in Florida cannot be called by their preferred name or pronouns without parental signature.
At the beginning of the year, my greatest fear was relaying this to the interviewees. The fact that, when they read their story, it was only a partial depiction of their true self. As a result, I sometimes told them the fact that we cannot use their preferred name after the story was already written, resulting in disappointment and betrayal. Since then, I’ve prioritized honesty over all else when introducing myself to students I wish to interview.
When approaching students with a notepad and phone in hand, groans and eyerolls were commonplace. This isn’t the fault of Gen Z temperament, though, but rather, the secret and contrived nature that some students have been led to think that journalists work by. Besides revealing important information after the interview, coming in with an angle before the story was also a problem. In September, when I first approached someone, I would skip right to the interview and barely explain the context around the story. Only when I grew more upfront about my purpose, and showed my genuine interest in the subject did the interview become more natural and open.
One of the most difficult aspects of shaping the story is connecting it back to the overall theme of the yearbook. What made this especially difficult was the general notion that journalism is contrived, and subjects fit into the preconceived story. To avoid this, I formed genuine relationships with the featured subjects, having personal, non-recorded conversations with them to understand exactly what makes them click, and to let them reveal where they would fit best in the yearbook, not the other way around.
Going into next year, I hope to further break down the walls between the interviewee and the recorder, until the yearbook is purely an extension of the student’s voice.
Looking Back On it All (the central timeline) was one of a handful of timelines I wrote throughout the year, although the August edition ended up being my favorite. These pieces ended up being the most difficult assignments I have worked on during my yearbook career due to the nature of organizing, researching, and interviewing for 10 different events each cycle. As a result of this, though, it also turned out to be one of my most satisfying pieces, introducing me to new songs, paintings, or movies I wouldn’t have found otherwise.
Out of the Orbit (left) is a story that had me on the edge of my seat throughout its creation. Originally, we were only planning to cover Anthony Stan’s brother, Nicholas, but we decided to include the other twin as well. Going into the interview, I only knew that Anthony was extremely smart and an ex-communications to piano major. With each minute of the interview though, Anthony revealed an accomplishment of his which could have been its own PBS special. In the end, the hardest part was deciding which accomplishment should take the foreground.
21 Countries, 30 Days (photos and captions) was the team’s ode to the large hispanic population of Dreyfoos and the effort the language team puts into the special month. Given the overlap of class and these activities, I was dependent on the teachers to help supply any pictures they could capture. As a result of the cross-teacher collaboration, the final story captured the most important aspects of Hispanic culture in the states and told a story about the divide between hispanic students and their culture through the captions. I am thankful that, with the patience of the interviewees, we were able to make the discussion deeper than simply the event they participated in.
Love in Bloom (photos and captions in the center) is my first complete photo package I created for the book. Trying to capture both the excitement of students both receiving a flower and also sharing a special moment with each other, the goal was to get as close to students’ faces as possible. As a result of this experience, I now am more aware of how an environment will affect your ability to move around as a photographer, since the arrangement of the desks was not an issue I foresaw going into, although I should have.
2022-2026 © Benjamin Seelig
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