Award-winning Snedden chair, photojournalist to speak

March 31, 2014

University Relations

Kirsten Pickard
907-474-2417
03/28/14


 Photo by Sam Harrel.  Richard Murphy at the 2014 Yukon Quest International Sled Dog Race.
Photo by Sam Harrel. Richard Murphy at the 2014 Yukon Quest International Sled Dog Race.


Richard Murphy, award-winning former photo editor of the Anchorage Daily News and Snedden Chair at the UAF Journalism Department, will present "Photojournalism: The New Paradigm," Wednesday, April 9, at 7 p.m. in the UAF Murie Building auditorium. This event is free and open to the public.

Murphy began chasing ambulances as a newspaper photographer at the age of 18 and continued to work in that capacity during his college summers. In 1974, he joined the Jackson Hole News, a small weekly in Jackson, Wyo., where he served as a darkroom technician, press assistant, chief photographer and beat reporter.

In 1985, Murphy became photo editor of the Anchorage Daily News. While there, he was on the team that won the 1989 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service and was team leader for the 1990 Pulitzer nomination in news photography for coverage of the Exxon Valdez oil spill. He has served as a judge for the Pulitzer Prizes. In 2011, the National Press Photographer’s Association named him Editor of the Year.

The Snedden Lecture Series is made possible by a generous endowment from the late Helen Snedden in honor of her late husband, former Fairbanks Daily News-Miner owner, publisher and journalist C.W. Snedden.

The Snedden Chair Foundation will also sponsor an exhibition of Murphy's photographs at the Well Street Art Co. in May. The photographs capture winter in the Interior, from the autumnal to the vernal equinox. The show will open on Friday, May 2 from 5-8 p.m.

For more information, contact the UAF Department of Journalism at 907-474-7761.

ADDITIONAL CONTACT: Margo Campbell, 907-474-7761 or mlcampbell@alaska.edu

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