Cinemagraphs for the New York Times
Some of my favorite work for The New York Times included a recent tour of the Joy Cone factory in Hermitage, Pa.. My parents used to go on factory tours, so I as fascinated and right at home. The cones were great too. See more of these cinemagraphs on nytimes.com.
Reporting for ESPN
Can a punch take the pain away? These guys (yes, mostly guys) have a lot to say about how they handle their stress and anger. It’s worth a listen or read.
ESPN gave me a call to ask if I would do the reporting for a set of pictures photographer Brian Finke had made over several years at a backyard fight club in Harrisonburg, Va.. That simple request became a story for ESPN - The Magazine, videos on ESPN’s Instagram & YouTube accounts plus 3,000-words and audio clips to accompany a photo essay on ESPN.com. It took some hunting to find the people in the pictures as not all still fought in “the yard.” Overall, I talked with more than two dozen fighters, others involved, neighbors and officials. I put together the 10-slide Instagram story and video using my onsite audio of fights plus phone and in-person interviews to go with Brian’s imagery in stills and video. Brian and the editors at ESPN (Tim Rasmussen, Julianne Varachi Griffin, Rob Booth and Dotun Akintoye) were great partners in the project. Many thanks to Chris Wilmore, aka “Scarface,” and the people of “Satan’s Backyard” who opened up to make this reporting possible.
Covering natural gas pipelines in appalachia
Since starting the Alicia Patterson Foundation Fellowship in January 2018 I have been doing some occasional freelance work on the topic, such as these posts for West Virginia Public Broadcasting. My main focus will be major projects, such as this one on how to improve the certification and construction pipeline process.
100 days, 100 voices
Photo District News' David Walker writes in the May 2017 Magazine about "100 Days, 100 Voices" from Appalachia. "Dana Coester, editor and creative director of “100 Days in Appalachia,” says coal miners dominated the national media’s narrative of the region, before and after the election. “We knew there was more complexity than that. Nancy’s project was about surfacing the multiplicity of voices.” It’s an experiment, Coester explains, to burst “the media filter bubbles that people inhabit,” get beyond the political polarization around the issues, and build a national audience through social media.
Other coverage: Poynter Institute, Columbia Journalism Review, All
my journalism on teams
The majority of career and professional efforts have been with traditional news organizations like The Washington Post or the Detroit Free Press and through some of my books and museum exhibitions. My work has earned me three Emmy Awards from the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, two national Robert R. Murrow Awards, a “Laurel” from the Columbia Journalism Review, White House News Photographer of the Year title and Photographer of the Year from the National Press Photographer’s Association and University of Missouri’s Pictures of the Year International.
AT West Virginia University
From 2015 to 2017 I had the pleasure to "visit" as the Ogden Newspaper Visiting Professor for Media Innovation at West Virginia University’s Reed College of Media. In my final year, I worked with other WVU professors, students, professionals at West Virginia Public Broadcasting and The Daily Yonder to create a reporting project called, "100 Days in Appalachia." By launch, I moved to content, photographing and interviewing more than 100 people to show the human stories of the communities of Appalachia that are often more complex than national narratives have allowed. My goal is to show the diversity of life and thought in the region. I found surprises and some comfort in that we all see a little bit of ourselves in the people I share with you through photography.
For me, college teaching is far different than workshop or in-house company training. Each student must balance classes and often a job. So, my class must prove itself to even get students’ attention.
You get attention with 360 video. As part of Knight Foundation Innovators in Residence program we partnered with The Washington Post's Phoebe Connelly and Danese Kenon of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette to teach teaching 360 video in January 2016 just as everyone else was learning it too. This side-by-side learning is so important. As professors, we can't wait to know everything, as classroom leaders on the edge of technology we are challenged to learn alongside our students. More on our 360 video.
I used human-centered design approaches for our product and audience research with students. I try to structure classes to better prepare students for the ambiguity of the world and workplace rather than the rote list of a syllabus. My students have made contributions to improving the record on women and people of color on Wikipedia. See Mediashift: Why you and your students should work to improve Wikipedia.
My role as the Ogden Professor of Media Innovation called for me to push the boundaries. With a partnership I led with Silicon Valley start-up, Matterport, we introduced non-linear storytelling to students as they explored the possibilities of 3D storytelling. Take a look at this modern portrait of student living in 'Where WVU Lives."
MORE: The official press release at WVU and Jimmy Colton's blog, Z Journal, did a rather long profile of me, so if you like to read, it's a good one. (At least that's what I think and what others have told me. It is a bit hard for me to judge since it is about me.)
At the Detroit Free Press
Check out our VERY FIRST test 3D tour of the Detroit auto show under construction. We did this in January of 2015.
And, this is my mega 3D virtual tour -- made from nearly 1500 scans this virtual tour explores the outside of the boat's hull, the engine room below deck, all three public decks and the roof of Detroit's beloved Boblo boat the SS Columbia.
At the Detroit Free Press I held various versions of titles that put me in charge of newsroom innovation, digital media and social media. From 2006 to late 2014 I was Managing Editor/ Digital Media (or some version of that title). I supervised the digital team (freep.com and our social media), photography & video, multimedia arts, data analysis, systems, copy desk, data desk and entertainment staffs. You can look at those dates and know things like Facebook, Twitter and SnapChat accounts, philosophies etc... all happened under my watch.
As the editor for digital I tried to create an environment of excellence, curiosity and service to our community. In 2014 our work was recognized with a national Edward R. Murrow Award for outstanding website among the large division online.
How Detroit Went Broke
In 2013 I was fortunate to direct a talented team that included Nathan Bomey, John Gallagher, Eric Millikin, Christopher Kirkpatrick, Martha Thierry and many others across the newsroom. Together we set out to explain not the decline of Detroit, but why the city was in bankruptcy – a very specific situation where one spends and borrows more than one can pay back. We combed through more than 60 years of documents and found nearly one billion dollars had been paid out in optional pension bonuses. We discovered surprises – that you couldn't blame the controversial former Mayor Coleman Young and but instead blame things like the $1.4 billion dollar pension deal from 2004. We received a few awards, but this explains it best: Columbia Journalism Review: A laurel for the Detroit Free Press: Deeply reported coverage explodes simplistic myths about how the Motor City went bankrupt
Our 2012 Edward R. Murrow winner included compelling video, stories and an interactive map of ten years of homicides in the city. It was the principal work of Romain Blanquart, Suzette Hackney, Carlton Winfrey, Kathy Kieliszewski, Kristi Tanner, John Sly and a cast of many supporting them.
The Free Press has a long history of outstanding photojournalism and starting in 2005 that reputation expand to include video. American Journalism Review highlighted our change among the industry's evolution in 2008 in "Video Explosion."
Video is now part of our DNA. As a staff we won four national Emmy Awards from the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, a Webby and a national Edward R. Murrow Award in video.
Our work on "The Boys of Christ Child House," did more than win awards. The video was cited by the foster care home as the reason several of the boys were adopted.
In our documentary video, we went for the highest levels of storytelling and emotion. I believe that some of the most gifted video storytellers working today are working for news organizations that were once exclusively newspaper based.
Freep Film Festival
With so many films being done to chronicle Detroit, plus with so much talent in the city, we decided at the Free Press to build a festival to highlight the documentary films and discuss the issues. The inaugural fest took place in March 2014 with a dozen presentations and discussions. I served on the festival’s founding board of directors.
#TurboVideo
In 2013 I was honored to lead a team of more than 20 colleagues from across the broadcast, digital and newspaper divisions of Gannett. Together we visited more than 26 sites from across the nation and taught more than 1500 journalist how to do video. We called it Turbo Video, but it was really about turbo change -- helping seasoned journalists see that they could use their storytelling expertise in another medium, and be good at it.
AT The Washington Post
Prior to the Free Press, you could find me at The Washington Post where I was a staff photographer for 10 years. I was fortunate to recognized for my work and named White House Photographer of the Year in 1998 and Newspaper Photographer of the Year by the University of Missouri and the National Press Photographers Association in 1997. During my time as a photographer I made the most out of every situation, enjoyed meeting people and telling their stories. To learn a little bit what it was like to work at The Post during these years, check out this article from the American Journalism Review.
FAMILY: A portrait of gay and lesbian america
HarperCollins published my first book, "Family: A Portrait of Gay and Lesbian America," in 1994. The work portrayed gay and lesbian people from across America – from Elvis impersonators to Congressmen to cowboys and stock brokers to activists to choir members, to teenagers to a 93-year-old. The Corcoran Gallery of Art held an exhibition of the entire work in the summer of 1994. I am so thankful for all the people who agreed to participate in that book and tell their story. You've helped me and others grow. More...
New York Times Review, 1994: "In the tradition of this country's great documentary photographers, Nancy Andrews, a photographer at The Washington Post, illuminates a part of American culture too often hidden from most people's view. Ms. Andrews's sensitive, stirring collection of 70 black-and-white photographs with accompanying oral histories, FAMILY: A Portrait of Gay and Lesbian America (HarperSanFrancisco, paper, $25), is an important record of 20th-century gay life and a joy to read..." more
Partial View: An Alzheimer's Journal
In 1998, Southern Methodist University Press published, "Partial View: An Alzheimer's Journal," which told the story of Dr. Cary Smith Henderson as he descended into the depths of the disease. His wife, Ruth Henderson, and daughter, Jackie Henderson Main, and I edited his words into a book meant for other families and people with Alzheimer's disease. The images and thoughts were exhibited at the Newseum in 1998.
From Amy: ...It's a good look at what it must feel like to find yourself aging/getting sick, and discovering that you're unable to do simple things you once could...and all the fear and confusion that comes with that...
From Celeste: ...A quick read by a man who recorded his thoughts as he became increasingly incapacitated by Alzheimer's. I loved the photographs--oftentimes, due to the nature of this disease, the images say more than the narration can...
Some of my personal story
I grew up on a small farm in Caroline County, Virginia. I love the farm with my pet billy-goat and assorted cats and dogs. My family has been part of that community for hundreds of years. That experience of the love of my community and family shaped me in ways that I have only come to truly understand as I have aged. My family and my friends throughout the years have given me the strength and support to believe in good and that each of us can make the world a better place through our own individual actions.
Though a few years have passed since this video was made, I still cry when I watch it. Created by my wonderful colleague and friend Lynn Johnson of National Geographic, it describes the last gifts my mother gave to me and others around her. I have it posted here because that time has had such an impact on my life, and to know it is to know a bit of me, and perhaps it will help you through a difficult time. I know the stories of others helped me.
And, where am I right now: Pittsburgh with my wife, Annie O’Neill.
Not enough? If you want the details of a resume, check out my LinkedIn profile.