Five Mississippi high school students have been selected to join four University of Southern Mississippi photojournalism majors to participate in the Southern Mississippi Photojournalism Project. The students began work on the two-year project during a weekend workshop on the Southern Miss campus in Hattiesburg Nov. 7 and 8.

The project is designed to allow students to work on stories about issues in the region that are sometimes overlooked in mainstream media coverage, including poverty, racism, inadequate public education and substance abuse. The students’ work will be published on the project’s Web site and in a publication modeled on the old Look and Life magazines, which featured photo essays. 

“This is an extraordinary opportunity for these students,” said Dr. Chris Campbell, director of the School of Mass Communication and Journalism. “They’re going to get some first-rate instruction, and they’ll be working on stories of real significance. What an excellent way to get a photojournalism career started.”

The Southern Miss School of Mass Communication and Journalism received a $55,000 grant from the Ethics and Excellence in Journalism Foundation to support the project, which will be headed by Clarence Williams, photojournalist in residence. Williams won the 1998 Pulitzer Prize for Feature Photography when he was a staff photographer at the Los Angeles Times.  

High school students selected to participate include Sadie Carillo, a junior from Raymond who attends Raymond High School; Rachel Courtault, a senior from Waveland who attends Our Lady Academy; Daniel Moran, a junior from Brookhaven who attends the Mississippi School of the Arts; Meghan Sellers, a senior from Richton who attends Richton High School; and Kristie Warino, a senior from Kiln who attends Our Lady Academy.

Southern Miss photojournalism students who are participating include Eli Bayless, a junior from Hattiesburg; David Jackson, a junior from Hattiesburg; Cathy Hayes, a junior from Waynesboro; and Eric Shelton, a senior from Columbia. Ten more students will be selected to participate in 2009-10.

The project will bring members of the Iris Photo Collective to the Southern Miss campus to work with the students several times over the next two years. The collective is made up of Williams and three other highly respected photographers: Andre Chung, a photographer who has worked for the Chicago Sun-Times and Baltimore Sun who has won the George Polk and Robert F. Kennedy journalism awards; Carl Juste, a photographer for the Miami Herald and also a Kennedy award-winner; and Pablo Martinez Monsivais, a photographer for the Associated Press Washington Bureau, where he was one of the group of photographers who won the Pulitzer Prize for Feature Photography for coverage of the impeachment process during the Clinton administration.

“We formed the Iris Photo Collective because the four of us share a passion for social justice, and we believe that photojournalism has the potential to affect important societal changes,” Williams said.

For more information, contact Dr. Chris Campbell, director of the School of Mass Communication and Journalism at This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it or 601.266.6283.

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About The University of Southern Mississippi
The University of Southern Mississippi, founded in 1910, is a comprehensive doctoral and research-extensive university fulfilling its mission of being a leading university in engaging and empowering individuals to transform lives and communities.  In a tradition of leadership for student development, Southern Miss is educating a 21st century work force providing intellectual capital, cultural enrichment and innovation to Mississippi and the world.  Southern Miss is located in Hattiesburg, Miss., with an additional campus and teaching and research sites on the Mississippi Gulf Coast; further information is found at www.usm.edu.