Professor Komenich's Advice to Student Photojournalists: 'Be Curious and Let Something Strike You'

AMERICAN SOCIETY OF MEDIA PHOTOGRAPHERS -- Kim Komenich is an associate professor and head of the photojournalism sequence at San Francisco State University. He has had, and continues to have a very successful career in photojournalism — even winning a Pulitzer Prize in 1987. He now shares his extensive career experience with his students and works to help them navigate the rapidly changing photojournalism industry. “On the first day of class I tell my students that one of the toughest tasks that a journalism teacher faces today is trying to teaching communication skills to students whose parents told them not to talk to strangers,” Komenich says. “In no small part my goal is to encourage students to look someone in the eye, to be comfortable in the void and to fight the urge to flee. To be curious and to let something ‘strike you.’ I try to teach that.”