(Randy Cox, David Rees and Joshua Bickel)

Missouri Photo Workshop Co-Director Jim Curley talks about the workshop’s history.

St. James Airport

St. James bear crossing

St. James entertainment

St. James Community Center

It’s Missouri Photo Workshop time.

For the first time during my time at MU, I’m a volunteer for the Missouri Photo Workshop. In the past, I’ve let The Maneater, the Missourian or being in London get in the way of volunteering.

It will be a week of long days.

I’ll eat more Burger King and greasy dinner fare than my heart would prefer.

Missing a week of classes will give my grades an early sucker punch I could do without.

I’m stoked.

Here’s a story I wrote a few years ago about the workshop -

Photographers invade mid-Missouri

MARSHALL — Forty-one photojournalists from around the world descended upon this town of 12,000 on Sunday to document the lives of the town’s residents.

The Missouri Photo Workshop was first held in Columbia in 1949. MU photojournalism professor Clifton Edom founded the workshop that features photography from rural Missouri.

Missouri Photo Workshop co-director Jim Curley said it was Edom’s “vision to use small town America” that helped start the program.

“Cliff’s mantra for years was simple,” Curley said. “Show the truth with the camera.”

Workshop participants spent the week following a local resident and documenting his or her story. The photojournalists were given a short amount of time to locate a story that interested them and a faculty of experienced photojournalists critiqued the work and gave advice.

Most of the participants are professional photojournalists, but MU students also could apply. Carolin Burrer, a German Fulbright scholar studying at MU, attended the workshop after hearing about it from her professor and workshop co-director David Rees. Burrer received her first critique from the faculty on Wednesday morning.

“They can really tell you what to do,” Burrer said.

Photojournalism students helped the workshop run smoothly.

“We have about 15 students who do the grunt work,” Curley said. “They get to experience the workshop by doing the work.”

The student staff performed a number of tasks that helped keep the workshop participants focused on their stories. They downloaded the photographers’ digital cards, printed the best shots for the community show and produced a daily newsletter.

MU graduate student Beatriz Wallace served on the student staff. Wallace said she was familiar with the Missouri Photo Workshop before choosing to attend the university.

“This is why I decided to come to Missouri,” Wallace said.

The participants must complete their stories by noon today, which is when the final editing will begin. On Saturday, community members can go to Marshall High School to see some of the photographs taken during the week as well as photos from a Missouri Photo Workshop held in 1967.

“This feels like a pep rally,” Wallace said. “We have been seeing people make terrific work, and now we just want to get out and make our own.

The Rock Bridge boys varsity cross country team waits to hear if they placed first or second as a team at Liberty Invitational. They placed second.

Keeping watch over Anthony Street

It was cool and very foggy this morning for the Liberty (Mo.) Invitational. This was just a quick grab. I’ll post my “One Day Story” in a few days.

Kaneko Kaneko (right) discusses a scene from the Mormon missionary feature film “The Best Two Years” with the Myers family, who are members of the church. Mormon missionaries such as Kaneko work for two years.

Elder Kaneko Kaneko came to the United States from the Marshall Islands with a shallow understanding of English and a deep faith.

Elder Shadrack Gore grew up in a rural Idaho town where Spud Day was a school holiday and most of his classmates were Mormons.

But none of that matters as the pair of Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints missionaries made the rounds recently in an east Tulsa neighborhood. Hundreds of missionaries go door to door across the nation this time of year. Their missions are as unified as their backgrounds are diverse. They come to talk about Jesus.

Kaneko displays a photo of Joseph Smith in the Book of Mormon. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints teaches that the Book of Mormon is another testament of Jesus Christ.

Kaneko and Gore say the days are long and the weather is often unforgiving in Oklahoma. But they are quick to add that there is nothing they would rather be doing than serving in Tulsa.

“It makes all the difference to know that he was someone that suffered for all of us, and we can do at least a little bit for him,” Gore said. “That’s what helps
me throughout my mission.”

Kaneko plans for the week ahead on a recent Friday morning. After six weeks in Tulsa, Elder Kaneko has been transfered to Carthage, Mo.

One of Gore’s struggles, at least early on, was the formal dress that missionaries are required to wear. Back home in Shelley, Idaho, Gore enjoyed “jeeping” with his friends, skateboarding and playing Jimi Hendrix tunes on his green Fender Squire guitar.

His hair wasn’t always exactly mission-ready, either. For a few months, he wore a 6-inch mohawk with chops.

“I was definitely not as into ties as I am now,” Gore said.

While waiting for his mission call, Kaneko spent his days hanging out with friends, helping check the accuracy of LDS materials translated into Marshallese and spearfishing as often as possible.

Before leaving the Marshall Islands — a small Micronesian island group roughly between Australia and Hawaii — Kaneko worried about leaving his friends and family behind.

“Before I came, I was scared I would miss my friends,” he said. “After I have been out 18 months, I have had many friends.”

Among his newfound friends, Kaneko counts those he has shared the Gospel with and church members.

Gore, left, and Kaneko stop by a home to check in on a woman they had met previously. Church members will often drive the pair to appointments in the evening.

Members of the local ward — the LDS term for a large congregation — play an active role in the missionaries’ lives.

On most nights, the pair eat a home-cooked meal with a family. Thanks to fast food and the hearty cooking of members, Kaneko said, he has gained 30 pounds during his 18 months stateside. He is now up to 140 pounds.

Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints member Peter Anderson listens to a lesson by Kaneko and Gore, not pictured, following dinner. Members take turns hosting the missionaries for dinner and accompany them on nighttime appointments.

After dinner, members will sometimes go with Gore and Kaneko to their evening appointments.

“It is really nice to have another person there besides a missionary so the people can know what an average, everyday person feels about the Gospel in their life, too,” Gore said.

Ward members also pass along contact information of people interested in learning about the church.

Some members will begin playing an even larger role when they open up their homes for missionaries to stay in. Recently, Gore and Kaneko moved their possessions out of an apartment rented by the church and into a local member’s home to save the church money.

The pair live according to the rules laid out in the small white Missionary Handbook they keep in their left shirt pockets, just behind their black name tags. The book includes instructions on everything from appropriate dress to their weekly schedule.

Monday is preparation day. It is the closest thing they have to a day off. Eight hours are set aside for laundry, e-mailing home and grocery shopping. The elders like to squeeze in some basketball in the church gym, if they have time.

Kaneko, left, and Gore, move their belongings out of an east Tulsa apartment and into a member’s home. The missionaries received a call less than a week earlier from a mission leader with news of the move.

Kaneko knows that his summer job does work. His family converted about 12 years ago after meeting two young men from Utah. The missionaries worked with his family every day for a week.

He saw the most radical change in his father, who was then nondenominational. He quit smoking and drinking and became a devout Mormon who plans to send all four of his sons on missions.

“I was really shocked when I saw my family change, and it touched my heart,” Kaneko said. “After my parents were converted to the church, my dad told me I need to become one of them so I can go out and help others.”

Kaneko, right, says a prayer with Gore before the pair’s nightly planning session.

As seen in the Tulsa World

View the audio slideshow

photo and story-
Ryan Gladstone/Tulsa World

Trash the dress from Ryan Gladstone on Vimeo.

Purple Martins swarm downtown Tulsa from Ryan Gladstone on Vimeo.