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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (June 30, 1983)
Page 8/The Battalion/Thursday, June 30, 1983 CommunicationsWorkshop ’83 Unite kTLA Ken Da; lompleit this seas' keep wir mound, doesn’t i Davit from tin let this strut innings help boo 'victory Astros. Duri against second-y blanked innings, in the n five run: “Ithii amatter started said Da) throwins can’ that way and had gave up ' “Tod thought said it ft and photo by Fred Bmcll Houston Post photographer visits campus Humble beginnings didn’t stop shutter by Keith Gresham, Shari Martin and Kelle Green Workshop Reporters Experience doesn’t mean an old pro can’t get butterflies and goose bumps. Houston Post photographer Fred Bunch is liv ing testimony. “If I shoot something, and I think I like it, I still get sweaty palms,” Bunch said. “It’s magic al to watch the film come up in the developer and (you) say ‘Hey, that’s mine.’” Bunch, a Houston Post photojournalist, is teaching the advanced photography division at the High School Communica tions Workshop at Texas A&M this week. buy their own insurance. Bunch doesn’t let that stop him from loving the business. He does, however, have a few dislikes. Bunch feels that too many photographers covering the same event gives every photo grapher almost the same photo. “I don’t like the press mob,” he said. “That’s probably the main thing I don’t like about news photography. “You can take a journalist’s story and rewrite it, but you can’t take a bad picture and make it good. Everything we do is visual; it’s concrete.” “A good news photographer should be a good newswriter first,” Bunch said. “We may be aggressive in certain ways, but we’re really just nosy.” Bunch said that the differ ence between a good photo and a bad photo depends on whether the “decisive moment” is captured. “This is where everything comes to a head,” Bunch said. “If we don’t capture the right moment, it’s right there in black and white.” Bunch developed his interest in photography by working on the Leonard High School year book. At first, he was interested only in printing other peoples’ pictures, but he soon found him self behind the lens taking sports photos. “Since we didn’t have anyone who could kick the extra point, we used to sit on the goalpost and shoot the football players di ving under,” Bunch said. “My first darkroom was a chicken house. It had dirt floors and I had a slight dust problem,” he said. Bunch fixed it up, however, making it light-proof. “I plugged the holes with cot ton and tar,” he said. Bunch received his undergra duate degree from East Texas State University. Before work ing at the Houston Post, he was a reporter for the Galveston News. “It’s not uncommon for me to shoot fashions in the morning, the President at noon and ce ment in the evening,” Bunch said. “I take everything — from food to fashion to advertising.” Bunch said that news photo graphers have to furnish their own camera equipment, take care of their own repairs and One of Bunch’s more recent assignments was coverage of the NCAA Basketball Tournament in Albuquerque, New Mexico. “I realized down the line that the final game would hinge on one last shot,” he said. His hunch was right. He photo graphed the last shot, but was disappointed by the expressions of the fans in the photo; they had not yet realized who had won the game. He said he had hoped to capture excitement in the fan’s faces. What makes a good photo grapher? “A good news photographer captures the moment at hand,” Bunch said. “And he’s got to be aggressive enough to go where the pictures are. A student should have just as much ease in getting photographs as a profes sional would.” Bunch said he wants his stu dents to become more involved in their subjects. “I feel like they should be saturated in everything. I would like to convince my photo graphers to shoot more film,” he said. “I’m not saying to machine gun everything in sight, just be there, get ready, sit back and wait for the fun.” Documentary offers interesting venture by Sherry Beisert, Steve Zach and Tracey Prelli up buying jffec Workshop Reporters Some were sleeping on exer cise mats. Others were watching a television set or playing cards. Still others were eating bologna sandwiches and drinking coffee. There were people of all ages: men, women and children — all housed in a single room. While this was going on, a bearded man with a camera took photographs. The scene was Neartown Shelter in Houston. The man with the camera was Fred Bunch. I Fred Bunch, Houston Post photojournal ist, explains the finer points of photog raphy during a session of the High School photo by Peter Rocha Communications Workshop being held at Texas A&M this week. Neartown Shelter was an overnight home for those who needed a place to sleep. It beat life under a bridge or in a makeshift tent in temperatures that averaged near or below freezing. The shelter, which was spon sored by the Bering United Methodist Church, was open from November 1982 to March 1983. The church is one of the two churches which providing overnight shelter. “Only two churches out of 56 queried answered the call for help from those in need in the Houston area,” said Bunch, a Houston Post photojournalist. Bunch first visited the shelter “just to take a few photographs for the Post.” The idea for a documentary formed and he be gan visiting the shelter every night for 45 days. “Usually, about 25 people had to be turned away each night,” Bunch said. The shelter opened at 7:30 p.m. and the residents had to leave by 7 a.m. No more than 125 persons were allowed to spend the night. “Most of them were unem ployed, or new arrivals to Hous ton — or both — and were in the middle-age to early-50s age group,” Bunch said. “I’m sure there were a few ex- cons there, but the mood was generally good,” he added. Bunch said he had to be “sly and stealthy” at first because many people didn’t want to be photo graphed. “I ended food and coffee before ill would really trust me,”hesai Bunch met many peopled became friends with the vol# teers at the shelter. Forexamp a one-armed man who vein teered his help drove allthe»l across Houston once a week food and blankets. Hewasnp member of the church that/ sponsoring the shelter “The biggest family 1 met* a man, his wife and their fo kids,” he said. “I remembertlt each night the man would h( one of his children while I slept.” To prevent theft, th« housed at the shelter keptr of their possessions under sleeping mats at night. Residents represented types of people. “There was one man wanted me to photograph bi and his drawings. He thought! was a repressed artist,” Bunt said. Yet the residents seemed I have a common belief. “Most of the homeless blaitti President Reagan and the nomy for the situation they w in,” he said. The photographer felt i real danger while at the shell but he was sometimes nervoti “I just worked around guys who told me they wod break the camera over myhet if I took their picture,” Bum said. One of Bunch’s favofl photographs is of a small lj standing among some of IT more hardened residents words “I am a world overconn were printed on his shirt Bunch said he feels tl things are now on the ups4 “Some of the people I met the shelter have jobs now," ! said. Many of them received offers through the church. Bunch is applying for a that would provide money print and hang his photogra] of the people at the shelter. “I’d like my photographs be shown by November becai what we need is public awal ness. All we’re trying to d help people,” he explained Three o [hed by < pitchei They at 5-pound from ( liege it frington, [hthande arin in C ison, a i F t For 40!