The youngest of three children, I grew up in Teachey, North Carolina, a small rural town near the coast. As a child, I spent many days playing outside, riding go-carts, bicycling, or fishing on family vacations. When I wasn’t drawing, painting or writing poetry, I enjoyed spending time with friends and family. An all round lover of sports, fashion and music, I spent many summers exploring nature, reading and developing a curiousness about people. I found the pathway to Photojournalism after a high school photography class and a visit to a newspaper in Jacksonville, N.C.
Upon graduating from Randolph Community College in 2003, I’ve spent the last 10 years working at a small daily newspaper. There I received a fast introduction to the fast pace of news photography from my mentor, the late Charles Buchanan. Community journalism is ideal for discovering features, the hidden stories of success and the harsh reality of a dying city.
Throughout my decade in the business I’ve photographed local and national politics, children’s lemonade stands, community meetings and almost everything under the sun in Lenoir County. Over the last 8 years I began writing feature stories and working on photo essays, often touching on sensitive subjects and the elderly. The last 5 years I’ve dedicated my time mentoring students through the high school’s CTE job shadowing program and speaking to groups of middle school students about the importance of newspapers in the Newspapers in Education speakers program.
My love for photography has deep roots and continues to expand each day as I reflect on the greats of the past such as Gordon Parks and Eugene Smith and I also enjoy the freshness of photographers of the present. I believe there is no good or bad photography; I prefer to say, it’s weak or it is strong.
Janet S. Carter