Over 2,000 local newspapers have shuttered since 2005, leaving many communities as complete news deserts. In their place is an information landscape of increasingly partisan news that is ripe for bias and misinformation. Without robust local watchdogs to engage communities, government spending goes up, damaging social media rumors go largely unchecked, and city council meetings take place without witness or scrutiny.
To highlight the importance of local news and the scrappy dedication of these often underpaid and overworked staffers, I’ve been documenting newsrooms across the country. From Alaska to Florida, I’ve captured the coffee-stained carpets and harried journalists that make up the institutions that bring the news to small communities.
This visual exploration of the current critical era in journalism explores the potential harm that the loss of local news might bring to our democracy. This work is also meant to engage communities in the need to seek out and support trusted local news sources, while raising the importance of this issue to a national audience that may not have fully realized what has already been lost, and what is at stake.
Artist Bios
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Ann Hermes
Ann Hermes is a Brooklyn and Boston-based photojournalist and visual storyteller with a flair for the nostalgic. Her personal work explores the roles that often overlooked, and sometimes outdated, institutions and people play in our history and culture.
She has worked in a variety of logistically challenging situations on national and international assignments over 15 years as a staff photographer for The Christian Science Monitor and other national and regional news outlets. This work ranged from breaking visual news coverage of the Arab Spring in Egypt to in-depth stories following Syrian refugees in Eastern Europe. Her stories have also been featured in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and The Atlantic.
After years of experience in news photography, she is using her documentary expertise to create a visual exploration of the current critical era in journalism and explore the potential harm that the loss of local newsrooms would bring to our democracy.
Organizations
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Photoville
Founded in 2011 in Brooklyn, NY, Photoville was built on the principles of addressing cultural equity and inclusion, which we are always striving for, by ensuring that the artists we exhibit are diverse in gender, class, and race.
In pursuit of its mission, Photoville produces an annual, city-wide open air photography festival in New York City, a wide range of free educational community initiatives, and a nationwide program of public art exhibitions.
By activating public spaces, amplifying visual storytellers, and creating unique and highly innovative exhibition and programming environments, we join the cause of nurturing a new lens of representation.
Through creative partnerships with festivals, city agencies, and other nonprofit organizations, Photoville offers visual storytellers, educators, and students financial support, mentorship, and promotional & production resources, on a range of exhibition opportunities.
For more information about Photoville visit, www.photoville.com
Local Newsrooms
Featuring: Ann Hermes
Supported by:
Locations
ON VIEW AT: Container 3
View Location Details Download a detailed map of this location Brooklyn Bridge Park – Emily Warren Roebling Plaza1 Water St
Brooklyn, NY 11201
This location is part of Brooklyn Bridge Park
Explore other locations and exhibitions nearby
The Local Newsroom project was created to engage communities in the search of and support for trusted local news while at the same time raising the importance of this issue to a national audience that may not have fully realized what has already been lost, and what is at stake.
Related Events
Photoville Education Field Trip: Ann Hermes’ “Local Newsrooms”
Artist talk with Ann Hermes, photographer behind “Local Newsrooms”
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