Welcome to the January 2003 issue of The Digital Journalist, the monthly webmagazine for photojournalism.

For most of the history of modern photojournalism, men have dominated the profession. Despite the pioneering efforts of such dauntless women as Jessie Beals Tarbox, Esther Bubley and Marion Post Wolcott, the number of women competing in the arena was relatively small, through most of the 20th Century. But that has all changed. Today, women photojournalists and editors are slugging it out on an almost equal basis with their male counterparts. In fact, in editorial positions, women today outnumber men.

We felt it was time we turned the spotlight on women in photojournalism. So this month's issue is largely devoted to them. Probably one of the hottest young photojournalists is Ami Vitale. She taught herself the profession as an editor for the Associated Press, then moved to India and has created a worldwide reputation for her sensitive black and white and her rich color. Contributing Editor Susan Markisz, who wrote the introductory story interviewed her in streaming video, and we think she comes out as a role model for young photographers.

Peter Howe has contributed our cover story on Lauren Greenfield, whose most recent book "Girl Culture" is a best seller. David Snider provides a video essay on Lauren's pictures, from his web site, "Every Picture.TV." (http://www.everypicture.tv)

When I was faced with choices of which books I should recommend to my students in Advanced Photojournalism at the University of Texas, I decided the one that would be most relevant and most exciting would be Deborah Copaken Kogan's Shutterbabe. This remarkable woman writes not only about her exploits on the battlefields of the world as a young freelance photographer, but also her frank stories of her lovers, and the reality of living on the edge. Dreamworks is currently in pre-production on a major movie of her life. Today, Deborah is a wife and mother living in Manhattan, and our Amy Bowers asks her about the changes in her life. One of my students, Anna Moorhead also does her own "Search for Shutterbabe." We are also presenting an excerpt from Shuterbabe.

Our Contributing Editor Patrick Cox, PHD, studies the life of the "Mother of Modern Photojournalism", Margaret Bourke-White.

Time Picture Editor Robert Stevens looks at the women photojournalists he has worked with.

Platypus Graduate Dana Smillie reports on what it is like to be a freelance photographer in Cairo.

Amy Bowers grapples with what we call women photojournalists in her column "Female Exposure, We're All Newspukes on This Bus".

When the Associated Press broke a story last month that The University of Texas at Austin was discontinuing the Undergraduate Major program for the photojournalism school that had spawned more than a than a dozen Pulitzer prizewinners, it suddenly became a major crisis in education. In my commentary this month, I write about the reasons behind the decision.

The photographic world suffered a huge loss during the Christmas week with the death of Herb Ritts. Mary Panzer the former curator of photography at the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C.,pays tribute to him, and we link back to the work he has done photographing AIDS from the June 2001 Digital Journalist.

In our Dispatches, Bill Plowman reports from the angry streets of Venezuela.

In our columns, Mark Loundy devotes his "Common Cents" to the relative value of credit lines, Jim Parisi writes about what it takes to make it in TV News. In "Nuts and Bolts" Bill Pierce reviews the advantages that film still has over digital. Our resident rascal, Jim Colburn tells how to get free cell phone service in Europe.

This month's Assignment Sheet follows the theme of The Digital Journalist and contains a journal by self proclaimed dinosaur, Dick Kraus. He tells of a time when there were no women photographers on his paper. And then, one day, there were! Contributing Editor and New York based freelance and contract photographer Susan Markisz describes what it was like coming up through the ranks as a late bloomer to photography, while trying to balance the precarious balance between the mundane and the magnificent...of motherhood and photography.

We are announcing the 9th Platypus Workshop, which teaches the language of TV News to still photojournalists in Ventura, CA from June 22- July 3. And in response to demand from former Platypus Graduates, we will be offering the first Advanced Workshop from July 5-13th. You will find registration forms in this issue. We recommend early registration for these popular workshops.

We hope you enjoy this issue.

Dirck Halstead
Editor and Publisher

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