Prospect Heights photographer captures Joplin in own way
Earlier this year, Grant Hindsley was capturing images of kids splashing around the water in a St. Louis park.
Days later, he was consumed by the anguish that permeated Joplin after an F5 tornado pummeled the Missouri community.
The aspiring photojournalist found the contrast palpable.
“It struck me how destruction could come just a few weeks after experiencing something so happy and positive,” Grant said. “I guess it makes me eager to notice something as simple and beautiful as kids playing.”
Recognizing that disparity provided yet further proof that the 20-year-old Prospect Heights native is meant to tell stories with his camera.
The 2009 Hersey High School graduate is doing everything in his power to carve a career out of it, from shooting college football on the sidelines, getting up close and personal with a rodeo bull or accompanying a search party combing apartments for tornado victims.
His work has earned the University of Missouri junior several photography honors, including a nod as one of five national finalists in the general news category of the 2011 Associated Collegiate Press Photo Excellence Awards. He also placed first in the National Press Photographers Association's student contest for news and picture story.
He's landed contracts with The Associated Press and other news wires, admission to selective photography workshops, and freelance assignments from the Mayo Clinic and New York Times.
Denver Post photographer Seth McConnell, who mentored Grant at Mizzou, said his friend is a go-getter who's always on the hunt for something new to cover.
“The kid blows my mind,” McConnell said. “He's got a ton of raw natural talent and the drive and vision. With a little honing and a good photo editor, he's going somewhere big.”
Grant can't imagine doing anything but taking pictures.
“I have blinders on,” he said.
It's been that way for a while.
What started out as a 9-year-old clowning around with his mom's old Nikon 35 mm camera slowly developed into a hobby and then his passion in high school. He recalls how, as a high school freshman at his stepsister's wedding, he started seeing photographs as something more than just scrapbook fodder.
Candace Christman said she soon found her son reading photography technical manuals into wee hours and working as much as he could to save money for nicer, and far more expensive, equipment.
He picked up gigs including taking pet and holiday portraits and employee head shots for a landscaping company. He assisted a production company with a Pepsi Smash web video of “High School Musical” star Corbin Bleu for Yahoo! By the end of high school, he had a photography exhibit at the Prospect Heights Public Library.
“We never had a lot of money for things, but he's never asked for help,” Christman said. “He works so hard and always says he's got it under control.”
Grant said journalism school has provided a forum to hone his craft. It also put him 250 miles from Joplin when a tornado tore through the city May 22, killing more than 160 people.
Within hours he was driving to the wreckage.
He took flak from professional journalists, who saw him as just a student infringing on people's lives, but he tried to steer clear of the “classic disaster picture” with a long Telephoto lens of people crying in front of a backdrop of destruction.
Instead, he tried to show respect and make his encounters personal.
“I don't know if it was right or wrong, and maybe I wasn't ready for the experience,” Grant said. “But I got more thank-yous than times I was turned away.”
Almost as an afterthought, he snapped a photo of a chair horizontally embedded in a concrete wall. The image went viral and landed — without permission — on Newsweek magazine's website. Google “chair wall Joplin,” and you'll see hundreds of thousands of views of Grant's photo.
He hates the photo. To him, it's an inanimate object that provokes some shock value before its observer moves on. He wants people to feel, to connect with what he shoots.
On the way back to Columbia, he stopped in Sedalia, where a smaller tornado destroyed several homes and businesses. He focused on the trials of single family, tried to tell their story and cultivated a relationship. He's gone back for occasional visits since then.
“By the time I got home, I felt like I had taken the right approach,” Grant said. “You can have ethics and not be a robot doing this.”
The experience aided him in September during the selective 63rd annual Missouri Photo Workshop, when he had to find and tell a visual story in the small town of Clinton, Mo., using a limited number of shots.
Grant drove hundreds of miles, woke up at 3:30 a.m. and chain-smoked outside a convenience store, though he doesn't smoke, all in an effort to interact with strangers and gain intimate access into someone's life. His faculty finally approved his idea profiling an unpredictable, difficult and “willingly wayward” high school senior content to go through life without plans. Grant spent about 17 hours with the teen over a couple days, chronicling his life.
Grant's mom only asks that he stay away from war zones, though she wouldn't be surprised if he disappeared for three months to Malaysia or some other faraway land.
Grant makes no promises and said that while he's excited about going to exotic places and shooting the world's most significant events, he's just as intrigued by kids goofing around in the water. He prefers that to a natural disaster if it means he'll get to tell a better story.
“This isn't my original thought, but I want to take a front-row seat to what life has to offer,” Grant said. “I'm having a blast.”
Ÿ Kimberly Pohl wrote today's column. She and Elena Ferrarin always are looking for Suburban Standouts to profile. If you know of someone whose story just wows you, please send a note including name, town, email and phone contacts for you and the nominee to standouts@dailyherald.com or call our Standouts hotline at (847) 608-2733.
Grant Hindsley
<b>Age</b>: 20
<b>Hometown</b>: Prospect Heights
<b>School</b>: University of Missouri
<b>Who inspires you?</b> My inspiration really stems from my friends. It's amazing watching these people you care so much about do such great things. I have some extremely talented friends that amaze me every day, and I wouldn't be there without any of them.
<b>What book are you reading?</b> I haven't had a whole lot of time to read out-of-class materials lately, but off and on I've been reading “The Tao of Photography: Seeing Beyond Seeing” by Philippe L. Gross and S.I. Shapiro. It's an amazing book that delves deep into the psychology that goes into taking photos. It teaches to feel and not just to see. It's marvelous.
<b>What's on your iPod?</b> My music is always changing, but I really like acoustic, folksy music this time of year. The Heligoats and Busman's Holiday would be good examples of that. As far as well-known musicians go, I really have always liked older Modest Mouse and the Black Keys.
<b>The three words that best describe you</b>: I'm ornery, hard-working, yet easy-going.