This weeks Town Crier has been selling like hotcakes. The attraction is obvious, photojournalist Jennifer Kirchner's work on the front page is pure Pulitzer bait. Kirchner's images are always notable for their blend of artistic sensibility, technical acumen, and illustrative clarity. Her work with highway accidents are a high point in the Crier, keenly anticipated by die-hard readers. They are always well framed and composed, allowing the reader to reconstruct the unfortunate event and see a familiar stretch of highway from a new perspective.
Kirchner brings the same sensibilities to her wildlife work. In the shot below we find ourselves face to face with the mighty Idyll-Beast. The animal's choice to wear personal protection equipment give the image a timely and even more newsworthy aspect. The location is well-known, but the perspective delightfully askew.
It is a hallmark of great photojournalism to unite the aesthetic and the informative, to wield the artist's rhetorical skill in the service of bringing the viewer face to face with reality. Ms. Kirchner we salute you.
