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All journalists — whether they type on a computer, record audio, or capture images with a camera — know that, for all they are told in j-school about objectivity, they put a bit of themselves into their reporting.
"You bring with you your life experience," said Kim Raff, a freelance photographer in Salt Lake City.
If you're a woman, Raff said, "you bring that to your work, too."
Raff, a former Salt Lake Tribune photographer, is one of 20 women photojournalists whose images are part of a new exhibit, "Through Her Eyes: Photography by Utah Female Photojournalists," opening Friday, May 20, at the Salt Lake City Library's main branch.
The 20 women photographers are among a minority in the industry. A study released last fall by the World Press Photo Foundation found that among more than 1,500 photographers responding to a global survey, only 15 percent were women.
The 32 images in "Through Her Eyes" represent work made for Utah news organizations: The Salt Lake Tribune and Deseret News in Salt Lake City, the Standard-Examiner in Ogden, the Daily Herald in Provo, the Herald Journal in Logan, The Spectrum in St. George, the Tooele Transcript-Bulletin and The Associated Press.
Some of the photographers showing work in the exhibit — such as The Tribune's Leah Hogsten, or Laura Seitz at the Deseret News — have sustained long careers in Utah. Others worked here for a stretch and moved on: Djamila Grossman, formerly of The Tribune, is now based in Berlin; Erin Hooley once shot for the Standard-Examiner and now works for the Chicago Tribune; Whitney Curtis also worked for the Ogden paper and now works free-lance in St. Louis (where she photographed the turmoil in Ferguson).
"Utah is a pit stop for some, on their way to bigger things," Raff said.
Raff, one of the organizers of the exhibit, met with other female photographers two years ago to talk about an exhibit. They set a few parameters: All the work must have been done for a news publication and should reflect a wide scope of daily journalism — deadline news, in-depth coverage, sports, features, everything.
Getting photographers to submit work took a little finesse — "It's like herding cats, right?" Raff said — but once they started compiling the best images, "we saw how powerful it was," she said.
The images range from whimsical weather shots to moments of heartbreaking tragedy — including coverage of the Crandall Canyon mine disaster in 2007 and the face of a 6-year-old boy at the funeral of his father, a Draper cop killed in the line of duty, in 2013.
Does being a woman mean these photographers work differently than their male counterparts? Opinions are as varied as the photographers themselves.
"I wouldn't say there generally is a way women photographers go out and shoot," Grossman said via email. "Rather than saying I'm shooting with a 'female' eye, I'd say it's my own view of the world. Separating it into male and female vision seems too broad of a generalization to me."
Some of the exhibit's images, Raff said, "are pretty intimate situations involving women." In such situations, being a woman may help develop a rapport that a male photographer might not get, she said.
"[You have] to be in that intimate space to get that shot, and be able to relate and connect with that subject," Raff said. "If we don't have that access at that moment, we can't tell those stories."
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'Through Her Eyes'
The exhibit "Through Her Eyes: Photography by Utah Female Photojournalists."
Where • Lower Urban Room Gallery, level L1, Salt Lake City Main Library, 210 E. 400 South, Salt Lake City
When • Open during regular library hours, Monday through June 24
Reception • Friday, May 20, 6:30 to 8 p.m.