Bruce Thorson
Associate Professor of News-Editorial
Contact:
234 Andersen
402.472.8279
bthorson2@unl.edu
Bio
Bruce Thorson spent 25 years in newspaper photojournalism as a photographer, photo editor, mostly in Oregon, and director of photography at the St. Paul (Minn) Pioneer Press. An award-winning photographer, Thorson has received recognition from the Associated Press, The Best of the West competition and the National Press Photographers Association. His photographs have also appeared in Sports Illustrated, People Magazine, USA Today, Oregon Business, Nebraska Life and various other publications.
Thorson teaches photojournalism - basic digital photojournalism, advanced digital photojournalism and in-depth photojournalism projects, taking students on domestic and international documentary projects. He has a bachelor's degree in journalism from the University of Oregon and a master's degree in visual communications from Ohio University.
Outside of his teaching duties, Thorson continues to stay active as a photographer working as a contract photographer for US PRESSWIRE, a sports newswire picture agency supplying his sports photographs to editorial outlets around the world.
Including sports photography, Thorson enjoys documentary photography of people, their culture, their relationship to the environment and the social impact on their lives. In the world of news photography often comes tragedy and disaster; in the world of documentary photography often comes the joy of life and living, traditions and rituals, rites of passage and celebrations.
Early in his career as a photo lab technician at the Eugene Register-Guard, Thorson was mentored by Brian Lanker, a Pulitzer-prize winning photojournalist and a two-time winner of the prestigious NPPA Photographer of the Year award.
Thorson's teaching philosophy is that if you can shoot sports, you can shoot anything. You don't have to become a sports photographer, but it gives you the ability to anticipate the moment, react to the moment, use light effectively and understand action, reaction and emotion.
Curriculum vitae available upon request.
