Episode 112: Glenna Gordon / Photojournalist, Documentary Photographer, and Teacher

Oct 8, 2019

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Documentary photographer, respected photojournalist, and educator Glenna Gordon joins the show to talk about how she went from a kid growing up in suburban Orange County, to living in West Africa covering everything from Boko Haram to Muslim women who write romance novels. Although Glenna was raised in a loving home and in a sheltered community, she was no stranger to stories of tragedy and hardship and was brought up with the intimate knowledge of what true suffering and sacrifice can look like. She knew from a young age that Irvine was not the place for her and she had dreams of living in New York and seeing what else the world had to offer. After studying art history at UC Berkley and then getting a job that would move her to NYC, she realized that she wasn't creatively satisfied and wanted more than sitting at a desk full of paperwork. She attended journalism school at Columbia and then decided to go visit her older brother who was living and working in Rwanda. On a whim, and full of youthful courage, she somehow managed to talk her way into a Rwandan prison and put together a story about women who were being held there. That story would end up being the catalyst to her chasing her passion of story telling, becoming more dedicated to photography, and falling in love with the people of Africa. During our conversation we talk about what made her decide to move to Uganda at the age of 25 and the transition from being a writer to focusing more on telling stories with her camera, what it was like to create such a viral media piece like her story on the 300 girls kidnapped by Boko Haram, her eventual move back to New York and realizing some of the stories that needed to be told here in the states, and the advice she gives to those dreaming of one day telling their own visual stories.