Newsha Tavakolian

I find myself fascinated by the ongoing events in Iran, both as someone who cares about civil rights, but even more so as a journalist. Just the fact that the only “legal” media currently available in Iran is state-sponsored TV makes me so much more grateful to be in a country that, for the most part, values and celebrates freedom of speech. But, so far, of everything I’ve read, seen and heard about Tehran, the photographs are still the most startling. Many of... Read More

Gleaning Part II

Here’s the second of two pieces about gleaning. Check out the first post here.  Read More

Gleaning Part I

After farmworkers pick their crops, there is often a lot of food left sitting to rot. Sometimes the extra food is picked and donated to those in need. This is called gleaning. I got to go gleaning with some students from UCF and Rollins and filmed it for my Photojournalism class. Even though I was just there to document, just being out in the hot sun in the middle of nowhere for a few hours was exhausting. I still can’t even imagine what it’s like to be a farmworker... Read More

First day out on the field

I got an internship at a news station so I’m in New York for the summer. I’ve gone out on the field with content producers a couple of times so far, but totally we actually filmed a complete package. We were trying to get local reaction to Obama’s speech to the Muslim community, so we went to the Interfaith Church on Riverside and 19th where a Muslim group was screening the speech. I couldn’t believe what a mediafest it was! The hardest part was definitely... Read More