The St. Louis Press Club hosted its 28th Annual Media Persons of the Year Awards Dinner last Thursday (Nov. 3), at the Edward Jones St. Louis Headquarters honoring 10 journalistic professionals.
“It’s so easy to find us doing positive things that people just overlook as nothing,” Wiley Price said. “It’s very special for us because we need that 24/7, that look of something that’s positive happening for us. It’s not always gunfire.”
The honorees included The St. Louis American’s photojournalist Wiley Price, KTVI Fox 2’s Elliott Davis, Kay Quinn of KSDK Newschannel 5, Debbie Monterey of KMOX, Nine PBS’ “Living St. Louis” Creative Team including Ruth Ezell, Brooke Butler, Anne Marie Berger, Jim Kirchherr, Kara Vaninger, and Joe Holleman of the St. Louis-Post Dispatch. Rene Knott of KSDK served as the night’s master of ceremonies.
“[Wiley Price] has documented and shared Black St. Louis cultured stories for over 40 years now, he has been a central figure in the newspaper [St. Louis American]’s enormous growth as an award winning periodical,” Knott said. He has become a staple in the truest sense of journalistic doggedness and media integrity.”
Price got his first taste of photography from the help of a friend whose friend gave him a 35 millimeter camera and lens to play around with. At the time it wasn’t a big deal to him, until he learned about the roll process and became intrigued by it.
“I said, ‘let me keep this camera cause he never used it,’” he said. “About six months later I had to buy one cause I was really locked and loaded by that time I was shooting anything I could.”
He immersed himself into the art of photography while he was studying music at the University of Missouri-Saint Louis. He had already shot photos for the American, Post-Dispatch,, Kansas City Star, Detroit Free Press, The Washington Post, and Ebony.
His dreams of becoming a jazz trombone player soon faded, and in his last two years at UMSL, Price became the student photographer for the college newspaper, the UMSL Current. The American hired him while he was still in college and he started freelancing for The Argus and TheSentinel.
“You wanna run to a big paper because you think you know St. Louis,” he said. “Well not only do you not know St. Louis, you don’t know your own community. Once I understood how it all works I didn’t want to leave,” he said.
Price has photographed many historics moments including street protests and marches in Ferguson and the elections of St. Louis’ first Black woman mayor Tishaura Jones and Missouri’s first Black Congresswoman Cori Bush.
He has also captured shots of hundreds of public figures including Oprah Winfrey, Janet Jackson, Harry Belafonte, Ray Charles, Sammie Davis Jr., and many others.
“It’s so easy to find us doing positive things that people just overlook as nothing,” Price said. “It’s very special for us because we need that 24/7, that look of something that’s positive happening for us. It’s not always gunfire.”
People often tell him there’s nothing to do in the Black community in St. Louis and his response is always “follow me around for three days.”
“When you don’t pick up a publication or see the news that allows you to find what’s going on you’re missing out,” he said.
Knott asked Price how a photographer can separate a photograph from the written format of telling a story.
“For me it’s always been very difficult because reporters have a million words to choose to describe something so simple,” Price said. “The photographer is locked in this digital thing where we have to make people look at this and go, I wanna read this story now. I’ve always felt like that is the true challenge for the photojournalist.”
Price has photographed nearly every U.S. President since Jimmy Carter, he’s covered state high school and NCAA sporting events in addition to the Super Bowl and two World Series.
He has been inducted into the St. Louis Media Hall of Fame and the Missouri Photojournalism Hall of Fame. He gives back to the St. Louis community through lecturing to grade school and high school students and leading student tours at The American’s office. He is a graduate of University City High School.
The event’s proceeds were donated to the club’s journalism/communications scholarships and internships, and the organization’s several programs for modern day issues.
