Conner Jay '03, staff photographer at multimedia journalist at the Salinas Californian, won first place in the San Francisco Bay Area Press Photographer's Association's Newspaper Photographer of the Year Award for his work in 2011 and the Asian American Journalists Association's 2012 National Journalism Award in the category of Unlimited Subject Matter Photography for his portrayal of gangs in small rural towns in Central California. Conner also serves as a Lecturer at the San Francisco Bay Area Press Photographer Association's annual Multimedia Workshop.
Conner's passion for photography began when he became intrigued by his father's two Nikon FM2 cameras, picked them up, and adopted them as his own. These two sturdy single-lens reflex cameras gave him license to explore different cultures, while growing up in the Middle East and Europe. While attending TASIS England, the streets of Central London led to a love for street photography. His fast pace and style has since translated well to work documenting gritty subject matter and led to his career in photojournalism. Since then, Conner's pursuits have led him to explore HIV/AIDS in Northern Thailand, hunt Humboldt squid in the Monterey Bay, and document the effects of the rise of gangs on small towns in the Salinas Valley.
In high school, Conner was greatly influenced by the work of Brazilian documentary photographer Sebastiao Salgado, whose work exposes the plight of underrepresented communities and exudes a genuine social consciousness that Conner admires.
With the constant evolution of the media and the platforms we use, Conner believes the principles of storytelling remain the same. Whether it is for the Washington Post, a paper in metropolitan New York, or a small town newspaper in Soledad, California, he believes the work at each level is equally as important. Conner recently accepted a job at the Fairfield Daily Republic to work alongside their photo staff, and will be relocating to the East Bay to further pursue his career as a visual journalist.
This article first appeared in the TASIS England Today magazine, Autumn 2012 issue.