Val Mazzenga
Val Mazzenga
At fifteen years old, a streetwise Italian-American from Chicago's West Side named Anthony Mazzenga got a job at the Chicago Tribune as a copy boy. While running copy between reporters and photographers and their respective news desks, Mazzenga began to discover something very important about himself; he had both an affinity and a talent for the "visual word" - photography.
It didn't take long before he was asked to join the Tribune's photo staff. But it came with a price. He had to give up his first name. "We have too many Tony's around here" the chief of photographers told him. "What's your middle name?" Mazzenga's middle name was Val and that's how this indefatigable Chicago photojournalist has been known ever since.
Val Mazzenga's career is one of the most storied in American photojournalism. His photographs have won more than 200 awards including 5 Beck Awards - the Chicago Tribune's highest accolade. He may be the most honored photographer in Tribune history. He has been nominated for the Pulitzer Prize six times.
Val has covered major breaking stories on just about every continent on the planet. His work has been exhibited nationwide, including a recent exhibit at the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry. He has done prize winning photo essays on Mother Teresa, President Nixon and Michael Jordan.
He has photographed the Wonders of the World - Machu Pichu the Lost City of the Incas, the Taj Mahjal, Angkor Wat, the Great Wall of China, Carnival in Rio, and life along Bangkok's Kong waterways. Among his assignments: the Mass Suicide in Jonestown Guyana, Ground Zero, the Afghan Resistance fighters in Pakistan, Starvation in Africa, the Sikh revolt in India, the 20th Anniversary of the Fall of Saigon and Refugee Camps in Southeast Asia.
Val is an adjunct professor at the School of Journalism at the University of Illinois, is a freelance photographer and shows his work via a riveting multi media show that reveals the "The Untold Story" behind each photo.Val Mazzenga
At fifteen years old, a streetwise Italian-American from Chicago's West Side named Anthony Mazzenga got a job at the Chicago Tribune as a copy boy. While running copy between reporters and photographers and their respective news desks, Mazzenga began to discover something very important about himself; he had both an affinity and a talent for the "visual word" - photography.
It didn't take long before he was asked to join the Tribune's photo staff. But it came with a price. He had to give up his first name. "We have too many Tony's around here" the chief of photographers told him. "What's your middle name?" Mazzenga's middle name was Val and that's how this indefatigable Chicago photojournalist has been known ever since.
Val Mazzenga's career is one of the most storied in American photojournalism. His photographs have won more than 200 awards including 5 Beck Awards - the Chicago Tribune's highest accolade. He may be the most honored photographer in Tribune history. He has been nominated for the Pulitzer Prize six times.
Val has covered major breaking stories on just about every continent on the planet. His work has been exhibited nationwide, including a recent exhibit at the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry. He has done prize winning photo essays on Mother Teresa, President Nixon and Michael Jordan.
He has photographed the Wonders of the World - Machu Pichu the Lost City of the Incas, the Taj Mahjal, Angkor Wat, the Great Wall of China, Carnival in Rio, and life along Bangkok's Kong waterways. Among his assignments: the Mass Suicide in Jonestown Guyana, Ground Zero, the Afghan Resistance fighters in Pakistan, Starvation in Africa, the Sikh revolt in India, the 20th Anniversary of the Fall of Saigon and Refugee Camps in Southeast Asia.
Val is an adjunct professor at the School of Journalism at the University of Illinois, is a freelance photographer and shows his work via a riveting multi media show that reveals the "The Untold Story" behind each photo.