We recently connected with Jeannee Sacken and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Jeannee, really happy you were able to join us today and we’re looking forward to sharing your story and insights with our readers. Let’s start with the heart of it all – purpose. How did you find your purpose?
As my father lay dying, he held my hand and said, “Don’t die with regrets. You love writing stories, and you should be doing that.”
Those were the last words he said, and they stuck with me especially when I returned to my job as an English professor teaching students how to critique the stories they read. I loved my life in academia, but something was missing.
A few years later, a colleague in the College of Photography was helping me explore my creative side and suggested a photoshoot in Zimbabwe which I eagerly pursued. While there, a sangoma (traditional seer and healer) threw the bones for me. As he put the four small bones in my cupped hands, he told me to concentrate on my problem. Problem? I thought. I don’t have a problem. I’m a college teacher, exactly what I want to be doing. I gave him back the bones, and he threw them on the mat on the ground between us. A moment later, he wagged his finger at me.
“You didn’t concentrate. Throw the bones again.”
This time as I held the bones, I thought about my father’s words. And this time, as the sangoma studied the bones on the mat, he said, “You are a teacher. But you have stories to write and photographs to take.”
I took his words home with me and went back to my teaching job. A year later, I was on another photoshoot in Honduras. My fixer and I were riding a narrow-gauge train along the Mosquito Coast. From the corner of my eye, off in the jungle, I saw a woman raising a pole over her head and ramming it into a long sock. “What’s she doing?”
My fixer had no idea, but suggested we investigate. He tapped the engineer on the shoulder, who slowed the train. Grabbing my camera bag, I followed my fixer as we jumped off the train.
That feeling of soaring through the air and landing on the soft loam of the jungle floor stayed with me when I went home. And resigned my tenure. I had images to capture and stories to tell.
After that, I began a decades-long photo essay, documenting the lives and work of women and children. At gallery shows, I placed their stories with each portrait. That gave rise to creating my own novels, including the award-winning Annie Hawkins Series.
Appreciate the insights and wisdom. Before we dig deeper and ask you about the skills that matter and more, maybe you can tell our readers about yourself?
As a photojournalist and an author, I’m committed to telling the stories of women and girls in places often unfamiliar to people in the United States. The Annie Hawkins Series follows seasoned photojournalist, Annie Hawkins on assignment to Afghanistan. In BEHIND THE LENS, Annie takes a picture of a feisty, young village girl who is shot by the Taliban. Annie worries that her photograph led to the death and years later, seeking atonement, returns in-country to teach a photography workshop at a girls’ school. In DOUBLE EXPOSURE, Annie’s teenage daughter and friends raise money for Annie to take to Afghanistan to build a new school for girls. And in THE RULE OF THIRDS, Annie makes her final trip to Afghanistan to cover the Taliban’s 2021 takeover of the country and to help women who’ve worked with the coalition forces escape.
I am also a wildlife photographer. In my forthcoming novel, THE WOMEN WHO STAND BETWEEN, I tell the story of cinematographer Julia Wilde who is unfairly blamed for an accident that occurs while filming a wildlife documentary in Zimbabwe. Blacklisted by Hollywood, she takes a job teaching cinematography but to earn tenure, she needs to make a film. With a group of loyal friends from the movie industry, she returns to Zimbabwe to make a documentary of the Mambas–the fierce, all-female anti-poaching unit that stands between poachers and endangered species.
There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?
1. Be willing to take that flying leap off the train.
2. Travel and while you’re traveling, explore, meet people, and make discoveries.
3. Know your craft(s).
What would you advise – going all in on your strengths or investing on areas where you aren’t as strong to be more well-rounded?
We all have strengths but don’t always recognize them, at least not immediately. I always advocated to my students and now to budding writers and photographers to be well-rounded while also searching for strengths. Recently, I was one of the authors at several high schools, talking about my photography and my writing. Afterward, several students came up to chat. They wanted to become photojournalists but had no focus, so to speak. I encouraged them to go to college and cast their nets wide, exploring a variety of subjects and experiencing life–that would give them knowledge and things to photograph and write about. I could see they were dubious but can only hope they discover the wisdom of my advice.
As a photographer, I also embrace patience. Whether I’m capturing an image of an animal or making a portrait of a person, I wait and wait for the subject to get used to me and to eventually let down their guard. That’s when their true self emerges and I get the shot I want.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.jeanneesacken.com
- Instagram: Jeannee Sacken (@authorjeanneesacken) • Instagram photos and videos
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jeanneesacken
Image Credits
The headshot: Agnieszka Tropilo The rest of the images: Jeannee Sacken
