JOHN MARX SMOCK

40 West 116th Street, #A902

New York, NY 10026

(M) 917.687.0732
(H) 212.866.4249
jsmock_98@yahoo.com

Photographer and Educator

TEACHING EXPERIENCE

CUNY Graduate School of Journalism, New York City 2007-Present

Director of Photo Journalism
Manage the journalism school’s rapidly growing photo program.
Responsabilities include: program development, course instruction,
supervision of adjuncts and committee work. Since the school opened in 2006, it
has quickly become an innovator and leader in the journalism education community.
Recently the photo department has expanded its curriculum to include short-form content
such as memes, animations and Instagram Stories.

Through CUNY I regularily do photojournalism, mobile photo and animation workshops

for a variety of publications and community organizations including:
 The Center for Community and Ethnic Media
 The Phiadelphia Inquirer/Philadelphia Daily News
 Service Employees International Union
 ChalkBeat
 The Asian Writer’s Workshop

School of Visual Arts, New York City 2011 -2013

Adjunct Faculty
Taught both the online and classroom versions of the Editorial Photography course in the
Department of Digital Photograph. The 15-week course was the core shooting course for
MA candidates in the program. The school continues to use material I developed.

Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, New York, NY 1997-2012

Adjunct Faculty, Technical Support, In-house Photographer
Supervised photography for student publications and for school events and in-house
publications; responsibilities varied from semester to semester.

Purchase College - State University of New York, Purchase, NY 1998-2001

Journalism Instructor and Faculty Advisor for the Student Newspaper
Taught Journalism I, Journalism II, and Photojournalism; oversaw student newspaper;
helped design the curricula and major (as the first full-time instructor when the program
began four years ago); currently teaching part-time.

The International Center of Photography, New York, NY 2003-2006

Lecturer
Created and teach a five-week course entitled “Writing for Photojournalists,”
which, as the title suggests, aims to bolster photographers’ skills in
writing photo captions, story pitches, and grant proposals.
INTERNATIONAL TRAINING AND PROGRAM DEVELOPMENT EXPERIENCE

Small World News

Interim Director/Curriculum Director 2012 - 2015
Developed and taught material for a variety of media advancement workshops in the
MENA region and Afghanistan, including Tunisia, Libya and Egypt. Small World News
specializes in social media training for citizen journalists. Small World News is the
primary developer in the StoryMaker coaltion. StoryMaker is an Android based app that
provides instruction and a platform to help citizen journalists produce content safely and
securely.

Knight International Press Fellowship Program October 2005 – May

2006
Alexandria and Cairo, Egypt; Amman, Jordan
Did photo and new media training with individual newspapers and a national wire service;
ran several workshops open to journalists from a variety of publications. Also assisted
Egyptian media outlets in coverage of recent parliamentary and presidential elections

International Center for Journalists, Washington, DC July 2005

Photojournalism Workshop – Moscow , Russia
Worked with professional Russian news photographers in two (intermediate, advanced)
week-long photojournalism workshops. Material ranged from basic theories of
composition to digital photography to professional ethics. The workshop was co-
sponsored by the Eurasia Foundation.

Pajhwok News Agency/Center for International Journalism (CIJ) May 2005

Train the Trainer (CIJ) and photojournalism workshops (Pajhwok) – Kabul,
Afghanistan
Pajhwok is Afghanistan’s first independent news agency
(www.pajhwok.com). CIJ is an affiliated training and resource center for
Afghan journalists. Workshop provided an introduction to photojournalism to CIJ staff
designed to allow them to train journalists in the field. The Pajhwok workshop focused
photojournalism for a wire service, including how to shoot, archive, caption and post
photographs for subscribers.

International Center for Journalists, Washington, DC 2002-2004

Publications Adviser, Faculty - Caucasus School of Journalism and Media Management,
Tbilisi, Republic of Georgia
Taught classes in photojournalism and new media to graduate students from Georgia,
Armenia, and Azerbaijan; helped students develop story ideas for monthly newspaper;
coordinated their coverage of breaking news events; edit stories and oversaw layout;
carried out mandate to produce professional-quality newspaper, magazine and website
(www.bsj.ge).

The Center for Independent Journalism, New York, NY 2000 –

2003
Lead Trainer – Bucharest, Romania
Trainer – Phnom Penh, Cambodia
Instructed college students (in a year-long program), working journalists (in summer and
weekend workshops), and journalism professors (in a “train the trainer” summer
workshop), in Western journalistic practices and standards.

The European Journalism Center, Maastricht, Netherlands February 2003

 Trainer – Kharkiv, Ukraine
Taught newspaper and magazine photographers in a two-week workshop, covering a
range of subjects including news photography, digital photography, and photojournalism
ethics.

The Center for Independent Journalism, New York, NY December 2002

Trainer – Phnom Penh, Cambodia
Worked as part of a team of Western journalists on a nationwide program to help
Cambodian journalists produce a newspaper prior to Cambodia’s first local
elections in early 2003.

PHOTO AND REPORTING EXPERIENCE

Freelance Journalist 1990-Present

Photographer, Reporter and Animator
Develop ideas; pitch editors; write or photograph stories, which have appeared in The
New York Times Magazine (article), Soros Foundation’s Eurasianet.org (articles and
photos), The New York Daily News (photos); Columbia Journalism Review (photos); The
Detroit News and The Detroit Free Press (articles and photos), Atlanta Journal-
Constitution (photos).

Associated Press, New York, NY 2004-2008

General Assignment Photographer
Cover local news, national news and entertainment industry premieres as well as
exclusive stories commissioned by a newspaper or magazine on topics ranging from
electric cars to portraits and sports.

SIPA Press, New York, NY 2001-2006

General Assignment Photographer
Cover a range of national and international news events, from the 2004 Republican
Convention to Broadway premieres. Also work on long-term feature stories such as the
changing Medicare system as well as international coverage of stories like the 2004 Rose
Revolution in the Republic of Georgia and the war in Afghanistan.

The New York Times Electronic Media, Inc., New York, NY 1997-1998
Consultant
Helped develop content and design layout for the newspaper company’s expanding on-
line services, specifically the website NYToday.com.

Health Care Weekly Review, Detroit, MI 1993-1996

Editor
Managed daily operations at the independent newspaper (30,000 circ); assigned stories;
supervised reporters and interns; coordinated advertising and layout.

AWARDS

2005 – Knight International Press Fellowship (about 20 fellowships are awarded each
year).
2003 – World Press Association, annual competition, honorable mention for coverage of
the Rose Revolution in the Republic of Georgia.
2001 Michigan Press Photographers Association, spot news - weekly division, second
place for coverage of September 11, 2001 in New York City.
1995 - Kodak Young Photographer Award

EDUCATION
 M.A. - Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism - 1997
Non-degree/work study program - International Center of Photography - 1997
B.A. - Philosophy - University of Massachusetts, Amherst - 1990

AFFILIATIONS

Member - The American Federation of Teachers

Member - The New York Press Photographers Association