PhotoNight with Ben de la Cruz

PhotoNight with Ben de la Cruz

PhotoNight XLII will feature washingtonpost.com’s Ben de la Cruz on Tuesday, Feb. 26, in Carroll Hall room 33.

Doors open at 7 p.m. The presentation will start at 7:30 p.m. and finish by 9 p.m.

Ben de la Cruz is an Emmy Award-winning documentary video producer and reporter for washingtonpost.com. Prior to joining the Web site in January 2000, Ben worked as an independent producer for public television, a print reporter covering the Internet industry and a freelance photography reviewer for Photo District News magazine.

Ben has also co-produced songs released by Sony Music, Dischord and DCide Records. In 2006, Ben produced a series of 12 video stories about racial identity on washingtonpost.com for Being a Black Man, a year-long multimedia project that would win the prestigious George Foster Peabody Award in 2007. These videos were also nominated for a national Emmy Award the same year.

Ben got his start as a filmmaker in 1996 by producing for PBS a documentary about a mentally challenged young man who learns to live on his own. It was a defining experience that taught him how the power of visual storytelling can positively impact social justice issues.

His subsequent documentaries about homelessness, race, criminal justice, affordable housing and the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina have also been recognized for their excellence by the National Press Photographers Association, Picture of the Year International, Casy Medal for Meritorious Journalism, Scripps Howard National Journalism Award for Web Reporting, the Online News Association Award for multimedia reporting, and the Associated Press Managing Editors Award, among others.  Born in Manila, Ben now lives in the Columbia Heights neighborhood of Washington, D.C.

PhotoNight is free and open to the public, and all are welcome.

For more information download the PDF flier.

The announcement is also available on carolinaphotojournalism.org.