Former News intern places in national contest
LNCOLN — Former Cedar County News intern Kenneth Ferriera is turning his experience in Northeast Nebraska into award-winning work.
Ferriera earned third-place honors last week in the Hearst National Photojournalism Championship finals.
It’s only the second time in at least the last 15 years that a Nebraska photographer has even advanced to the Hearst finals.
The initial notification from Hearst in May really caught him off guard, causing him to drop his phone and leaving him speechless.
“It was something I could’ve never possibly expected,” Ferriera said. “I kept thinking this can’t be real, so when it happened I was in shock. It was so unexpected.”
When Ferriera entered his work into the Hearst Journalism Awards Program earlier this year, he entered his portfolio, along with a photo story featuring photos he took last summer while working at the Cedar County News.
Some of the images used in the national competition included shots of veterinarians Ben and Erin Schroeder, flooding in Randolph and a photo of Dirk Dailey after fighting a barn fire.
During Ferriera’s time at Cedar County News, he spent several days photographing the “Heartland Docs.” After he spent a few days at the Veterinarian clinic, he was able to curate a photo story about a day in the life. This story is about what the vets do in a day of work in Hartington, and can be found on his website, Kennethfer rieraphotography.com.
Ferriera is thankful to area residents for teaching him how to connect with the people around him.
“Well, I’ve always been really shy,” he said, “so with how welcoming the community was it helped me. As a photographer, a kind community makes my job much easier.”
He is not the only Cedar County News intern to have made it into the Hearst photojournalism finals.
Calla Kessler, a 2016 interns here, also made it into the competition using photos from her internship in Hartington. Kessler has recently finished a photo fellowship with the New York Times.
Ferriera competed against five other college photojournalists for first place and a $10,000 scholarship.
He had three days to produce a photo essay about his time in quarantine. The story he produced earned him third place and a $5,000 scholarship.
“Placing in Hearst is something I’ve always striven for,” Ferriera said, “But to place in the national championship is far more than I could have ever expected.”