Stanley Greene: From Punk to War
Nina Alvarez, Faculty Visitor and Assistant Professor at the Columbia Journalism School, and Fabiola Ferrero, 2023-24 Fellow and photojournalist, discuss the life and legacy of American photojournalist Stanley Greene, a personal friend of Nina’s and the focus of her upcoming documentary.
Stanley Greene began his career documenting San Francisco’s punk scene in the 1970s and 80s before shifting to photojournalism. Based in Paris from 1986, he covered global events including the fall of the Berlin Wall, and later focused on the decline of communism and the Soviet Union. As a member of Agence VU and later based in Moscow, he extensively covered conflicts in Chechnya, Sudan, Rwanda, and elsewhere, receiving accolades such as the World Press Photo awards and the Lifetime Achievement Visa d’Or Award (2016). Stanley Greene died in Paris on May 19th, 2017.
Nina Alvarez is a journalist, documentarian and video photographer. For over twenty-five years, she has reported breaking news and feature stories from around the world, on broadcast and web segments, radio reports and long-form documentaries.
An important theme in Alvarez’s work has been the experience of migration, historically and today. She is currently wrapping production on “Almost American,” a feature documentary about a Salvadoran family who has lived in the U.S. for twenty years with Temporary Protected Status and the people in the Trump administration who ended it. Her next film is Singed (working title), about the Black American war photographer, Stanley Greene.
Alvarez has produced numerous video reports on refugees, undocumented laborers. victims of violence or exploitation and children. In 2001, she crossed the desert border herself on assignment with ABC News Nightline. She was a producer on the Oscar-nominated film, Which Way Home (2009). She produced an episode for the landmark PBS series, Latino Americans (2012), for which she received a Peabody Award and the Imagen Award. Her short film, Fields of Promise (2016), was broadcasted on America ReFramed (PBS World Channel) and awarded the Alfred I. duPont Columbia Journalism Award. She is currently documenting the stories of Salvadoran refugees in the US, some of whom fled the civil war over thirty years ago and are now fighting deportation. The project has received support from the Independent Television Service and Latino Public Broadcasting.
Fabiola Ferrero is a journalist and photographer born in Caracas. Her personal work is the result of how her childhood memories contrast with nowadays Venezuela, her home country. Using her background in writing and investigative journalism, she develops long term visual projects about South America, and specially Venezuela’s crisis. Interested in bringing opportunities to other newcomer photographers in the region, Fabiola founded Semillero Migrante, a photography mentorship program around migration. Among her recognitions are the Inge Morath Award, the Carmignac Award, 6Mois Photojournalism Award, and the Getty Images Editorial Grant.
