Edom, Vilia C.

The Father of Photojournalism, Clifton Cedric Edom (February 12, 1907-January 30, 1991), taught photojournalism at the University of Missouri at Columbia (MU), 1943-1973. Previous to that position (1935-1943), Edom acted as educational director for the TASOPE School of Photoengraving in Aurora, Mo. Here Edom taught photo engraving, promoted an increase in the use and quality of pictures in small town newspapers, and published the TASOPE News, which became PIX Magazine . After he was hired in 1943 as engraver for the Columbia Missourian, the MU campus newspaper, Edom subsequently was hired to teach news photography. From this platform, Edom, with his wife Vilia Vi (1908-2004), launched the transformation of American news photography education and professional practice through several initiatives.

Edom established the first accredited college degree program in news photography within an American School of Journalism, therefore gaining recognition within the academy that the news photographer was as much a journalist and deserved as quality an education as the print journalist. Edom accomplished this in large part through the integration into his program of the Farm Security Administration’s socially conscious style of documentary photography. In this way Edom advanced photography instruction beyond the technical emphasis and one-shot approach common to press photography to a more sensitive portrayal of the human condition.

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