Ron Campbell is an East Tennessean alumni who worked for the newspaper as a photographer from around 1981 to 1984.
He found his love for journalism through his time with East Tennessean after a journalism class inspired him to join the newspaper. This decision is what brought Campbell to change his mind about his future, and pursue his career as a photographer.
“I’m glad the East Tennessean is still here,” said Campbell. “I would encourage any journalism student that’s pursuing that to work at the East Tennessean. See, it changed my life, gave me the direction that I’m still going, and I look back on those as some of the most fun days I’ve had in journalism.”
After graduating, Ron worked for the Johnson City Press Chronicle, now known as the Johnson City Press, for 29 years. He expressed how his job has changed over the years, as back then, the East Tennessean used darkrooms to manually develop photos, and he got to watch his career evolve as photography became digital.
“It wasn’t uncommon to have editors standing outside the darkroom door wanting to know when the picture was going to be ready, if it was a big news event,” said Campbell.
Campbell also shared how he was glad to be back working for the university and covering many of the same events as he covered back in the day. He expressed a love for covering concerts and sports, describing the work at ET as “exciting.” Campbell finds himself reminded often of many big stories that he covered for East Tennessean, and is consistently asked, even now, for certain pictures that he had taken then.
Campbell offered some advice to students who might be interested in pursuing photography.
“Nowadays I’m not sure if there is a photography (career) to go into,” said Campbell. “Otherwise, you’ve got to do it all now. I would say cover as many assignments as you can, especially work on the campus paper. Get that experience that you’re not going to get anywhere else. It certainly prepared me for the job.”
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