Alumni Spotlight: Catherine Carter
Name: Catherine Carter
Current Occupation: Retired Professor
Workshops: Project NOLA (3 times!), Project Puerto Rico, & Private Coaching
Faculty: Marianne Sabrier, Annie Flanagan, Jamie Rose, Gabi Perez, Jaime Windon, Chris Usher, Matt Rose, Dotan Saguy, John Christopher Anderson
1. What motivated you to take a photo workshop, and why did you pick Momenta?
I have taken multiple workshops with Momenta over the last fifteen or so years. After the first one I was “hooked.” I decided on that first workshop because I wanted to learn something new, to gain new skills and to take my photography in a new direction.
I chose Momenta because it was apparent from everything I could find out about them that they were single-minded, focused in a particular direction. Their teaching did not wander into different areas but stayed true to documentary photography of nonprofit work.
By the end of the workshop, I had learned what I came to learn. I had also made a very good friend. Jamie Rose has been my friend and my mentor now for many years. I went to more than one workshop because I wanted to spend time with Jamie and I wanted to spend more time working with nonprofit organizations.
From the Project Puerto Rico story, “Fingerprints of Faith” which can be seen here: https://catherinecarter.media/photo-stories/fingerprints-of-faith.
2. What surprised you most about the experience of working with a nonprofit?
It was interesting, however, to see how much passion each of those I worked with had for their clients. I was also pleased to see how flexible most of them were with the ideas I had for my projects.
From the Project NOLA 2016 workshop video project for Cafe Reconcile, which can be seen here: https://catherinecarter.media/multimedia-stories/nonprofits.
3. What was the best lesson you took away from your workshop?
In the last year I have been experiencing declining vision and I have had to put down my camera. I was very upset about it at first, but then I decided I had to find another art form on which to work. I had done an audio project at the beginning of the Covid lockdown.
I worked with Jamie on it separately from a workshop and it turned out beautifully. I did some audio work after that but I knew I needed more help with the media form so I asked Jamie if I could attend the New Orleans workshop this past April. But I told her that instead of photography I would like to work on audio recording and editing. Jamie agreed and I did an audio project for the Louisiana SPCA.
I learned a great deal about audio journalism and especially about audio storytelling for nonprofit organizations. At the same time I was developing a focus on journalism. I have a degree in journalism from many years ago and I worked for a time with a newspaper and as a corporate storyteller.
Since New Orleans I have recruited a staff and started a digital news magazine for my 55+ retirement community. When I was still photographing I moved into multimedia photography and that has now carried over to my new project. I use photography, video, audio and news writing in the digital magazine. I am also working extensively on research to learn about modern journalistic methods. I have discovered, for example, that publications with extensive audio stories have longer viewer “reading” times and greater scroll depth than other, more traditional, publications. My digital magazine is called Mirehaven News (our community is called Mirehaven). If you are interested in seeing it, you can see it at mirehaven-news.com.
4. What was your favorite creative part from this workshop & why?
In my last project with Momenta, the audio project with LASPCA, the most important thing I learned came in the last two paragraphs of the story. It was there that I learned to issue a call to action, a call that urged readers and listeners to contribute to the nonprofit. But the call to action wasn’t just about money; it was also a call to the listener to remain connected to the organization by following its social media channels.
You can listen to the piece here: https://catherinecarter.media/feature-stories/louisiana-spca.
5. What would you tell a potential student to help them prepare for their experience with Momenta?
It is important fora potential student to know three things about the workshop on which he or she is embarking.
First, no matter how experienced the student is, there is more to learn. The Momenta workshops are about documentary photography applied to nonprofit organizations. This is not something that is typically in the repertoire of most photographers so it is important for the potential student to realize that his or her photographs will not be perfect on the first days of the workshop.
Second, if is important for the potential student to adjust his or her mindset to match that of the client. He or she needs to learn what the important facets of the project will be so they can be photographed. In addition, the potential student needs to know what he or she is looking for so that images can be made quickly.
Third, the potential student should know that this workshop is not one with lots of (any?) free time. The workshop is exhausting but in the end will be one if the most rewarding things he or she has ever done.
I am now in my mid-seventies and I am not willing to stop working. I have told you my story about the work I do but let me also tell you my history. I got my first camera when I was 12 years old and until last year I photographed continuously. Just because I am old does not mean that I can allow myself to sit back and relax. Journalism, and especially audio journalism, is my new passion. With it I am doing nonprofit work. I am also writing feature stories that reach my readers and listeners with information and emotional content with the hope that I might sway their opinions on issues about which I care deeply.
This new work is important to me in another way. The staff I have recruited are not experienced journalists. In fact they know next to nothing about it. So I am teaching them how to write a news story, how to interview a subject, and how to make photographs that enhance a story. Soon I will begin teaching them how to make audio recordings. These staff members live in my community so they are also retired. They are excited about having something meaningful to do, something that makes a difference in our community. This is incredibly rewarding to me and I am excited to be doing it.
The images featured in this story were taken on the Momenta Project Puerto Rico 2019, Project New Orleans, and the Private Coaching: COVID Lockdown program.
Photos © Catherine Carter/Momenta Workshops 2025.
Bio
Catherine Carter is a multimedia journalist who lives in Albuquerque, New Mexico. In her former lives, she was a geographer and taught geography and geographic science. After retiring from her job as a professor at the University of Maryland, she devoted her time fully to creative arts.
She has been making images for decades (about 6 of them!). Last year, she finished a MA in Photography and recently began to work on audio projects.
When she is not documenting the natural and spiritual locales of the Southwest, she is currently serving as the Editor-In-Chief of the multimedia digital magazine, Mirehaven News, that she founded in 2025.
Website: www.catherinecarter.media