Tristen Rouse
Photographer & Photo Editor

Two days after a wildfire devastated the village of Wooldridge, I was tasked with researching and editing the Missourian's days of visual coverage for our first print edition since the disaster, for a story that focused on the beginning of recovery efforts and how a class divide suggested some structures were prioritized while low-income homes blazed. I worked with photographers Margo Wagner and Lily Dozier, whose coverage of the recovery was most recent, to build out the story's web presentation. I then pulled photos from over the weekend — including the combine believed to have sparked the fire — and sat with a designer for the print A1 and double truck. 

In August 2020, fellow photo editor Jacob Moscovitch came to me with an idea — give a dozen University of Missouri freshmen journalism students disposable cameras and let them document their first semester, happening during a pandemic, for themselves. We came together at the end of the semester to collaborate on the print and web edit, incorporating the visual diaries the freshmen gave us with short text pieces they wrote about their experiences. Click to read "The Only Semester They Know."

In a follow up to the project where we gave freshmen disposable cameras so they could photograph their first collegiate semester living with COVID-19, Jacob Moscovitch and I did the same thing with seniors experiencing their final semester. This project bookends the duology, as vaccinations meant life began to creep toward normalcy. Click to read "Their Last Semester: MU seniors document their goodbyes on film."

Photographer Amy Schaffer told me she had gained access to a trip to a group of University of Missouri students planning a  rock climbing trip to Arkansas. She wasn't sure what the story might be, but knew there was potential for interesting images to be made. I encouraged her to go, make pictures, and we could figure out the larger story based on what she learned during the trip. While there, Amy learned that the group's popularity had shot up in recent years, a result of climbing's worldwide increase in popularity after the release of the film Free Solo and climbing's inclusion in the Tokyo Olympics. I asked her to follow up with those students and others in the mid-Missouri climbing community, to write a feature story on that increase. I then worked with her on an edit of the pictures, created a web presentation for "Columbia climbing ascends in popularity," and worked with a print designer to create this print double truck. 

The three-part series 'COVID on Campus' was published in the Columbia Missourian and in various other outlets vis the Midwest Center for Investigative Reporting. The series, reported by student journalists in the fall of 2020, examined COVID-19's impact and university administrations' responses at four Midwestern flagship universities: Illinois, Indiana, Missouri and Wisconsin. Photo editing for this series involved photo research in the Missourian archives as well as sourcing photographs from student journalists from the three other universities. Part one focused on the unprecedented challenge universities faced. Part two reported on the challenge of containing COVID-19 hot spots in party-filled college towns. And part three wrote about the inconsistent contact tracing and run-down, even dangerous, quarantine housing universities provided students.

Election nights at the Columbia Missourian routinely involve the collaboration of more than a dozen visual journalists, in addition to our colleagues on the news and design desks. This print spread and corresponding online photo gallery represents the work of all of those photojournalists and photo editors, lasting from 6 a.m. until well-past midnight on an Election Day that saw a new mayor, an $80 million bond issue and a tie in the third ward city council seat. The night ended with myself, designer Heeral Patel and Missourian executive editor Elizabeth Conner Stephens sitting together to finish this page as a team. Print photos by Maya Bell, Audrey Stanard and Maggie Lenox. 

Photojournalist Lily Dozier met the Beydler family the day after the FDA recommended a COVID-19 vaccine for children ages 5-11. The announcement was a massive relief to the Beydlers, who have five children — one of whom is medically fragile. Lily formed an immediate, strong connection to the family and they let her into their lives for the days leading up to the children’s vaccination. I met with her each day she worked on it, going over photographs and helping hone her vision for the story. We then sat with the designer to collaborate on the print design and I built the web presentation for "'It's A Huge Day: A Columbia family, including quadruplets, celebrates getting vaxxed."

Photographer Emmalee Reed had spent months working on ‘From This Earth,’ a personal essay about the land her family had lived on for a century, intermittently showing her progress to me and the others in our college photojournalism capstone class. When the semester ended and Emmalee felt the work was complete, I approached her about publishing the essay in the Columbia Missourian. I worked with her on an edit that spotlighted Emmalee’s unique visual style and oversaw the project’s final production for both print and web. Click to read "From This Earth: A photographer's reflection on family, history and land."

Photographer Cory MacNeil spent 10 weeks photographing the groundskeepers of the University of Missouri - Columbia, as the entire campus is a botanical garden. I then worked alongside Cory, building an edit that honored the distinct vision and intent he brought to the project. Once the edit was set, I negotiated with The Columbia Missourian’s managing editor to secure three pages to showcase his photographs and built the final web display. Cory’s essay published in conjunction with a gallery showing of the photographs at the university. Click to read "Maintaining Magnificence: The groundskeepers of the Mizzou Botanical Garden."

Alongside photo editors Marco Postigo Storel and Madi Winfield, I worked with photographers Blythe Dorrian and Daniel Shular for a rendition of the Columbia Missourian’s weekly ‘Friday Night Sights’ series, which looks to document high school football from the stands and the sidelines. This was week two of the playoffs — it saw victories for the Battle Spartans and Harrisburg Bulldogs, and saw the Westran Hornets sent home for the season. Click to view "Friday Night Sights 11.06.20: Clearing The Hurdles."