Photo Editing
Jacob Wiegand is a photo editor who believes in always being an advocate for a strong photographic presence in publications and for the photojournalists who make those images.
Jacob has used his understanding of photographic storytelling to coordinate photo coverage at multiple publications, assist photographers in their edits of stories and assist designers in layouts of photo packages all in an effort to best visually tell stories to readers.
St. Louis Review newspaper and Catholic St. Louis magazine
Jacob works in a photojournalist and photo editor role at the St. Louis Review newspaper and Catholic St. Louis magazine. He manages all aspects of photography for the publications such as coordinating story visuals with reporters and editors, photographing said visuals and facilitating freelance assignments as needed. In addition, Jacob works with editors and designers to decide of the appropriate layout of images in the print publications.
The highlight of the weekly newspaper is the Steadfast in Faith section which typically consists of a word and picture story told over several pages. The following tells the story of the “breakfast club” at the St. Louis home of Peggy Winckowski, aka “Grandma Peggy.” Winckowski’s grandson and Bishop DuBourg student, Sam Crowe, was killed in a moped accident in July 2022. Despite their loss, friends of Sam still gather with “Grandma Peggy” on Wednesday mornings at her home where food and memories of Sam are shared.
Jacob mentored the St. Louis Review photo intern, Trenton Almgren-Davis, during his internship. This involved coordinating assignment coverage, advice on photographic approaches and editing photo selections. The following story was photographed by Trenton with photo editing from Jacob.
Jacob coordinates coverage by freelance photographers providing the freelancers with a detailed photo assignment before they photograph. Here is one example where photographer, Sid Hastings, was successful in his coverage of the Syro-Malabar Easter Catholic Church community in St. Louis.
Jacob also oversees photography for Catholic St. Louis magazine which is a bimonthly magazine of the Archdiocese of St. Louis. Below are portraits for cover stories photographed by Jacob.
Southeast Missourian
Jacob also managed the visuals staff at the Southeast Missourian newspaper in Cape Girardeau, Missouri, as the newspaper’s photo editor. In addition to his own assignments, Jacob coordinated assignment coverage and edited fellow photojournalists for the publication.
Below is a portrait series Jacob photographed for Leap Day 2020. The series featuring Leap Day birthday celebrants, sometimes called “leaplings” or “leapers,” was produced using Polaroid Originals and Fujifilm Instax Mini film to emulate snapshots from birthday parties.
Pictured in the group photo are Leap Day birthday celebrants (top row, from left) Jerry McClanahan, Logan Hennecke, Payton Foltz (pictured with the dog Ellie May) and Jay Lukefahr; and (bottom row, from left) twin sisters Susan Abney and Angie Burnett, Aisha Jones, Cameron Moore and Kim Hodo in February 2020 prior to their Feb. 29 birthdays.
As the Southeast Missourian’s photo editor, Jacob assisted other photographers as they pursued stories in the community. Below is an excerpt from a story by Tyler Graef about a local MMA fighter pursuing his dream.
The Jonesboro Sun
Before his time in Cape Girardeau, Jacob worked as the features editor at The Jonesboro Sun in Jonesboro, Arkansas, writing and photographing stories of the northeast Arkansas community.
As shown in the story below, Jacob places a strong emphasis on the importance of feature storytelling believing chronicles of everyday life and regular people are of high value.
“I never did think that I’d live to see that I had the only original barber shop in Lawrence County,” barber Terry Heard said. The barber believes himself to be a member of “an ancient, dying breed.” At 68, Heard said he’s achieved his dream and will be at his shop until he is no longer able. “I tried quitting and working three days a week. But I couldn’t handle it. Because I had too much free time on my hands. I said, ‘Heck with it. I’ll just die behind this barber chair.’”
As features editor, Jacob oversaw the production of the newspaper’s Sunday Living section which had as its centerpiece a word and picture story highlighting northeast Arkansas life. Below are a few of those stories.
