Eric Keith has been telling stories with photographs most of his life.

In 1971 when Eric was 8, he purchased a Brownie box camera for a quarter and used it to record the last known image of his father.

As a seventh grader, he knew he would be a newspaper photojournalist after visiting with photographers at the Omaha World Herald where his adopted father was the managing editor.

Eric figured the shortest path to a newspaper job would be an Associates Degree in Still Photography from Metro Tech Community College in Omaha. Freelancing for the Associated Press and United Press International helped him get a feel for real-world photojournalism while in school.

Even in the boom years of newspapers, photojournalism jobs were scarce. Eventually, he was hired as a staff photographer at the Bogalusa Louisiana Daily News, where he covered Hurricane Elena. Bogalusa was not a good fit for Eric professionally or culturally, so he returned to freelancing in Omaha.

In June 1987, Eric was hired at the News-Press. He takes pleasure in documenting the lives of St. Joseph citizens. Some memorable moments Eric captured on camera have been The Ray and Faye Copeland murders, Great Flood of 1993, Olympians Wes Barnett, Dennis Snethen and Pete Kelley participating in the Atlanta games, the Brad Arn shooting and thousands of quieter moments with smaller headlines. It has often been those quiet moments in the lives of ordinary people that have meant the most to Eric.

"It always amazes me how people are willing to open their lives to a stranger with a camera," he said.

Eric has seen the business change from printing black and white photos in a darkroom to toning digital images on a computer. As the Internet develops as a news medium, Eric has adapted his story-telling skills to video.

"The world of journalism is changing daily from every conceivable angle" Eric said. “That means newspapers must change the way we think about journalism so our grandchildren won't learn about us from history books.”