Building the Trust: Photographer Jason Vorhees Captures Moments that Speak Louder Than Words
- 1 day ago
- 2 min read
Jason Vorhees thought photography was his path to sports. It ended up becoming his path to Macon, Georgia, and a career in photojournalism.
Vorhees is a native of Lancaster, Ohio. He didn’t pick up a camera until he was a freshman at Ohio University, after his father gave him a Canon AE1 for his high school graduation.
“I’m a sports freak, I love sports,” he said. “I thought photography was my way of getting into it, because I was not a writer.”
As it turned out, Vorhees branched out into photojournalism after becoming inspired by his first college class in art photography, where he learned how to use that new camera.
Vorhees met his wife, who is from Macon, when he was a sophomore. He later landed his first journalism job at The Daily Sun in Warner Robins, Georgia. Over the next 28 years, he learned to love everything about photojournalism, while picking up numerous awards from the Georgia Press Association.
He honed his trade over two decades with The Telegraph in Macon, before signing on with the Georgia Trust for Local News in 2024 to work for its startup news organization, The Macon Melody. His work for The Melody spans news, features and sports.
Vorhees believes a good photo captivates the reader and enhances the writing.
“I think a great photo can get a reader interested in a story they may not have read otherwise,” he said.
His job and coverage area has changed dramatically through the years, from working for a daily newspaper with six photographers, to covering more than 20 counties solo, and to a weekly paper covering one county.
“I got into this work as a sports nut, but I've learned to enjoy everything about it,” he said.
