A Parsons Sun photographer from the 1970s will be inducted into the Kansas Photojournalism Hall of Fame.
Jim Forbes, who lives in Prairie Village and has earned a Pulitzer Prize for his work, will receive the honor on Nov. 13 at the Sunflower Nonprofit Center in Topeka.
Forbes graduated in 1972 from the University of Kansas, where he studied photojournalism. His first journalism job after college was at the Topeka Daily Capital, where he worked in the photo department under legend Rich Clarkson.
He joined the Parsons Sun in April 1973 and left seven months later in November 1973, after accepting a photography job at the Miami (Florida) Daily News.
According to a Sun article in November 1973, “Forbes has won attention for top-level news photographs since joining The Sun. Three of his pictures were cited as winners in an annual Kansas-Missouri news photo contest sponsored by The Associated Press. Forbes also has won high ratings in monthly four-state competition of the National Press Photographers Association since coming to Parsons.”
According to the Hall of Fame nomination form, Forbes joined the St. Louis Post-Dispatch in 1975. He
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JIM FORBES
spent the remainder of his long career there, retiring in 2020 after 45 years on the staff. He served as a staff photographer, director of photography and chief photographer.
As a visual storyteller, Forbes has photographed wide-ranging news and human interest events around the world to include images of U.S. presidents, world leaders, professional athletes, military conflicts and natural disasters, according to his nomination form.
In 2015, Forbes and his fellow Post-Dispatch photographers won the Breaking News Photography Pulitzer Prize “for powerful images of the despair and anger in Ferguson, MO., stunning photojournalism that served the community while informing the country” following the death of Michael Brown.
According to the Missouri Photojournalism Hall of Fame website, Forbes was inducted into the Missouri Photojournalism Hall of Fame in 2017.
His work garnered over 100 prizes. He was also named the NPPA Regional Photographer of the Year three times and runner-up five times. He has been honored by the Overseas Press Club, the Missouri Interscholastic Press Association, Amnesty International, the National Headliner Public Service Award and the Society of News Design. Forbes was on the team covering the Kirkwood City Hall shootings in 2008 that won awards from the National Headliner’s contest, Sigma Delta Chi as well as being named a finalist for a Pulitzer Prize.
According to the Hall of Fame website in Missouri, Forbes’ interest in photography may have started at a young age in Prairie Village, when his dad brought home an early Polaroid camera. He ran cross country in high school and attended KU in part so he could meet and run with his boyhood hero, fellow Kansan, Olympian and former world record holder Jim Ryun. Ryun, a photojournalism major, introduced Forbes to instructors at KU’s William Allen White School of Journalism. Then Ryun, working part-time at the Topeka Daily Capital, introduced Forbes to Clarkson and several of the world-class photographers on staff. Deciding to major in photojournalism, the next year Forbes was runner-up for College Photographer of the Year.
Others to be inducted in the Kansas Photojournalism Hall of Fame are: Frank Niemier, formerly of the Kansas City Star and Kansas City Times Perry Riddle, formerly of the Topeka Capital-Journal (posthumous) Damian Strohmeyer, formerly of the Topeka Capital-Journal Those to be inducted into the Kansas Newspaper Hall of Fame are: Tim Carpenter, Kansas Reflector Sherry Chisenhall, formerly of the Wichita Eagle Jean Folkerts, Kansas State University (retired) Joann Kahnt, Prairie Post Mona Kessinger, The Junction City Republic (posthumous) Mark McCormick, formerly of the Wichita Eagle Elon Torrence, Associated Press (posthumous)
JIM FORBES PHOTOS: Clockwise from top left: (This photo was published in the Parsons Sun on Aug. 25, 1973) Steve Buske, left, and Kevin Buske, ages 9 and 10 at the time, seem doleful in late August, possibly at the start of a new school year. (The next two photos appeared in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch but were downloaded from the Missouri Hall of Fame website) A St. Louis fireman maneuvers through rubble-strewn pavement on Locust Street on April 2, 1976. Six buildings near Locust and 21st Street were destroyed by the firestorm, which raged out of control for more than 3 hours. An evening thunderstorm moves across St. Louis County over Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery. Over 3 inches of rain fell in a short period.
