EDITOR'S NOTEBOOK

And that's why Illinois Issues is fortunate to know free-lance photojournalist Judy Spencer. Her photographs of workers at the Jacksonville Correctional Center appear in this month's issue. The cover picture of the prison is hers, too.

Spencer photographed migrant workers for us last summer — after spending a night in a camp for asparagus pickers. And she photographed farmers for us last fall, an assignment that led her to jump into a spillway drop box in one Macoupin County farmer's field — much to his amusement.

Spencer has a way of finding an interesting visual angle for even the most routine-seeming story. Maybe that's because she began her career as an artist. "I was a frustrated painter," she says. "My art teacher gave me a camera and said, 'Go see what happens.' From the first snap, that was it."

That artistic training helps give Spencer's photographs perspective. She uses shape, angle and available light to tell a story. But while she interprets the scene from her own perspective, Spencer defines herself as a journalist first. "I change the visual element, but not the content."

To get a personal perspective for the photographs on this page, Spencer stretched out on the snow and trained her camera up. For the photograph of the guard walking along a fence (page 15), Spencer climbed into the tower and shot down. That photograph manages to capture the visual texture of the scene, in the expanse of snow and fencing.

"People looking at photos want to be challenged," Spencer says. "I want to stimulate readers. I want to bring them into the story. If a photo is striking enough, it will stimulate readers' interest. " *

Photojournalist Judy Spencer's camera captures a group of prison inmates and guards as they head for lunch.