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Welcome to Digital Vision Network Consulting
Since 2000, we have been one of the foremost information resources on the Web for 21st century visual journalists and storytellers.

The primary member of Digital Vision Network is The Digital Journalist Web magazine, which was launched by Dirck Halstead in September 1997. It was followed two years later by Roger Richards’ site
The Digital Filmmaker in autumn 1999. Both Web sites came together to form the Digital Vision Network in May 2000, and have since been joined by several other top sites in the field of visual journalism.

One of the main objectives of Digital Vision Network is providing information and education on visual multimedia storytelling. Foremost in this effort are the Platypus Workshops, which since March 1999 have trained some of the world’s foremost visual journalists and filmmakers of the 21st century. They include Pulitzer Prize winners David Leeson, Olga Shalygin, Eugene Louie and Kim Komenich. After the first Platypus class of 1999 David Turnley, also a Pulitzer winner and his twin brother, the award-winning photographer Peter Turnley, Don Doll, S.J., and William Campbell all went on to produce feature stories for ABC News’ Nightline shortly after attending the Platypus. Other Platypus graduates of note include 2006 Academy Award nominee (documentary filmmaking) Kimberly Acquaro, and comedian/TV producer/photographer Drew Carey.

Digital Vision Network staff provide training at the two annual Platypus Workshops, held in spring at Brooks Institute of Photography in Ventura, California, and in summer at the Maine Photographic Workshops. Due to increasing demand for training in this field, Digital Vision Network consultants now offer weekend and one day seminars to introduce individuals and newspaper and magazine staffers to the world of New Media production. We also now provide personal and targeted consultations to publications and individuals to empower them to quickly and efficiently begin producing powerful visual multimedia stories.

Digital Vision Network consultants are:

Roger M. Richards is the Editor and Publisher of Digital Vision Network and The Digital Filmmaker. He is also the Multimedia Editor/Producer at the Virginian-Pilot in Norfolk, Virginia. Richards main focus now is producing visual essays combining still images and video and digital short films for the Web. His began his photojournalism career in 1979, focusing on political and social themes in the Caribbean, the civil wars in El Salvador and Nicaragua and then joining the Gamma Liaison photo agency in 1988. Based in Miami and then Europe, his work with the agency included the US invasion of Panama, political upheaval in Haiti, civil war in Croatia and the siege of Sarajevo. He is a former Associated Press photo bureau chief in Bogota, Colombia, and a staff photographer at the Washington Times in Washington, DC, from 1997-2000. He is the recipient of numerous awards from the National Press Photographers' Association, the White House News Photographers' Association, the Society of Professional Journalists and the Virginia News Photographers Association. He became a digital filmmaker in 1998, focusing on projects about war in the Balkans. He was awarded the first White House News Photographers' Association sabbatical grant for videojournalism in 2000 and was one of the first graduates of the famous Platypus Workshop that trains photojournalists how to become digital filmmakers and videojournalists. He is now a member of the workshop faculty. 

Contact Information:
Roger Richards (757)348-9591 rmr@dvnetwork.net


Dirck Halstead is the Editor and Publisher of The Digital Journalist. Dirck started in photojournalism when he was in High School. At the age of 17, he became LIFE Magazine's youngest combat photographer covering the Guatemalan Civil War. (LIFE had no idea how old he was). After attending Haverford College, he went on to work for UPI for more than 15 years, covering stories around the world. In 1972 he accepted a contract for Time Magazine, and for the next 29 years covered the White House for them. In 1992 he played an instrumental part in the formation of Video News International (VNI), which started what is now the Platypus movement, allowing still photojournalists to cross the barrier between print and television. He has won the NPPA Picture of the Year award twice, the Robert Capa Gold Medal for his coverage of the fall of Saigon, and two Eisies.

Contact Information:
Dirck Halstead
(512)475-4675  dhalstead@mac.com


PF Bentley is a photojournalist/digital filmmaker who specializes in covering domestic and international politics. Bentley is known and respected throughout the print and broadcast community for earning unprecedented access to presidential candidates, Heads of State, and Capitol Hill. He was the first photojournalist to shoot on the House floor while in session. Bentley was behind the scenes with President Bill Clinton for his last week in office, Inauguration Day, January 20, 2001, and his last trip on Air Force One to his new life as “Citizen Clinton”. 

Bentley returned to Washington after September 11, 2001 for NEWSWEEK Magazine to be with U.S. lawmakers behind the scenes on Capitol Hill in the wake of the terrorist attacks and Anthrax crisis. Included in this coverage was his widely acclaimed photograph of President Bush in prayer before speaking to a Joint Session of Congress on September 20. In August 2001 he produced and filmed an ABC-TV "Nightline" about Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle. This was his third "Nightline" broadcast. 

He has covered every U.S. presidential campaign and photographed every serious presidential contender since 1980 including Ronald Reagan, George Bush, Bob Dole, Michael Dukakis, Walter Mondale, Geraldine Ferraro, Jesse Jackson, John Glenn, Al Gore, Dick Gephardt, Pat Buchanan, Bill Bradley, and Bill Clinton.

Bentley grew up in Hawaii and graduated from the University of Hawaii in Honolulu with a B.Ed. degree in 1975. He is also a member of the faculty of the Platypus Workshop. When not traveling he resides in New York and on the Big Island of Hawaii with his wife, publicist, Cathy Saypol.