Bruce Thorson spent 25 years in newspaper photojournalism as a photographer and photo editor -- mostly in Oregon -- and as director of photography at the St. Paul (Minn.) Pioneer Press. An award-winning photographer, Thorson has received recognition from the Associated Press, The Best of the West competition and the National Press Photographers Association. His photographs have also appeared in Sports Illustrated, People Magazine, USA Today, Oregon Business, Nebraska Life and various other publications.

Thorson teaches photojournalism: basic digital photojournalism, advanced digital photojournalism and in-depth photojournalism projects, taking students twice a year on international documentary projects.

He holds a bachelor's degree in journalism from the University of Oregon and a master's degree in visual communications from Ohio University.

Outside of his teaching duties, Thorson continues to practice his craft, working as a contract photographer for a sports newswire picture agency that supplies his sports photographs to editorial outlets around the world.

In addition to sports photography, Thorson enjoys documentary photography of people, their culture, their relationship to the environment and the social impact on their lives.

Early in his career as a photo lab technician at the Eugene Register-Guard in Oregon, Thorson was mentored by Brian Lanker, a Pulitzer Prize-winning photojournalist and a two-time winner of the prestigious National Press Photographers Association Photographer of the Year award.