David Carson

About

David Carson is a John S. Knight (JSK) Journalism Fellow at Stanford University for the 2024-2025 academic year. He's interested in examining the impacts of AI-generated images on photojournalism and what can be done to build public trust in news photos. He is on leave from his position as a staff photojournalist at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch where he has worked for more than two decades. During his career, he's covered the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, two World Series, a Superbowl, U.S. Presidential and Vice Presidential debates and 9/11 on the ground in New York City during the early hours and days that followed the attacks. Carson's work was featured extensively in the 2015 Pulitzer Prize for Breaking News Photography, awarded to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch photo staff "For powerful images of the despair and anger in Ferguson, MO, stunning photojournalism that served the community while informing the country." He also was a member of the newspaper’s staff that was a 2009 Pulitzer Prize finalist for its coverage of a mass shooting during a Kirkwood, Mo. city council meeting. Previously Carson worked at the Naples Daily News in Florida, The Providence Journal-Bulletin in Rhode Island, and as a freelance photographer in New England where he worked for The New York Times, USA Today and the Associated Press, among others. Additionally, he is an FAA-licensed part 107 drone pilot, National Weather Service trained weather spotter and vice president of the United Media Guild TNG-CWA Local 36047. He has over a decade of experience in union organizing, contract negotiations/enforcement and labor relations. He attended college at the Rochester Institute of Technology as a photojournalism major and international relations minor. In his free time, he still enjoys playing soccer and is an avid Boston sports fan.