66 | DECEMBER 7 • 2023 J
N

P

rior to her junior 
year at Michigan 
State University, 
Emily Elconin had a camera, 
but it was sitting around 
collecting dust. Then, during a 
photojournalism study abroad 
program that took her to 
Prague, Paris and London, she 
discovered a surprising love for 
photography.
Stunning architecture 
certainly helped, but Elconin, 
28, of Berkley realized there 
was more she could do with 
photography, such as take 
photos of people and document 
real-time news.

“I started going full force 
and working at the college 
newspaper,
” the now-established 
freelance photojournalist recalls. 
She covers politics, news, 
climate change and more for 
top media outlets such as the 
New York Times, Bloomberg, 
Reuters and the Wall Street 
Journal.
Following a passion for 
interviewing and photographing 
people, Elconin’s photography 
has come full-circle as she 
celebrates an ongoing exhibit of 
her work, “Chronicles of Being: 
A Selection of Images,
” at MSU’s 
Residential College of Art and 

Humanities. It was where she 
studied nearly a decade ago.
Decking the hallways of 
the school are photos hand-
selected by Elconin, a timeline 
of her work on display 
through January that she calls 
a “reflection of the different 
interconnected layers” of her life 
captured between 2018, when 
she began her photography 
career, and 2023.

BRINGING HISTORY ALIVE
While the exhibit isn’t directly 
about her grandmother, Vicky 
Buckfire, who passed away in 
2022, Elconin has dedicated 

the display to the Holocaust 
survivor and her biggest 
cheerleader in life.
Inspired by her 
grandmother’s story as a 
Czechoslovakian native hiding 
in Budapest, Hungary, during 
the war, Elconin is working 
on an expansive family history 
project where she’s retracing 
her family’s steps from Eastern 
Europe to America.
Much of the project is photo-
based, while other elements 
include archival videos she 
found of her family taken before 
and after World War II. Elconin 
is currently working on writing 
a grant to secure funding for the 
project.
“I love what I do. It’s amazing 
to photograph for a living,
” 
Elconin explains. At the same 

continued on page XX

Berkley photojournalist’s work on display at Michigan 
State University through January.

A
Timeline
of
Images

ASHLEY ZLATOPOLSKY CONTRIBUTING WRITER

ARTS&LIFE
PHOTOGRAPHY

