For Charles Ledford, or “Stretch” Ledford as he’s better known, becoming a multimedia journalism professor at the University of Illinois wasn’t necessarily the dream he always thought he wanted. However, after receiving an Olympus DSLR 35 mm camera for Christmas in high school, the life Ledford was meant to lead formed before his eyes.

“Doors just seemed to open and people were in the right places and things just happened at the right time,” he said of his career path. 

Ledford earned his undergraduate degree in journalism at the University of North Carolina; he travelled the world in pursuit of creating stories through visuals.

He was able to land several opportunities as a photojournalist, such as a job with National Geographic. 

“I’ve worked in 51 countries and I’ve gone to places I’d never heard of and never dreamed of. Like the capital of Burkina Faso is Ouagadougou! Growing up in Asheville, NC. you never heard of Ouagadougou,” he said with a laugh. 

Once on a flight from Abidjan to Ouagadougou, Ledford gave up his seat because the man next to him was using his tray table as a perch for his pet falcon. 

Although traveling the world provided an array of experience, and after also doing some work in freelance advertising, he decided it was time to hit the books once more.

Ledford saw things moving into the digital world as advertising jobs dried up and print revenue began to fall. He earned a master’s degree from the University of Miami in spring 2011. Ledford began teaching journalism students at the University of Illinois in fall 2011 and said he hasn’t had an ounce of regret since.

“Being in multimedia journalism at a research university that has computer science and engineering on the level that Illinois has is an incredible opportunity and isn’t something that a sensible person would turn down,” Ledford said.

Multimedia journalism includes the use of still photos, audio recording and video to make a story that’s both visually appealing and interesting to the viewer — skills that are not only hard to learn but also difficult to teach at times.

“One-on-one time is crucial and invaluable and there’s really never enough of it,” Ledford said. “It’s been a real challenge for me to find how to give students the time I think they need and to encourage students to make time to come to me for help.”

In Latifah Al-Hazza’s opinion, Ledford is a professor who is extremely devoted to his students and their general well being.

“Not only does he have a passion for teaching but he also has a passion for his students in general,” said Al-Hazza, junior in Media and former Illini Media employee. “He wants to know about your life, he wants to help you and he’ll take time out of his day for you.”

In addition, many students said Ledford was able to teach in a way they’d never experienced before.

“As a transfer student, I had taken a course on visual communication before,” said Alyssa Ullrich, senior in Media. “Stretch takes a completely different approach to teaching multimedia reporting — a hands-on, innovative approach. It was amazing the amount I learned in a semester’s time, and it’s all thanks to Stretch.”

During this past semester, Ledford gave his students an assignment that he felt would benefit both the students and the Champaign-Urbana community. The leveling and rebuilding of Bristol Place, a neighborhood in Champaign, has been a controversial topic in the area in recent months. 

The neighborhood is known for its impoverished state and high crime rate. After Andrew Greenlee, an assistant professor in the department of Urban and Regional Planning, introduced the idea to him, Ledford knew that this would be a worthy story opportunity.

“When you have a power structure that’s coming in to allegedly help a community and the logic is that we have to tear it down in order to save it, it raises red flags for me,” Ledford said.

Ledford saw this neighborhood as an opportunity for students to get outside of their comfort zone.

He paired each student with a Bristol Place community member, with whom they created a multimedia package that profiled the community member. He used the project to teach students to tell stories with social significance and give voice to the voiceless – the ultimate duty of a journalist, he said. 

From helping students produce stories in Bristol Place to completing his capstone project on Overtown, a poverty stricken area of Miami, Ledford is able to shine a light onto communities that are in need of help and make their voices heard. 

Ledford also continues to work as a multimedia journalist while teaching. Recently, his multimedia story about GunsSaveLife.com, an Illinois nonprofit, was published online by The Atlantic . An edited version of his story was also published on BBC, and has received more than 1,100 shares in the week since it was published. 

Currently, Ledford and his wife are enjoying spending time with their newly adopted daughter, Grace. After being on a waiting list for a child for six and a half years, the couple travelled to China over winter break to adopt their daughter.

“We just feel really blessed to have Grace in our lives,” Ledford said.

The stories Ledford tells about Grace illustrate that this new dad is loving every new step of the way and looking forward to what this new chapter of his life will bring. 

“I don’t remember laughing as hard as I have today to where my stomach is hurting and there’s tears coming from my eyes maybe since I was a kid,” Ledford said. “It’s been really cool.”

More of Charles “Stretch” Ledford’s photography can be found at StretchPhotography.com and his recent work “Overtown:Inside/Out” at Overtowner.com. His videos can be found at vimeo.com/channels/stretchphoto. 

Taylor can be reached at [email protected].