Adjunct Professor
University of Illinois
Champaign, Illinois

Biography
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At fifteen years old, a streetwise Italian-American from Chicago's West Side named Anthony Mazzenga got a job at the Chicago Tribune as a copy boy. While running copy between reporters and photographers and their respective news desks, Mazzenga began to discover something very important about himself; he had both an affinity and a talent for the "visual word" - photography. It didn't take long before he was asked to join the Tribune's photo staff. But it came with a price. He had to give up his first name. "We have too many Tony's around here" the chief of photographers told him. "What's your middle name?" Mazzenga's middle name was Val and that's how this indefatigable Chicago photojournalist has been known ever since.
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