At the recent Joop Swart Masterclass for World Press Photo, I was touched by the desire of Iranian photographer Ali Akbar Shirjian, a student, to bring back information from the class to his fellow Iranian photographers in the hopes he could use the fruits of his experience to help them to organize effectively into a professional group.

Over a eight-day span recently, I worked as a part of the team teaching at the Joop Swart Masterclass, sponsored by the World Press Photo organization in Amsterdam.

Joining me in that endeavor were photographers Philip Blenkinsop, Giorgia Fiorio, and Maggie Steber, photo curator Celina Lunsford, and photo book publisher Dewi Lewis.

Today, I wanted to acknowledge my multimedia colleagues at MSNBC.com marking the first decade of “The Week in Pictures”, or TWIP as it is known in the trade. MSNBC.com senior multimedia editor Meredith Birkett has put together a good behind-the-scenes look that details both the history and ambition of this presentation – a mainstay feature of their visual journalism presentation.