Photojournalist has ties with Aiken Prep

When CNN photojournalist Oliver Janney arrived in downtown Aiken with other crew members for a live broadcast Tuesday, he called Aiken Prep.

Some of the high school students and faculty came by to watch the preparations and the broadcast, and, for Janney, it was something close to a reunion.

He spent two years at Aiken Prep in the mid-1990s when the academy was still a boarding school and went only through ninth grade.

"It was a wonderful experience," said Janney, 29. "There's no place like Aiken anywhere else. I loved the Steeplechase, Aiken's Makin' and the lobster races. I enjoyed living on campus, and all the boarding students would go to St. Thaddeus Episcopal Church every Sunday in full uniform."

Janney also left a message for Betsy Huber and her husband, Charlie Fliflet, and they came downtown to meet with him. Janney went to school with their son, Nathaniel, and they remain good friends.

"Oliver was our child when he was here," said Huber. "He was telling us that one of his fondest memories was spending the night with us on his birthday. We got him up early, because the cows got loose, and he helped us herd them back in."

A New York native, Janney moved with his parents to Florida at a young age. He didn't like the schools there, he said, and begged his parents to let him go to school further north. They visited Aiken and liked the community and enrolled their son at Aiken Prep. It was during that time, Janney said, when his interest in audio and visual work emerged.

"When I got to high school, I started a mobile DJ program and did light and sound for the school plays," he said. "I didn't have any speakers, so I borrowed some from (radio personality) Austin Rhodes."

Aiken Prep's head of school, Debbie Boehner, recalled Janney as a very visual person. In the yearbook, she said, he was described as being musical, comedic, a computer whiz and a leader. Sure enough, Janney was elected student body president as a freshman.

After leaving Aiken, he attended a prep school in Connecticut before enrolling at Goucher College in Baltimore as a communications major. He did an internship with a Fox affiliate during college and then worked with the station as a full-time overnight editor. After graduation, he joined the staff of the Baltimore CBS affiliate as a freelance writer and soon got the chance to get behind the camera. In 2005, Janney won a regional Emmy Award for the category of "quick turnaround news production."

He moved to CNN in 2006 and, two years later, was covering the presidential campaign for CNN News Source, an affiliate news service for about 800 stations. In 2009, Janney moved to the CNN division that viewers watch on cable.

The business is changing, he said, and one can't be just a photographer.

"I shoot, edit, produce and write for the website," he said. "People ask me if this is an interesting job. I tell them it beats having a real job and working for a living. The thrill is the opportunity to travel the country and tell stories. I love coming back to Aiken. I'm always looking for an excuse to stay at The Willcox."

Contact Rob Novit at rnovit@aikenstandard.com.