Capturing Your Glory Days in High Definition: Meet Our Dual Threat

By Linda Steele, East Mountain News

As a caretaker of the East Mountain News, I believe that our primary duty is not just to report events, but to document the life of our community with the fidelity and passion it deserves. It is with this mission in mind that I am proud to introduce the newest voice—and eye—to our readership: Russell Huffman.

To call Huffman a journalist is accurate, but insufficient. In a trade of specialization, it’s the rare individual who can write award-winning stories and accompany them with award-winning photos. Huffman is the embodiment of a journalist dual threat–a writer who shoots photos as well as he scribbles. His arrival here and taking partnership in this project represents a significant coup for our publication and, by extension, for every family, athlete, and citizen in the East Mountains.

A Career Forged in the Crucible of Texas

Huffman comes to us with a resume that reads like a travelogue of the American Southwest’s heartland. He was raised in northern New Mexico, where he went to school in Cuba and Gallina. His foundations were laid in the fiercely competitive world of Texas community journalism—a landscape where high school football is not a pastime, but a civic religion.

He cut his teeth in the newsrooms of Stephenville and Granbury, rising through the ranks at the Mineral Wells Index and the Hood County News. But to understand the caliber of visual storytelling Huffman brings to our region, you need to look at one specific line in his resume: his work for Dave Campbell’s Texas Football.

For the uninitiated, Dave Campbell’s is not merely a magazine; it is known colloquially as “The Bible of Texas Football.” To be selected as a freelance photographer for that publication is akin to a chef being asked to cook at the James Beard House. There is no higher sports exposure in Texas.

It signifies that you don’t just take pictures; you capture the visceral, blink-and-you-miss-it essence of the sport. It requires a technical mastery to freeze the tiny black rubber pebbles kicking up from a running back’s cleat or the raw emotion of a senior’s final game.

Huffman is bringing that “Dave Campbell” and its 400,000-reader standard to the East Mountains. When he points his lens at our local athletes during the sporting events of Moriarty and East Mountain High Schools, he isn’t just taking a snapshot for the paper. He is giving our students the professional-grade documentation their hard work merits.

The New Mexico Press Association awarded Huffman its Best Sports Photo award in 2023 and 2024 among numerous other awards. I mention the sports photos because I know it’s his passion, and I pen this entire article knowing his low-key approach will bristle a little, but I am very proud of what we are getting here.

The “Step-and-Fetch-it” Philosophy

In our conversations leading up to his tenure here, Huffman described himself to me as a “chief roust-about and step-and-fetch-it”—a self-deprecating nod to his time at the digital startup The Flash Today. While he says it with a laugh, I see it as his greatest strength.

We are living in a time of specialized labor, but community news requires a generalist. It requires someone with the discipline of a military veteran—which Huffman has (both as an enlisted member and as a commissioned officer)—who sees no job as too small. He understands that in a widespread community like ours, there is no “small news.” If it matters to you, it matters to the East Mountain News

From the High Desert to the Mountain Air

Huffman joins us most recently from El Defensor Chieftain in Socorro, where he served as sports editor and assistant editor—his time there proved that his eye for a story translates seamlessly across New Mexico’s varied landscapes. He navigated the transition from the humidity of Central Texas to the high desert of the Rio Grande Valley, swapping the oak trees for the Abo Ruins and the Friday night lights for the distinct rhythm of New Mexico basketball.

Just look at his work from East Mountain volleyball, Moriarty football, and basketball, and you will see what I mean.

His work in Socorro demonstrated a profound respect for the independent and impartial presentation of information, and it’s why we worked so hard to recruit him from that community.  

A New Chapter for Our Archives

The most exciting aspect of bringing Russell Huffman to the East Mountain News is the archive he is about to build for us. Journalism is the first draft of history, and with Huffman on the beat, that draft will be in high definition.

Decades from now, when the athletes of today are showing their grandchildren printouts from their glory days, the photos they point to will likely carry the credit line: Photo by Russell Huffman. That is a legacy we are thrilled to facilitate.

Please join me in welcoming Russell Huffman to the East Mountains. Look for him on the sidelines and out in the community. He’ll be the one with the camera/s, the cell phone/s, and the experience of a thousand deadlines etched into his work. We are lucky to have him.