Comments on: Photojournalism: Why Bother?

By: Derek Schultz

Derek Schultz — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 09:04:57 +0000

Back in the lates mid to late 80s, I saw a similar situation happening in the graphic design industry, which is where I originally came from. New software and technology came out and the term ‘Desktop Publishing’ was coined. The result was that everybody became a graphic designer overnight and there was a glut of badly designed printed materials that continued until people began to realise that using 100 different font faces in one document was not a good idea. Although there are probably still people who like to ‘do it themselves’ – I get the impression that design buyers have returned to appreciating and commissioning design professionals.

I hope of course that the situation will be the same with photography in general and not just photo journalism. The trouble is that the global nature of news gathering and the demand for instant and graphic news means that there will not always be a professional photo journalist on hand to record important events that cannot be predicted and therefore there will always be a place for the citizen journalist who possesses what is excellent, affordable technology. To deny this would be sticking your head in the sand.

The news providers are also finding the economics of the ‘new world order’ a difficult place to navigate in terms of revenue generation as hardcopy readers decline in favour of on-line news. I am one of these as I find that I rarely buy a newspaper and prefer to get snippets of news from Yahoo and then do further browsing to more info if I feel interested. The point being that if the news providers cannot make money, then how will they pay for a photojournalist when they can get free content from bystanding citizen journalists and the like?

I do not have any answers to the conundrum. I love photography and I love the photo journalism aspect, which I really would like to pursue 100% over my commercial work, but there is a new reality and the only way to deal with it from my point of view is to be as active as possible. Use every opportunity. Create as many opportunities as you can. Meet as many people as you can. Offer 200% commitment. Be a reliable honest and extremely nice person with integrity. Be available at any time. Be prepared to travel.

What could we do as a group? Maybe we could make sure that every citizen journalist out there does not give their content away for free and that they appreciate that they are contributing to the deterioration in livelyhoods for thousands of creatives around the world. I know there is at least one website aiding them to make a charge, but what about more local public information? A genuine effort to inform, embrace and perhaps educate those in the new reality.

What about publishing our own content? And charging? The web makes that possible and we should have enough people to make it happen globally. Let’s face it that is what the news corporations have been doing. Let’s have our own news co-operative. Let’s have our own photo libraries instead of allowing corporations like Getty free reign to buy up everything in sight and control vast swathes of content.

Forgive me if it has already been done or is being done – but I don’t know about it, so there is a lack of quality information dissemination if there is.

Let me know if there are any initiatives out there that are worthwhile.

By: KE

KE — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 10:16:14 +0000

I believe in Jack Zibluk’s views or I at least hope his vision comes true.
What is crap and what is good in photography world, especially In the Documentary and Photojournalism spectrum is open to interpretation and personal preference. But the Citizen journalism element of Photography seems to be growing, but the quality is not increasing so I can only believe that this will create a wider gap between amateur and serious practitioners ,that will create as Jack said a greater appreciation and need for distinctive and finer crafted work.
My only worry is that the decision makers such as Art-directors,picture editors and designers that dictate the quality of images etc will not change and will always try to find cheaper alternatives, apart from the few independent magazines that don’t pay for work anyway.
I am considering the ‘Art’ direction but this is also hard without peer and industry recognition that seems to often be handed out within the tight circles of photojournalists anyway, but even though its as hard if not harder to become recognized in than te Documentary photography field, once you’re there It feels like you can maintain yourself and be appreciated for what you do, rather than have to learn the latest software and know the right people at the next festiviel to keep going.
Jack may be right, I may be wrong; one thing I know is that I don’t have the lifespan and wallet to hang around hoping and waiting.

By: Steve "@PodcastSteve" Lubetkin

Steve "@PodcastSteve" Lubetkin — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 10:02:49 +0000

Bravo on your arguments in favor of quality and professionalism, Jack! I’ve built my five year old podcasting and multimedia content business (after 30 years in corporate PR) on the premise that social media tools like podcasting are great, but only when professional quality production enters the picture. I hear podcasts with no sense of pacing, editing, or technical production values, and I see the same thing in photos where people are content to get boring grip-and-grin photos taken with a point-and-shoot camera, red-eye and bad color balance, and seem unwilling to pay for better.

The good news is that there is a market for quality visual journalism, for quality content overall. If you look at the top 100 podcasts downloaded from the Apple iTunes Music Store, the vast majority of them are professionally produced radio and tv content created by well-known brands in the mainstream media. That’s what people expect and that’s what they trust. We shouldn’t give up trying to create that.

George Lucas made the point in an interview with Cara Swisher a couple of years ago, when she asked his opinion of YouTube, and he replied that he never posted any work there. “It’s amazing how many people are willing to work for free,” he said.

If your work is valuable, then you should refuse to work for free (or cheap) too. It may take longer, but they will come back to you when they realize they can’t get what you provide for free or cheap.

Steve “@PodcastSteve” Lubetkin
steve@professionalpodcasts.com
http://www.professionalpodcasts.com
Senior Fellow, Society for New Communications Research
Member, NPPA, PPA, ONA, RTDNA

By: Stephen Sidlo

Stephen Sidlo — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 03:51:31 +0000

So here I am. 04:42am. Struggling at this hour not to become an alcoholic full time, and I stumbled across your blog which strangely spoke of some PJ’s who have faith. I have to have faith and I take strength in the fellow men who rage against the dying of the light…or people with iPhones. After graduating in Photojournalism a year ago at university, I have landed an internship in London at The Frontline Club. A members club for Journo’s, Tog’s and other media personnel who ply their trade on the front. I know I will have to sell all my belongings to move their and take this gamble.

Frontpage news these days tell of woe, 20 thousand pound debt average students have in this country. Unreported was the fact that my 3 year Photojournalism course was the most expensive 3 year course of 2008. Food for thought. I have faith though. Im still using film….some may snigger, yet I will use it in places that the iPhone generation will never tread. I understand the power of a story that can help change.

I know that the more I promote, learn about audio voice over and sub editing I will become stronger. A better package for the world to see.

By: Andy Levin

Andy Levin — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 16:52:17 +0000

Personally, I think the days of the photographer who just makes stills are over. There are definitely great opportunities this is a fantastic time to be in the communications industry, much more interesting than the early 80s for which everyone is so nostalgic. Few in the 80s really went further than what was easily available……now there is so much room for new ideas, and we can reinvent ourselves.

By: Wanda Doerner (via Facebook)

Wanda Doerner (via Facebook) — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 16:47:19 +0000

This is a very important topic … no one questions the noble motives and passion of academia — but when students graduate – they are entering the world governed by the rules of economics. When the supply for artists (I’m using this term for ALL arts) exceeds the demand – the business world and institutions that do the hiring start treating the pool of people available as disposable commodities with no appreciation. Artists are often pitted against each other competing for the same scraps. The glut of journalism graduates in general has actually lowered wages for all.

The opposite is true for professions where the demand exceeds the supply – such as nurses in the US. They can’t churn out nursing grads quickly enough to fill the need. Starting salaries are $50-60K for these grads.

Had Michelangelo, VanGogh or singer Eva Cassidy (who died before her music developed a mainstream following) and many other brilliant artists understood the function of the marketplace and how to promote themselves – things might have been different. Perfect case in point – the Beatles – had it not been for their brilliant business savvy manager Brian Epstein – they might never have made it out of the clubs?

Sadly our passion for art alone does not pay the bills.

By: Carlos Lopez-Barillas

Carlos Lopez-Barillas — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 16:46:13 +0000

es I agree with Wanda, however, there is very little taught in the sense of running a successful business in photojournalism, part of the problem is that the academic establishments are producing photojournalists and photographers in general at a faster rate that the industry is growing, ( actually at the moment is imploding) however, some of these establishments, at leas in the UK have been accused of rising the expectation of their students.

To illustrate, a couple of years ago before the worst of the financial crisis hit the printed media industry the British Journal of Photography reported about students of London College of Printing with a long tradition of producing quality photojournalists was telling its students that they should expect to be earning about 20,000 Pounds a year ( Aprox 35-36,000 US at the time) within five years from graduation. Which of course would have risen the expectations of everyone.

However, the same report found that 7 in 10 of those students were working in a different industry within two years due to lack of opportunities and the need to earn a living and the remaining 3 out of the 10 were working either as assistants, desk jobs within news departments, or producing work with help of family, partners or friends and only a handful were receiving proper photographic assignments.

I think that universities and teaching establishment need to rethink their long term strategies and or close some schools in order to stop producing more photographer every year that the industry simply doesn’t need. If any it only aggravates the current situation as more and more assignments are handles by more and more “diluting” the earning potential of professionals who have made a living out of this industry for a long time as it is collapsing under its own weight.

A photo editor told me once that he was spoilt for choice as there were more photojournalists looking for assignments in this city than there were taxi drivers in London and the word amongst many editors was that the schools were producing far too many aspiring photojournalists.

Paradoxically, of all the big names in photojournalism which I have had the opportunity to meet, not one has been a graduate of a school of photojournalism.

An old friend and New York Times veteran journalist Jim Clarity always told me that during his annual lecture at Columbia school of Journalism he always emphasized that 1 year of field experience were in his opinion the equivalent of three years attending school.

By: Wanda Doerner (via Facebook)

Wanda Doerner (via Facebook) — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 16:45:02 +0000

No easy answers – but the universe of commerce governs our compensation regardless of what we choose as professions. I became a successful journalist because I was able to survive thanks to my business background (spent 4 years in finance while freelancing) – if schools at least taught basic small business skills/self promotion and personal finance with a few courses – these kids would be better prepared for what awaits them.

My perfect example is the comparison between a VanGogh who was penniless all his life and an artist like Thomas Kinkade (good artist – even better marketing machine) – when I worked in finance during the late 70’s – 90% of all new businesses went under because they didn’t understand the nuts and bolts of running their own business. Artists need to know how to negotiate/generate revenue and allocate their income to get ahead.

It’s not comfortable territory for liberal arts – I know – but the economic landscape has forever changed our need to be well informed financially.

By: Ted Chen

Ted Chen — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 14:02:06 +0000

At first, this read like the latest ‘doom-is-here’ article for the photojournalism industry. I’m glad it’s not, though it doesn’t mean I’m still not somewhat depressed. I’m just out from Columbia’s journalism school and I can’t get any photojournalist position at any of the smaller, community newspapers around the nation.

But you’re right when you say everyone needs good images – from businesses to governments. I have a short term stint working for a non-profit, shooting photos for their publication and publicity material. That’s when I realize there is a demand outside of traditional media outlets. Sure I’d still love to be shooting for the AP, NYT et al, but yes multimedia storytelling is far from dead. :)

By: John

John — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 08:30:58 +0000

I’m fairly new to the profession and based on my limited experience so far, I’ve always thought that this job requires a certain calling. Not everybody has the heart or the will to do work like we do day in and day out. Yes, we are in a transitional phase when everything seems dwindling down for the industry. But true to the article, quality and content will still prevail and will further push photojournalists and journalists alike to their limits in terms of story telling. A friend told me that photojournalism today has reached a level so high that it can been considered as another “golden age” of reportage, only that it is overshadowed by the financial and political aspect of the profession. We have been seeing amazing work from all over the world day in and day out so it is not the quality of photographers that are in decline but the means to sustain them. Nevertheless I do agree with Andy that this is an exciting time for photojournalism and I’m looking forward to be part of this generation.