How photographers treat each other is something that we can have control over .The majority of stress that wears photographers down in our trade comes from inside the newsroom . The parts of the newspaper business have many contradictions , and some parts just don't fit .
Newsroom practices and photography department practices constantly breakdown “small group” cohesion .Groups can either band together for the greater good and protection or cause splits and rifts to the detriment of all .
We all better have our hats screwed on tight because the next few years will be tough .
The newspaper business has yet to make it's biggest mistakes.
The standards and ethics we fallow are not consistent on the editorial floor. The first meeting stage , assigning stage, shooting , sending and selection and final use in the product whether paper or online have many pitfalls . Photographers usually end up in the pit. We know about cracks in the system .
If there are standards they are poorly defined .
Photographers have little control over the assignmnets they get , the subject , the light , the movement , or even if a picture is published . The picture is still our picture.
The point is that digital imaging as caused great fear . There is fear people are doing things that no one is doing . Photography is an intense personal experience from the time the camera is raised to the point the picture is presented for view . The digital cold war of fear is taking that experience away and giving it to others for judgement . New technology is emerging and photographers are forced to be tentative at a time when they have to once again again push boundries. Smart phone technology and it's image making ability is moving mountains . This technology is only 4 years old.
If I had the ability to offer a picture from a news confrence that had framed three of the separate speakers in a compact package a news editor would use it. If I could offer a picture that looked like a hand coloured portrait to the entertainmnet section , an editor would use it.
For working photographers , we are presented with dealing with more bad days than good because of dysfunctional newspaper systems . I tell interns , the good days totally make it worth while. Innovators with new technology always led the way , this may not be the case this time.
Photographers can always be better informed . We may have to go into colleges and universities ourselves and deliver our message to journalism students. It is clear ,no print journalist , even masters students have ever considered or was ever taught what info should be given to a photographer regarding their story .
These reporters will be our bosses with in five years so train them well .
The idea that pictures are like dessert , only to added later as a treat , expendable , or simply a cute addition to the product needs re- educating.
Still photographers shooting video and now adding smart phone imaging both still and video needs to be embraced in a smart way that uses our skills the best way possible . We will see fewer journalists and useful contributions to the product will be the price of being employed. If the economy and fortunes of newspapers change we will still be around when the tide turns.
This also means advertorial if staff positions are to expand and dodge layoffs.
We see consistently , good people leave .We love the thing we do , but is does not always love us. And yet we endure .
This is the view of someone who is 58 to someone who is 25 and over. Those 25 and over have a choice , 35 and over not as much .
The arc of a news photographer , young and dumb , fast and fearless ,
looks at the photog ten years older , leaving a five everyday with kids that have to be picked up from school or daycare and brought to hockey , dance or what ever. The young guy snarls and spits out 9to5er.
Ten years later , he is the guy with kids that have to get to things .
With each generation coming up wanting to eat the last , they end up the same .Each one takes on the characteristics of the former . They end up the same because the walk the exact same path, they work in exactly the same system and it produces the exact same result . Systems that do not change , change people. 50% will divorce, most will suffer from , if they are lucky only depression , many with just leave . So change the systems .
Most modern companies have evolved into more sophisticated management systems that create better people , in turn those people improve the systems and products they deliver. There is the circle of improvement seen in high tech companies .
In our jobs we survive the “office” to do truly great things .
We live in a cordial dog-eat-dog system ,and cannibalism is normal and praised . And yet we survive in the life we choose because it beats going through the same things in other places , experiencing nothing , seeing nothing , in a life SITTING DOWN . Newspapers have yet to make their biggest mistakes , be ready to survive .The rewards are great .
Topic: be ready - 35Plus (Read 1300 times)