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Where have all the Photojournalists gone?

Opethian
Posted 25/12/2011 - 23:06 Link
Click here for the interesting article.

Some quotes:

Quote:
"If the game is to be in the right place at the right time, I can't win at that game, because there's only one of me," says Rob Bennett, a Wall Street Journal contract photographer.

And an interesting one:

Quote:
Michael Christopher Brown, a photographer who flew to Libya to cover the uprising in February, shot an entire series using his iPhone's Hipstamatic app after dropping and breaking his SLR camera. He was still shooting on his phone in April when an explosion sent shrapnel into his chest and killed two of his nearby colleagues, Chris Hondros and Tim Hetherington. "At this point I hesitate using a 'real' camera," Brown told Time magazine a few weeks after his injury.

My thoughts on the matter:

Technology, has made Photojournalism evolve into a completely different beast today. Back then you needed to travel to locations to catch the events as it unfolded, and to a certain extent, you still do.

Thanks to the internet, specifically social media sites like Twitter, users have a more demanding expectation of getting the news NOW, not in a few hours, and certainly not tomorrow.

What are your thoughts on this?
dougf8
Posted 25/12/2011 - 23:26 Link
A journalist with only one camera? Most weekend wedding shooters here know they need a second body.

Citizen journalism has been about for quite a while now.

The BBC app on my wife's phone allows you to directly upload images!!!!

Longer slow burn stories shouldn't be affected. Good journos will always be putting themselves in or around stuff happening. Citizens don't make a good job of interviewing people and making some strategic sense of things.

Tales from the Arab spring on R4 from Jeremy Bowen ( OK not photo journalism ) were very interesting and compared with phone interview from citizen journalists on R5L it was encyclopaedic.

There is a place for photojournalism but I think it needs to be a bit more Jeremy Bowen and have a deep immersion to provide value rather than turn up and compete with everybody for a 1000px wide shot in almost real time. Think more, body of work, not decisive moment.
Lurking is shirking.!
Edited by dougf8: 25/12/2011 - 23:28
Opethian
Posted 25/12/2011 - 23:46 Link
I think that CNN has made the wrong decision of getting rid of those photojournalists. As you say, there will always be new forms which I support, and hope that the media companies acknowledge, but nothing beats a properly covered event.
cabstar
Posted 26/12/2011 - 02:22 Link
Unfortunately photography as a career in journalism is virtually over now. Getty recently lowered its rate it pays photographers to just 35% whilst constantly selling images cheaper and cheaper to try and control the market. One of my agencies has reduced its photographer commission for a similar rate. They sold one of my images from a show to a high selling magazine in Germany I ended up with 16gbp for my trouble didn't even pay the fuel costs.

I know some photographers who have been paid by their agency via cheque and the cheque bounce. The industry is in this race to the bottom to control the market but unfortunately they are treating. Pro photographers so bad most are now having to get second jobs to survive.

I can understand why CNN would get rid of all its photographers the problem is in 5 years time when the out license gets bored of giving away images for free then we end with nothing.
PPG Wedding photography Flickr
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Currently on a Pentax hiatus until an FF Pentax is released
Algernon
Posted 26/12/2011 - 08:28 Link
Why has that photo got an Apple logo on it????...
You never see photos with Nikon or Canon logos...... methinks
it's just an Apple fanbuoy beeing silly as usual

What next the BBC will only be transmitting to iPhones
Half Man... Half Pentax ... Half Cucumber

Pentax K-1 + K-5 and some other stuff

Algi
jeffstclair
Posted 26/12/2011 - 08:58 Link
The Apple logo is the Photo ... Jeff...
Algernon
Posted 26/12/2011 - 09:48 Link
jeffstclair wrote:
The Apple logo is the Photo ... Jeff...

So it is ..... Even sadder!.... If your writing an article about the
iPhone doing journalism I would have thought a photo with
journalistic content would be more appropriate

Do they work in low light which is where Leica achieved it's
domination until the Nikon 50mm f/1.4's came along
Half Man... Half Pentax ... Half Cucumber

Pentax K-1 + K-5 and some other stuff

Algi
Edited by Algernon: 26/12/2011 - 09:50
Algernon
Posted 26/12/2011 - 10:28 Link
The article claims that a lot of photos have been uploaded
to Flickr from iPhones........ possibly getting the stats
confused with the number of photos of iPhones uploaded to
Flickr taken on better cameras by sad people.....
there's millions of em!

http://www.flickriver.com/search/iphone/
Half Man... Half Pentax ... Half Cucumber

Pentax K-1 + K-5 and some other stuff

Algi
SteveEveritt
Posted 26/12/2011 - 11:20 - Helpful Comment Link
Alan,
Take a look at the article at the bottom of the page, very poignant.
Diary - by Tim Hetherington
Flickr
"Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans" (John Lennon)
Edited by SteveEveritt: 26/12/2011 - 11:20
Pentaxophile
Posted 26/12/2011 - 11:25 Link
I can't get overly sentimental about the decline of staff photo journalists. Any negative is hugely outweighed by the fantastic user generated content from the scene as it happens, and the growth in blogging. Some of those images are Magnum quality, and as the journalist in that article admits, it doesn't matter if pictures are taken on a DSLR or a phone cam. The story is what matters.

Edit- obviously I'm very sorry if the situation is affecting your work Gary... I'm just talking as a news consumer really.
[link=https://500px.com/will_brealey/[/link]
Edited by Pentaxophile: 26/12/2011 - 11:56
Algernon
Posted 26/12/2011 - 12:31 Link
The trouble is nobody wants to pay for all these blogs etc.
Half Man... Half Pentax ... Half Cucumber

Pentax K-1 + K-5 and some other stuff

Algi
Pentaxophile
Posted 26/12/2011 - 13:40 Link
Yet the blogs flourish. Funny that!
[link=https://500px.com/will_brealey/[/link]
Opethian
Posted 26/12/2011 - 21:58 Link
SteveEveritt wrote:
Alan,
Take a look at the article at the bottom of the page, very poignant.
Diary - by Tim Hetherington

I was really shocked, and saddened when Tim Hetherington died. I wasn't really following his photos, but I found myself to be drawn by them, and how he would push himself to be in those situations.

Thank you for the link!

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