i can understand the offense some photographers have taken to mike's words. heck, it hurt my chest to read it as well, but only because i knew he was talking about me.
to put mike's words into a tiny nutshell, newspaper photographs are often lacking. bold statement. but if you read his entire post, you can't deny that there's a lot of truth in those words. in fact, there isn't much for me to disagree with.
i've only been at this freelancing madness for just over a year. i came into the industry after what seemed like half the profession had already been laid off. i hear older photographers talk about the days when they would be out shooting film, then return to the office to develop and print their images from the day...everyone gathered around the table discussing their work. every single day there was a photo critique. every day new images were viewed, touched, discussed. i've never experienced that, and as much as i love digital images and capabilities... i think, over the years of transition, our photographic world has lost some really important communication and growth. i know that, for me personally, i'm missing out on plenty, but most of what i'm missing out on is probably my own fault.
i've been told more than once by my editor, rick, and some of the other staffers that i am welcomed into the newspaper office any time to discuss photos, do some edits, etc. but i've only gone in a handful of times. the thing is, the newsroom is so empty. photographers either file from home or the closest starbucks (hey, it's what i do, too) and rick is the only photographer i know who's working on a personal project, so it's not like everyone's coming in to discuss those either. this is hurting the future of newspaper photographers, i think. this is hurting me.
all too often, when out on assignment, if i don't have a lot of interest in the assignment or much time to put good effort into the job, i'll get what is "good enough" and "safe" for the newspaper. all too often i shoot with the paper in mind, rather than what i have in mind or what i think would be cool or different. i shoot with their eyes and heart rather than my own. rick has noticed this before and has reminded me, more than once, to shoot for myself and although i've been pushing myself to do that more lately, i still struggle with surrendering my "safe" photos as first pick into the paper.
mike's recent words have encouraged me to knock that off. in fact, they've encouraged me so much that i already spoke with rick about meeting once a week to go over my work from the previous week. i'm excited to see how i, and my photographs, change from this point on.
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