As a photojournalist for the NY Post, I got to see and encounter some CRAZY stuff, and it sure sharpened my skills as a photographer and as a New Yorker in general. In D. Perez De La Garda's film, "Chimping" you get take a behind the scenes look at the life of the photojournalist. This short film features Pulitzer Prize winners Preston Gannaway and Rick Loomis, Emmy Award winner Paula Lerner, along with Todd Maisel, Chris Usher, Angela Rowlings, Edward Greenberg, Stan Wolfson, and Rita Reed. Worth a watch for sure if you are interested in what goes into shooting for a paper or publication. Enjoy!
Related Articles
That New York journalist was awesome! He seemed like he could be a character in a TV show or something.
Excellent post and video. Amazing how the industry has changed over the years to the point where anyone with a camera can call themselves a photographer.
over dramatised and depressing
this was a great find guys..
the bang bang club
Great story. I especially enjoyed the interview that accompanied the still image slideshow. It's sad to think of what's happening to this field, but those who survive are going to be producing work that is not likely to be achieved by an amateur or an enthusiast. Quality in this field takes time and commitment. So many stories would be lost if there was no such thing as a full-time photojournalist.
Everyone can be a photo-reporter with iPhone or even 1d but not everyone can be photojournalist. It is not good any more to just machinegun with 1d. But if photojournalist has story to tell and know how to tell it, he/she will find publisher who will buy it.
The market is not as forgiving any more, and having camera and knowledge to develop film is not enough anymore.
The big picture is actually very positive:
1. Everybody have camera in a packet and can report situation from first minute.
2. We will see less and less low quality images from hi quality equipment in news papers ;)
That building fire was in Brooklyn NY happened on the second floor of my building on 02/28/12 , I thought about grabbing my camera but the shock of the fire and the misery of the people involved was to gripping. I takes tough skin to shoot situations like that day in and day out..
As an ex-photojournalist, I feel I have to comment on this (2 weeks late) - the biggest threat aren't the huge swaths of amateurs picking up DSLRS, but our coworkers and friends. The reporters who are now being taught, by us, how to use cameras. And unless we learn how to write, why should the newspapers pay for two people when they can just pay for one?
Ditto goes for video. Very few people are solely photojournalists now.
To vaguely quote someone from the AntiPhotojournalism exhibition, "Anyone can get lucky and take a good photo in the right place at the right time. Photojournalists have to do that every day."
I guess the most shocking for me is that several of the industry's top photojournalists who've earned Pulitzers and Emmy Awards for their work tell you how their $80,000 a year income has been reduce to $30,000 and words like "Over dramatized" are being used to describe the video. I've been a professional photographer for the better part of 40 years, a photojournalist, freelance and staff for much of that time and my observation mirrors that of those in the video. I remember when professional photographers were respected like many other professionals in the community, not unlike engineers, teachers, lawyers and today I don't see that kind of respect any longer. Shooting assignments or contributing images and words for photo credits and by-lines cause a deterioration of the industry as a whole and make it harder for anyone to make photography as their sole employment while expecting to earn enough income to live a reasonable an respectable life. I would suggst 80% of photographers/photojournalists today live off the earnings of a spouse, because they cannot earn enough from photography to own a home, have a couple new cars and put their children through college, it's very sad, but photographers have done it to themselves and that is perhaps the saddest part of all. At 58, having become a professional photographer at the age of 18, I am glad my career in photography ran it's course during a time when photographers were, well... PHOTOGRAPHERS!
Todd Maisel... Any relation to photo legend Jay Maisel? Personality seems similar. ;-)