photojournalism

will_ainsworth

will_ainsworth

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Will Ainsworth
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Hi, just wondering if anyone on here had any experience in photojournalism.

Its something i would love to experience in places such as the rio slums and 3rd world countries. How exactly would i go about doing this? I understand it can be a mentally challenging job that also could be potentially very dangerous .

Since I started browsing through my sisters hubbys 'world press photo' collection its really made me want to experience something similar.

Any help would be fantastic.
 
I work in the press, I suppose you'd kind of call me a photojournalist, although not in the usual sense. I spent the last decade working on (or being the editor of) various UK fishing magazines.

What you're talking about is a world away from the consumer titles I work on - you want to do Nat Geo, front page news kind of stuff, something that is a hot topic, right?. - but my advice would be to work from the bottom up; i.e. cover some stories in your locality and use them as your portfolio. It could be anything from an environmental issue through to a community issue - handle it right and it can be as powerful as covering something of international importance (in a sense).

As far as approaching editors goes, just badger people with good, solid, thought-provoking work; they can only say no or yes.

My opinion (and knowledge) of press-style photography is that there's not as much in the way of technical knowledge required; it' all about being in the right time at the right place. Yes, you need to know how to use a camera but it's about what the image conveys and not what f-stop you used... but there's no harm in being a good photographer..... look at Arkaday and his army stuff; good eye for the shot, good technical knowledge and a resulting good portfolio. He's probably the guy who's best placed to give you first hand info of what it's like to be out there shooting in the danger zone. An angry conger eel is as close to danger as I get....
 
People mean different things when they say photojournalism. Do you want to work for someone, press style, shoot the kind of stuff Pat is talking about? Or do you want to shoot a documentary, a la vii photo, Magnum, etc?

If it's the latter. Then fire up the internet, find a fixer, make some phone calls, buy a plane ticket and go shoot. Simple.
 
Sounds like disaster tourism would suit you better, there is a PJ who organises trips at a few thousand dollars per trip :shrug:
But if you have something to say about the world we live in then by all means go and shoot stories (start locally) you are passionate about.
I would really have a think about your motives for going.

I was sent to a couple of wars when I was a press photographer and never never, never again.
 
As Jayst84 says - the technical side of things helps, but being there is key...
There's and old Press adage about the camera settings to use:
"f/8 and be there".

Scan the news agencies: first hint of something, get on a plane and go.
If your photos are good, people will buy them - simple as that.

If you're thinking about long-term photo-projects, then unfortunately things are more difficult. The days of the 'pure' photojournalist are long gone. There are precious few outlets for this kind of work and those that do exist are hard to break into.

If you do want to cover wars and stuff, alert the papers in London and tell them you're willing to go: quite a few are finding it difficult to get good snappers to spend six weeks to two months in Helmand these days...usually the Picture-Editors will spend five minutes telling you what you need to know.
The Sun's 'Afghanistan' photographer is a UK freelance, as none of the staffers wanted to go any more.
 
Arkady said:
If you do want to cover wars and stuff, alert the papers in London and tell them you're willing to go: quite a few are finding it difficult to get good snappers to spend six weeks to two months in Helmand these days...
Click to expand...

This may seem like a daft question, possibly a really daft question Apart from the obvious close-to-death, extreme living and working conditions, etc why are the papers struggling for photographers? Is it money? I always just assumed that lots of photographers would be jumping at the chance to get a good story?
 
Vic said:
This may seem like a daft question, possibly a really daft question Apart from the obvious close-to-death, extreme living and working conditions, etc why are the papers struggling for photographers? Is it money? I always just assumed that lots of photographers would be jumping at the chance to get a good story?
Click to expand...

It's not that they're struggling for photographers in general, but for coverage of conflicts it's naturally more difficult to find someone willing to travel into a warzone. Risk of death and injury, being away from your family etc. are factors.
 
Arkady said:
If you do want to cover wars and stuff, alert the papers in London and tell them you're willing to go: quite a few are finding it difficult to get good snappers to spend six weeks to two months in Helmand these days...usually the Picture-Editors will spend five minutes telling you what you need to know.
The Sun's 'Afghanistan' photographer is a UK freelance, as none of the staffers wanted to go any more.
Click to expand...

that would be an amazing experience
 
scottcampbell said:
It's not that they're struggling for photographers in general, but for coverage of conflicts it's naturally more difficult to find someone willing to travel into a warzone. Risk of death and injury, being away from your family etc. are factors.
Click to expand...

Lack of insurance would be another.
 
Not sure where I read it, but there was a recent interview somewhere online with a guy who had recently gotten out of University. Basically he'd stacked up a bit of published work, but nothing significant, and when he got out of Uni he realised he had nowhere to go in life.

Basically he just jumped on a plane to Lebanon (Or somewhere similar, but he eventually ended up in Lebanon) and started photographing. People were willing to buy the stuff too.

Two incidents that he mentioned stuck in my mind though. In one there was rioting in the street, he phoned the British Embassy and they advised him to block the window in case of stray bullets and stay in his room for as long as possible until it either died down or he absolutely had to get food. In the second he was photographing the aftermath of something, and soldiers or militants approached him and ordered him at gunpoint to put his camera away.

I also heard recently that the vast majority of kidnappings and murders in the middle east are not reported on because the media views it simply as a job risk. That and they're sending the people out there themselves, so they don't want the stories turned around on them and people saying "So you're sending those photographers out there to die?"

Personally I could see it as a viable option, as long as it wasn't on my own. That and my girlfriend would have to have to dumped me first because if I didn't get shot she'd probably do it herself. I'd much prefer to attach myself to some kind of regiment too so I wasn't wandering round alone and had the safety net of being able to have something to photograph instead of going over to just dodge bullets.

I've been in contact with Joe Glenton's lawyer recently for something separate, and I know that when he was over in Baghdad his hotel was bombed, and his room completely destroyed when he luckily wasn't inside. So yeah, it is pretty dangerous even when you're not trying to capture the danger with your camera. And the lawyers had the luxury of a security team.

I'll try to find that article for you.
 
A mate of mine has recently come back from Sri Lanka and Afghanistan. He went over there on his own, just making contacts before he went with fixers, bodyguards, etc.

Not had a proper chance to catch up with him since he got back, but when I do I'll ask him how it all went, what access he got, and so on.

Another mate did similar, travelling through SE Asia, less 'war-zoney' but he did the same, just called fixers beforehand and went over on his own. Now he's trying to publish work through agencies. He also went to a Marcus Bleasdale 'workshop' in Kashmir when all the riots were on last year. And before that, a similar thing with Philip Blenkinsop and I think Gary Knight in Cambodia. Expensive, but good guys to learn from. (The fact that these guys now make most of their cash from these workshops shows you how hard it can be to make a living from this kind of photography).

I'm meeting up with my mate in Croatia next month, so I'll see what info I can get out of him.
 
The last two posts by samuelingram and Jayst84 basically sum it up. And it's something Arkady told me a while back. You just have to be proactive and willing to take a hit on the wallet in order to get anywhere with photojournalism. Something I've been doing for the past year now and it's working a treat.
 
It's also about logistics - gone are the days of plane-hopping journos bouncing from one war-zone to another and getting lagered-up the the bar of the Caravelle hotel afterwards.

The Sunday Times' Afghanistan correspondent Miles Amoore has to live in Kabul in order to cover the stuff going on there: I wouldn't do that. Not even for a joke. Especially not for the £300 an article he gets paid. And that assumes they actually print his stuff every week.
Going-rate for this type of photography is about $250 per image, subject to negotiation.
You'd need to sell about four images a week, every week to make it viable going out there right now...

Photos will help sell his story, so that would mean getting out and shooting stuff that hasn't been done to death already every week. Not possible with the way the Military control things with the Press nowadays.
Go unilateral? Some do and get OK stuff by doing so - those people tend to concentrate on non-military issues, which though fascinating to us, may not be sale-able to the media at large...
So on reflection? Nope...
And definitely not with half a lifetime's salary draped round my neck (in local terms) either...
 
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