Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1996/11/25
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]
At 3:32 PM 11/25/96, Hans Pahlen wrote:
>Very soon, all news photographers will be using digital cameras,
>eliminating film processing
>but I like the photo-journalist approach best, ie when the photographer
>spends some time with different assignments.
>
There are VERY, VERY FEW News Photographers who get to spend any time with
a subject, anymore.
The insatiable desire to present news QUICKLY, the economic reality of
newsroom operations (fewer newspapers, magazines, and JOBS for
Journalists... it IS a job, and MUST have reasonable compensation, or no
one would do it... we have families that like to eat regularly... just like
everyone else), and the increasing pressure on journalists to do more for
less has destroyed (to all intents and purposes) the long-term
photojournalistic study.
Yeah, yeah, I know... National Geographic... but they currently have six or
eight staffers, as compared to 5,000 to 7,000 working photojournalists in
the US, today. They represent an insignifigant percentage of the assigned
work in photojournalism.
I was quite amazed when I discovered, last year, that TIME (The Weekly News
Magazine) was supporting staffer P.F. Bentley in a long-term B&W study of
U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Newt Gingrich. This "essay"... once a
common staple of my industry from the late 50's through the early 70's...
is now a curiosity... something to wonder at, and to ask "old timers"
about.
That was pretty much IT,that year, in the two Weekly News Magazines here in
the US, until the Presidential Campaign... when both magazines had a lot of
shooters doing essentially the same thing.
I, for one, would like to see a meaningful return to such things... but I'm
not holding my breath.
Greg.
P.S.... P.F. Bentley was using two EOS cameras... one with a 20~35 f/2.8
zoom, one with a 200mm f/2.8 lens, and an "M", with a 50mm f/2 Summicron
for the Gingrich "stuff"... and, of course, Tri-X and P-3200 films.
Greg Mironchuk
409 Central St, Saugus, MA 01906
617-941-8030 * 617-362-7417 page
gregm@world.std.com