Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2009/04/06
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]On Apr 6, 2009, at 7:47 PM, George Lottermoser wrote: > there > you've nailed the "difficulty" > in documentary photography and journalism > > achieving access to the story I have access to the people and their stories, but not "the story." I'm a respiratory therapist who works in tobacco dependence treatment. I hear the desperation in people's voices daily. They're addicts. They can't afford their addiction and at the same time their addiction is their most effective and most ingrained coping mechanism for their problems. They want and need to quit. The catch-22 is they have no insurance, or are under-insured, to pay for effective, evidence-based treatment and medication, which exist but are vastly under-utilized solely for lack of access. I see many potential "photos" of people I work with as we to try to dig up assistance from pharmaceutical companies, community agencies, anything we can find. I've become an ersatz social worker trying to get help for people who through no fault of their own have no way to pay for effective and cost effective medical treatment. Most of my patients are not part of the "baseline" percentage of people who are homeless or out of work regardless of the larger economic situation (not that those patients are somehow less deserving of medical care). Most are totally demoralized by the prospect of being in such a dependent state. The other catch - 22: as a 40somethingK, 32 year employee in a job that LOSES money for my hospital, who this year kept my own job only by the benefaction of our hospital foundation, I'm not going to rock the boat trying to photograph these folks. I'm living the story, but any photos I show won't be of the one I know. Sorry for the rant - this topic is just in my face every day and it's painful to watch. Sue