As a photographer who left, came back, restarted and considers himself a lucky human being, I would never suggest to anyone to study modern journalism. Study the past and create your own personal vision and tell the world if you can about it.

I am alive and working because I am priviliged enough to know I don’t need an editor, a curator or a publication to take pictures and express what intrigues and disturbs me.

On a more serious note, photographers, my self included are not the most united in a common enterprise to protect our goals and interests. We are so too often dogs with or without a leash searching for a bone to either avoid hunger or feed the impending fly on the wall.

Someday I hope to relieve myself of this hunger and realize I am have always been alive and have so many options to publish today and no matter how they are or where they are, there will always be a judging crowd. Some more powerful than others in raising awareness of the human condition and others in raising carreers, not necessarily journalists.

Hi Bree, what was your number again?

Thank you David.

Ambrose has a point on photojournalism becoming a profession of the leisure class (although maybe we should add the word “zealot” too). That’s long been the case for much documentary film and video work.

I’d also like to hear your take on the ramifications for book and magazine publishing. Both sectors are in economic decline, partly due to the internet. But to me it seems like both primarily derive their revenue streams from the content itself. While magazines and books could realize substantial production and distribution savings using the internet, ultimately they’ll be wrecked if their readers don’t pay them for the content.

Same goes for independent filmmakers too. Unlike musical acts, who may be able to lose recorded music revenues in exchange for live performance income, when the digital product, be it a film or a book, is the end product, the alternatives for income seem pretty limited.

Don’t quit your day job (or find a new one) I guess.

I wonder, however, if you haven’t given enough thought to what might be a viable business model. I was one of those critical of Stephen Mayes’ ideas about collaboration with the subject. You say, “Aside from the fact the old editorial paymaster model is all but gone, the idea that taking money from corporate media funded by advertising, so that one can create content which will attract more viewers for that advertising, is free from all moral issues is…well, rather daft.” Then I must be daft. After 15 years working as a photojournalist and news photographer, I’ve never gone on an assignment and wondered about what the advertiser is going to think about my images–ever. Never have I felt my integrity compromised by an advertiser. Never have I reported to an advertiser, nor sought input from them. The only ones I’ve ever answered to have been other journalists–my editors–whose demands have always been very simple: make compelling and truthful images. I think Mayes’ idea of collaborating directly with the subject will work well in situations when the objective is to champion the subject. He’s talks about carefully choosing subjects with whom one is likely to have a successful collaboration. However, when it comes to serious social issues where the subject matter must be viewed seriously and with a critical eye, I don’t think his model is viable.

I don’t think photojournalism will die entirely, but it will increasingly become a “profession” that appeals to the leisure class and those who have the means of funding projects through their various trusts or patrons. The paradigm shift is simple: photography is going the way of painting. The business model: self-funded.

As for now i will continue to hunt the rare photographers who have the abilities to actually ferment their stories properly. Forget the change in media. For us image people with journalistic sensibilities this is in fact where the real disparity lay: passing on skills that encourage visual artists which animate and mature stories genuinely.

My hope is that in several years the mother-load of print outlets will chuck it in and re-surface on the web. Wherein they can offer full attention to disseminating content generated for the web . This should bring with it a return to proper (rather than token) remuneration for all contributors in line with media entities respective budgets. So to an increased demand on (all) journalism to better reconcile the dynamics of multi-source information with the practice of bearing witness and personal point of view.

jw