March 16, 2005

What happened?

COLUMBIA, S.C. -- I used to be able to see. I used to be able to photograph things my way in any situation.

Not anymore.

What happened? Where'd it go? Why'd I lose it? Keep asking all those questions because I really don't know the answers. I just assume that once you ask those questions long enough the answers will come streaming.

I'm not quite sure when I started to just take pictures of things. Somehow my world of daily photographs just morphed into...

[snap...snap] There's the picture of your widget. Next? Sure, a picture so you can see his face. No, you can't crop it, but what am I going to do about it?

Now the picture is the widget.

My photographs have become less interpretive and more literal on a daily basis. Not everyone in charge of the editorial content of the paper understands clearly the power of photography. But they all fancy themselves picture editors because everyone has an instamatic and can snap a picture. All in takes -- in their minds, at least -- is 1/250th of a second to make a memorable image. At times, faster.

So what's so difficult about it?

No, I'm not going to let this become one of those "they don't understand" missives (even though they clearly don't.). One time, about two years ago, an edict from high above came out banning backs in photographs that found their way into print. One photographer happened to make a not very successful picture that had an out-of-focus back in the frame. The whimsy of an editor's questioning, "What is that?" turned into 'No backs in the newspaper.'

It's a pretty big leap, but not for some newspapers where the subordinates checked their spines at the door. Which brings us to the crux of the problem in some newspapers, I believe. It seems there's way too much complacency in those one-newspaper towns. There's no real competition so there's no thrive to improve and commit good journalism during more than just contest preparation time.

One of the most difficult things I've tried so far is to keep motivated even through some of the most challenging of times. I want to find myself in appropriate situations making meaningful photographs for the stories integrity. Often I find myself at odds with an assignment editor who feels it necessary to think for us, and visually challenged reporters who think they can decide what they want from a story and/or a picture even before the reporter and photographer talk about anything.

There's more. But none of that means dick to me now because I used to be able to see.

- Rich