Journal Entry #3
March 29, 2001
As I talk to more photographers I'm starting to see the distinctions between what each does and the kinds of images they make. So far I've talked to Bill Greene (a vetern photographer at the Boston Globe), Matthew Lee (a new staff photographer at the Globe), Volker Steger (a science photojournalist from Germany), Ilene Perlman, and Richard Sobol (both freelance photographers doing mostly international stories).
One important distinction is between news photos and long-term story projects. At the Boston Globe some photographers do both, like Bill Greene. Being able to do longer stories seems to be something a newspaper photographer has to work up to over time. Matt Lee's work is entirely assignment-based for now (every day he is assigned something to shoot, like a sports event, a political rally, press conference, portrait, or spot news like a fire or accident), but he is starting to plan longer stories.
(Check out my audio clips and short video from a day on assignment with Matt Lee.)
On the other hand, the freelance photographers I've talked to work primarily on stories they devise themselves. This gives them more control over what they photograph as well as how they photograph, but they then have to contend with the difficult job of finding a publisher. The news or press photographers (those who work for newspapers and wire agencies) must be the most careful about seeming objective (unless it's an environmental portrait which viewers know is set up to capture a certain aspect of someone's character). Freelance photographers working on long-term stories (aka documentary photographers) are understood to be working from a certain point of view. So, Richard Sobol photographing the illegal trade in endangered wildlife is clearly doing so with the objective of trying to stop it. (Listen to audio clips of my interview with Richard Sobol.) Matt Lee or Bill Greene certainly have their own perspectives and styles which come across in their photos. However, the newspaper generally needs a type of photo that supresses that perspective and has an objective-looking style, thus often making press photos look quite similar to each other.
