Last Book Read

What was it: Evidence of My Existence

Who wrote it: Jim Lo Scalzo

Is it good? It's pretty good. It's not life changing. It's not meant to be.

Pros: Very honest. Gets into the process of news photography -- in this case, getting access, developing assignments and projects, and getting to the airport without losing your camera bag -- in the middle of an autobiography. Does well as a travelogue and a life story.

Cons: Mr. Lo Scalzo, by his own admission, isn't an easygoing, happy-go-lucky tour guide. He's got a few axes to grind and a lot to complain about. In fairness: he's honest about his own failings and rough edges. Still, he was a bit hard to root for along the way.

Who will like this book? I think anyone interested in photojournalism or travel will find it worth the read. I found his account of his younger days stronger than his description of his later career -- it was a more enjoyable trip with more of a sense of discovery.

Bookstore or Library? Library. I don't find myself wanting to re-read it, but I leave it with a feeling of having followed along on a journey. A worthwhile experience, overall.

Backstory, Part Three

I found a complete copy of the May 23, 1990 edition of my college newspaper, the California State University San Bernardino Chronicle, so I've scanned it to show to my photography students the type of work I did when I first started. The issue, made when I was 23, included five of my photographs.

The first three were sports photos (see here and here).

But I also published two features in that issue, shown above.

Backstory, Part Two

I found a complete copy of the May 23, 1990 edition of my college newspaper, the California State University San Bernardino Chronicle, so I've scanned it to show to my photography students the type of work I did when I first started.

The issue, made when I was 23, included five of my photographs.

Above: on the cover, a photo of the celebration after game one of a three-game series. On the Sports page, two further shots: a home run complete with the ball in the frame and a pitcher mid-throw. Keep in mind that in those days, I was shooting a Pentax K1000 -- with no motor drive and no autofocus -- and developing my film by hand.

Backstory, Part One

I'm preparing for a new term of teaching Photojournalism online, so I've decided to take a look back at my earliest involvement in the field.

In 1988 I began working for my college newspaper -- the California State University San Bernardino Chronicle -- and stayed involved for several years. (I eventually worked there as a photographer, as a writer, as Managing Editor and as Photo Editor.)

I haven't saved many tearsheets from those days, but I found a complete copy of the May 23, 1990 edition and for fun I've scanned my contributions for that issue.

Above: In those days I shot baseball with a Pentax K1000 and Tri-X film. No motor drive, so just one chance to get the timing right. I don't remember what settings I used, but I like the shutter speed -- fast enough to freeze the bat, but slow enough to let the ball blur.

In Love and Wha?

On my other blog on documentary photography I've been focused on photojournalism as a subject. So, lately, all of my reading has consisted of books written by photojournalists. I guess, if you think about it, that's not a great idea.

I mean, take people who are good at making pictures and ... have them write. Hmm.

That said, books about photojournalism don't have to be entirely about, you know, taking pictures. Sure, some photojournalists really consider that the important part. But if you want to sell some books, you might want to, you know, include other details.

Like, the specifics of your sex life.

Now, not everyone will be happy about that. You might get a mixed review here or there.

For example, here is Janet Reitman's review of Shutterbabe: Adventures in Love and War, the latest book I've finished reading.

Bang-bang girl
Perhaps the first "cowgirl" memoir was Leslie Cockburn's "Looking for Trouble," a reflection of her highs (and occasional lows) over 25 years as a foreign correspondent and television producer. While filled with amusing insights, Cockburn's book, with chapter heads such as "Dinner With Drug Lords" and "Lunch With the Ayatollahs," rubbed many critics the wrong way. It suggested a blue-blood Yale graduate waltzing around war zones in designer bush-wear.

Now comes "Shutterbabe: Adventures in Love and War," Deborah Copaken Kogan's memoir about her life as a roving war photographer. It's an unfortunate title, but I was willing to give the book a shot given how rare young female war photographers are -- let alone those who write about the experience. Alas, "Shutterbabe" is not so much a cowgirl memoir as a "bang-bang" memoir: a self-aggrandizing story of the lusts and yearnings of a bored, post-feminist bad girl with a hankering to "see war."

Now that you know ... read it anyway.

On Perspective

I'm just going to be honest. There's no other way to tell this story, and there's no reason to hide the facts behind making a point. It's just what happened.

On Monday, January 10th, my wife and I saw that a woman had collapsed on the sidewalk. Another woman was on a cell phone calling for an ambulance. She seemed to know the woman's name. We stayed until the paramedics and firefighters arrived.

Later, I looked out our window expecting to see the ambulance drive away, taking the woman to the hospital. But a very long time passed, and eventually the ambulance and firetruck moved away. I found myself hoping that I had somehow missed them wheel the woman on a gurney into the ambulance. I also thought it might be possible that they had moved her to another vehicle, just outside of where I could see.

Instead, as the post-sunset light on the street turned blue, the Medical Examiner's vehicle arrived.

I'm teaching two Intro to Photojournalism courses this term, so I couldn't convince myself to not photograph some of these events. I'm asking my students to photograph what happens, so I felt I should photograph what happens.

I don't see any way it helps anyone, but it's a photograph of what happened.

Spot News versus Documentary

Above: A man unexpectedly evacuated from a high-rise apartment building by a fire alarm awaits an all-clear notice from the San Francisco Fire Department, San Francisco, December 10, 2010.

Various Futures

I recently attended a panel on The Future of Investigative Reporting.

Held at San Francisco Museum of Modern Art in connection to the exhibition Henri Cartier-Bresson: The Modern Century, the panel strayed from photojournalism into a discussion of new models for journalism, and, as I blogged here didn't address the question I thought was implied in the context of the Cartier-Bresson show.

Don't get me wrong -- it was a very good panel, with:

David Cohn (http://spot.us)
Robert Rosenthal (http://centerforinvestigativereporting.org)
A.C. Thompson (http://propublica.org)
Lola Vollen (http://exonerated.org)

and documentary photographer

Susan Meiselas (http://susanmeiselas.com/).

But I wanted to know: what would Cartier-Bresson do today?

It's easy to forget, as we celebrate individual works from HCB and discuss "the decisive moment," that he was a magazine photographer, and that his approach was generally that of a documentary photographer.

Today, the long trips (with an investment of time and money), the multi-page spreads, the public interest in world events beyond live coverage -- well, some would say that's all gone. Others might say it still exists, but for very, very few photographers.

So, would HCB be blogging? Posting clips on YouTube? Working toward a book, a documentary film, a museum exhibition?

More importantly: where would he take things next?

Future of Photojournalism

On Friday afternoon, Mrs. Actualities and I went to the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art to hear a panel on The Future of Investigative Reporting. On the panel were:

David Cohn, who founded http://spot.us -- essentially a "citizen journalism" site with a model based on bringing together freelancers, publishing venues and the public. In short: the public can support stories they feel are important, freelance journalists can get a little extra financial support to develop and research stories, and editors can get stories they can't support with their own publication / site resources.

Robert Rosenthal, a Pulitzer Prize finalist and journalism professor who is interested in the transition from traditional journalism to new models. He's connected to http://centerforinvestigativereporting.org but obviously well-versed in the existing models.

A.C. Thompson, who has worked with various San Francisco publications but is now associated with http://propublica.org and has received a Polk Award.

Lola Vollen, a physician who has shifted her work toward social justice and human rights, working with http://exonerated.org.

And, central to the panel: famed documentary photographer Susan Meiselas. If you don't know her work, look it up, and spend some time with it. http://susanmeiselas.com/. The important thing, for my discussion here, is to consider how Meiselas' model of going to a place, getting deeply invested in a story, and allowing a point of view to develop is purely documentary photography rather than photojournalism. Now, read that clearly: it isn't a critique, but praise. As well, it's an important distinction between the two fields.

The panel shifted a bit early on from what I expected -- after all, the context was an art museum, a show of Henri Cartier Bresson's work and the title "Future of Investigative Reporting" -- to more of a discussion of new models for supporting journalism. (Now, I'm quite aware of why this is on everyone's minds -- I've done a lot of freelance work in this realm and understand that it's clear the old models will change. Yet everyone seems unclear on how that change will stabilize or what models can be sustainable.)

So there was discussion noting that old support structures like "full time work" and "expense accounts" and "go to Central America for eight weeks, here's your ticket" were clearly gone, and that the new replacements are still developing -- and quite different in nature. Think of a blend between crowdfunding and NPR and you'll have part of the picture. Add YouTube, Digg and Twitter and you'll get a hint of the rest. But just a hint.

To my mind, this missed an important point.

Beyond the financial issues, the development of the Internet is important not just as a killer of the printed daily newspaper, but as a killer of one aspect of photojournalism.

That is, imagine an event happens. It's quite likely that a half-dozen civilians with cellphone cameras are there long before your contract photojournalist gets an alert email, and it's no surprise if there's a shaky video clip from a passerby on CNN immediately. Spot news? It's covered by a cell phone cam.

I'm not negating the value of a PJ here -- I just think the game has changed and that the role of the photojournalist has shifted toward documentary work. By this I mean that if there's a glut of "just okay shots" out there, and we can hand a DSLR to the reporter and have them come back with acceptable stills and video, then the role of photojournalist becomes about quality.

The role of the photojournalist becomes more like the role of the documentary photographer. Speed becomes less critical -- you've already been beat to the punch. But that leaves a ton of room for quality, depth, beauty, humor, accuracy -- all the elements the practice of documentary allows.

I want to see that first glance picture, yes, and I don't care that it's a sloppy picture without context. But I'm going to get much more out of a smart, deep, significant presentation later -- something only the best photojournalists can do.

So, for me, the question I see is not "how does investigative reporting survive?" but "how does an unknown Susan Meiselas find a way to do the work today?"