91Èȱ¬

In the third of a series of articles on photojournalism Adrian Evans, , suggests that photojournalists should cast off the past and look to new models of funding.

"Working in photojournalism it sometimes feels as though industry commentators are circling like vultures waiting to pick over the corpse of our industry.
Ìý
"They misguidedly link the fortunes of photojournalists to that of newspapers and magazines, referring to an almost mythical past, a golden age when newspapers were the champions and supporters of photojournalism. Whether this era ever really existed is debatable. What is undeniably true is that newspapers ceased being the paymasters of photojournalists a long time ago. Quality photojournalism is expensive - researching the story, gaining access, spending time with your subjects, post production and editing - there are no short cuts. Newspapers and magazines spend a tiny proportion of their income on content and they certainly don't want to spend it on photography.
Ìý
"Contrary to what you may have read photojournalism is alive and well in the 21st century. Photographers have unhitched themselves from the yoke of the print media and moved on to new possibilities offered by the internet and digital technology. Success now lies in being multiskilled, merely taking photographs is not enough. My advice to aspiring photographers is that they need to be able to design a web page using html, know their way around a multitude of publishing software programmes shoot and edit video, record audio and most importantly research and pitch stories.
Ìý
"They will also need to be aware of new funding models. There isn't a one size fits all model but there are two major trends:one is to seek funding from the beginning rather than the end of the story production process. In other words rather than sourcing funding from the print media or distributor of a story, photographers are working with organisations who have a message they want to disseminate.
Ìý
"In the case of my agency, Panos Pictures, we specialise in social issues which translates into working with NGOs and foundations. This can often take the form of active involvement in their visual communications, advising on how best to approach a subject visually and then exploring different outputs for the resulting work. It is a very different relationship from working on a regular assignment where the photographer has very little say in what is photographed. It is a much more creative partnership then a client/photographer relationship.
Ìý
"The other is to package your photographs in many different versions which is where a photographer's multiskilling comes into play. A body of work can simultaneously be a print feature or a series of print features, a book, an exhibition, a multimedia piece, a web gallery all of which carry different price structures ranging from the free to the expensive.
Ìý
"Where photojournalists most often fail is in their tendency to repeat themselves. As the director of the photo agency , Stephen Mayes, recently declared 'photojournalism is trying to be relevant by copying itself rather than by observing the world.' Photographers have a duty to think far more about the stories they are trying to tell - what are they trying to say and who are they trying to say it to. Their question to themselves should be 'has this story been told before' and if so 'how can I tell it differently.'
Ìý
"A recent Panos project on contemporary Slavery faced the problem of how to take a familiar subject and make a UK audience engage with it. Not wanting to go down the tried and tested route of photographing slavery in the developing world we decided to bring the story much closer to home. We held discussions with UNICEF and Amnesty, who eventually became our funding partners on the project, who told the story of women trafficked from one EU country, Lithuania, to another, the UK. Our challenge was to find a device that would place the problem firmly in a British context.
Ìý
"Through the police's Human Trafficking Unit we were given the addresses of brothels raided by the police where trafficked women had been found. We then assigned David Rose to make landscape photographs of those same streets in a style that would emphasise the normality and mundanity of everyday British life. When placed together with graphic descriptions of what had happened behind closed doors, these seemingly innocent photographs came to life in a way that brought home the reality of the lives of thousands of women in the UK today (See photo below). Ultimately it was a simple creative solution arrived at by extensive research.
Ìý
"As the photographer Tod Papageorge wrote, 'if your pictures aren't good enough then you're not reading enough'."

Tomorrow journalist Ciara Leeming talks about how she has made the leap from the printed word to the still image and mulitmedia production.

Related posts:
Michael Kamber on photojournalism today
David Campbell on photojournalism in the age of image abundance
Coming at photojournalism from a different angle
Photojournalism on a wider platform

• Bookmark with:
• |
• |
• |
• |
• - What's this?