Way back in 1999, I wrote an editorial lamenting how difficult it was becoming to pursue a life in photojournalism......
As I reread that article recently, I realized that what I was talking about then were some cracks in the dam. Today, the whole damned dam is gone. It is difficult not to be concerned by the changes in the industry over the past year.....
Amidst all of the chatter on Twitter and YouTube during the protests in Iran, there was a lone professional voice reporting from the streets, and that was the Times' Roger Cohen. With all other Western media barred from covering the protests, Cohen provided a reliable window into a complex and dangerous story. His reports were a testimony of the value of papers like the Times. They paid for him to be there. Without people like Cohen, the world would be a sorry place.

At the end of the day, whether Time or The New York Times survives is irrelevant. The real question is, who is going to PAY professional journalists such as Cohen to go to these news scenes? Professionals do matter. If you broke your leg and your choice would be to have your neighbor who had faithfully watched every episode of "ER" set it, or go to a hospital, there is no question what you would do.

In a recent Platypus class, my students asked me, "Why would you be a photojournalist today?" I answered, "You have to be crazy." I have always considered being crazy as important to a photographer as being curious. Constitutionally, we thrive on chaos and challenge. Being a photojournalist is more a calling than a trade. Those people who will do anything to come back with a story will be out there shooting for a long time.

© Dirck Halstead




Kvalitne zamyslenie sa nad sucastnou situaciou v mediach, nie len z pohladu fotoreportera.
http://digitaljournalist.org/issue0907/revisiting-the-death-of-photojournalism-ten-years-later.html