Photojournalism

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Quack18

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Ive been into photography for the past 3years, but ive gradually gotten interested in photojournalistic images. I really liked the idea of shooting people and using them to portray a story, a message, or feeling etc...

I am almost 25 years, and my education years are behind me, so starting over again and majoring in photojournalism would be a very difficult step.
So does anyone have any advice how i can learn this and maybe become one myself. I doubt i can reach the level of true journalists, but at least enter that domain and develop something productive and meaningful.

I live in a small third world country and currently working in a full time job :(

I am finding it hard to accept that fact that ill be stuck in an office for the next 40 years, when there are endless things to photograph and show to the world.

thanks alot for your help
 
Im not a photojournalist. But I have taken photos of rally's and events for my own collection.
If I was you I would do the same. Build up a port folio of event photos marches, rally's, concerts. Anything that would be of any interest to people.

I even got picture of the day from BBC for my photo coverage of the Hackney Wick fire that was next to the Olympic site. You need to be daring. Take a few risks. For that picture I asked a school near by if I could go up to there top floor to take a few photos. I climbed out onto the scaffold rig they had and took some photos there.

Don't do anything that would risk your life, I was safe up there but push the boundary to get a good shot. Once you get a few good shots you should have something you can take to a news paper of news agency to get on there books.

I'm not really sure how the industry works but i imagine its mostly a freelance system. You go out to events. And send the watermarked photos to your newspaper of choice and say your fee. They choose what photos to use and pay you... But if you get into the news agency as a full time photographer your sorted. You'll take photos and they will send you to do jobs.

Good luck with it. Its something I would love to be involved with. But Its not a career that can be shared you need to be on call 24/7. That cant be done when your already a freelance motion graphics artist :p
 
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Nutsy said:
Im not a photojournalist. But I have taken photos of rally's and events for my own collection.
If I was you I would do the same. Build up a port folio of event photos marches, rally's, concerts. Anything that would be of any interest to people.

I even got picture of the day from BBC for my photo coverage of the Hackney Wick fire that was next to the Olympic site. You need to be daring. Take a few risks. For that picture I asked a school near by if I could go up to there top floor to take a few photos. I climbed out onto the scaffold rig they had and took some photos there.

Don't do anything that would risk your life, I was safe up there but push the boundary to get a good shot. Once you get a few good shots you should have something you can take to a news paper of news agency to get on there books.

I'm not really sure how the industry works but i imagine its mostly a freelance system. You go out to events. And send the watermarked photos to your newspaper of choice and say your fee. They choose what photos to use and pay you... But if you get into the news agency as a full time photographer your sorted. You'll take photos and they will send you to do jobs.

Good luck with it. Its something I would love to be involved with. But Its not a career that can be shared you need to be on call 24/7. That cant be done when your already a freelance motion graphics artist :p
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Don't send out watermarked images!
 
photojournalism is just freelance stuff nowadays there's even interviews with pro journalists who themselves claim that photojournalism is such a hard way to make money because it's not about being there at the right time any more, your images have to be worthwhile purchasing and with the papers flooded with citizen journalists photo and video will be extremely cheap if not free most of the time.

I shoot photojournalism for fun and was published once but that was free and i had an ego boost, you remind me of me though where I like to portray emotion and show a message etc and photo journalism I find suits me perfect.
 
Tobers said:
Unlikely you'll get any money if you do go into Photojournalism.

Read this article on Editorial Photographers UK in which experienced PJ and Magnum photographer Neil Burgess declares photojournalism to be dead.

Of course, you could get a job where you can work 6 months then fund your own PJ work for 6 months - now that would be cool.
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yeah that's the same article I read when I found out.
 
There is still a market for it I believe, you would just have to dedicate an extreme amount of persistence, hard work and money before you see any payoff. I'm hoping to do it.

I spoke to this man, David Gillanders. Most of his stuff is self funded with his carpentry business then he sells it on to magazines, etc but he doesnt make enough money to get buy purely on that.

I believe if you want it badly enough you could do it and one man "declaring it dead" is not going to put me off. :)
 
Vic said:
There is still a market for it I believe, you would just have to dedicate an extreme amount of persistence, hard work and money before you see any payoff. I'm hoping to do it.

I spoke to this man, David Gillanders. Most of his stuff is self funded with his carpentry business then he sells it on to magazines, etc but he doesnt make enough money to get buy purely on that.

I believe if you want it badly enough you could do it and one man "declaring it dead" is not going to put me off. :)
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Gillanders is awesome - I remember reading an interview about 20 years ago where he was describing how he dev'd his prints in the bath, where he would apply the dev directly to the print with his fingertips, rather than by total immersion...lol
 
Arkady said:
Gillanders is awesome - I remember reading an interview about 20 years ago where he was describing how he dev'd his prints in the bath, where he would apply the dev directly to the print with his fingertips, rather than by total immersion...lol
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Agreed, got a tour of his darkroom which is located in the back of his white van, a labyrinth of a system! Very interesting man, think he had some of his latest Russia work published in the Sunday Times just there.
 
Vic said:
There is still a market for it I believe, you would just have to dedicate an extreme amount of persistence, hard work and money before you see any payoff. I'm hoping to do it...
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Exactly. You just have to be good now. There are a lot of lazy / not that talented people out there who like to bitch and moan, but it will never be dead. Not in my lifetime anyway.

Not saying Burgess is one of them of course, but then reading that article it really depends (what doesn't) on how exactly you define the subject.

Anyway, back on topic. Shoot, shoot a lot. Shoot what you care about, learn to write. Meet people, talk to everyone, show everyone your work (once you get good at it) shoot some more, then cross your fingers.
 
Vic said:
<snip>

I spoke to this man, David Gillanders. Most of his stuff is self funded with his carpentry business then he sells it on to magazines, etc but he doesnt make enough money to get buy purely on that.
<snip>
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Great link.(y) Never heard of him before but he is very very good. Even recognised a couple of faces in the Glasgow projects. :eek:
Thanks for the link Vicky.
 
Big Tony said:
Great link.(y) Never heard of him before but he is very very good. Even recognised a couple of faces in the Glasgow projects. :eek:
Thanks for the link Vicky.
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Thats not so good if you know some of them Tony! :p He has some great stuff though and the story of how he found the Glasgow knife project is amazing and scary.

On another note the BJP has some great photojournalism and documentary in it this month.
 
Phil V said:
@amanda97
Do you have links to adorama?
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In light of the fact that every post Amanda has made outside of the Welcome forum has been linking to the Adorama website in some way or form, and the fact that she's done pretty much exactly the same on POTN I think it's pretty much obvious that is the case...

if so, @amanda97, could you please use the contact us link at the bottom of the screen to explain your status with the company, and to discuss how we go forward from here. Until we have this contact, I'm afraid we'll be removing any links that you post to Adorama as it's not fair to our paying advertisers to let you promote your company for free...
 
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Hi Quack18, I see from a previous post you live in Beirut, Lebanon. I suspect there are many good photo opportunities there, or in surrounding countries.

I would look in newspapers and magazines, printed and online, at the images and stories they use. Also look at the type of images available for sale through agencies. This could be in the Lebanon or western countries. Can you achieve similar? Consider news and features, features are more timeless, you won't have to have images ready to upload near instantly from a laptop. Maybe talk to the refugee aid agencies to see if you can undertake any work for them. It will almost certainly be unpaid, but will help to build your portfolio. Do practise runs of photographing national events you know will be in the press and compare your images to the ones used. Any news photos you offer for sale shouldn't be edited, i.e. cloning, cropping etc. Consider taking different compositions of the same shot, closely cropped for impact, then leaving more space incase the client wants to overlay text. Create a web presence to show off the photography you hope to sell. Keep it separate from anything personal such as your blog, and btw, the blog doesn't show any images.

A the end of the day, at least here in the UK, general freelance press photography pays very little. Regional newspaper groups have laid off many photographers, national press use agencies. Newspapers do deals with agencies where for one discounted payment they can use multiple images. As the payment for each image is lower, the reduction gets passed down to the photographer. Many full time news photographers now undertake corporate and wedding photography to make ends meet. Others I know have left the trade or are relieved they have retired.

Give it a go part time first, if it goes no where you will still be creating some interesting photography for your own satisfaction.

Photojournalism interests me, but I would never consider it full time until I retire from my full time job, but would then would diversify, having the time and a pension to support me.

Good luck.
 
Tobers said:
Read this article on Editorial Photographers UK in which experienced PJ and Magnum photographer Neil Burgess declares photojournalism to be dead.
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But we do have photojournalism and it certainly is NOT dead!

In fact it is alive and growing - not perhaps like the traditional type but what are BLOGS if not a type of photojournalism?

No an editor may not pay shedloads of money for a story with photographs but that does not mean that the story, and accompanying photographs, cannot be put onto a blog or a website - after all what is the coverage by EPUK if not photojournalism?

Times change and we all must change or simply fade away bemoaning the fact that we no longer see the Dodo!
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Excellent thread revival skills! I thought this thread died in 2010.

You're right of course, there is plenty of photojournalism around these days. But the type that you could make a living from is very very rare. The power of citizen photojournalism to change influence public opinion is huge if you're in the right place at the right time. The good thing is that there are fewer places to hide for those that would do bad stuff in the world.
 
Tobers said:
Excellent thread revival skills! I thought this thread died in 2010.
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that's a nice way of saying "shameless pimping of one's employer." they have been warned. It will not happen again without repercussions.
 
The old photojournalist job, that you could make a living doing, has long since dies a death, everyone's a photographer now. If you are interested in telling stories with pictures nobody can teach you how to do that you just have to come up with an interesting theme and get out and do it, for yourself. Yes you can try and present this to magazines and newspapers but please don't hold your breath to long. Politics and celebs are common ground but competition is great.

http://iankyddmiller.com/2016/10/12/photojournalism/
 
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