Photojournalism Jobs

[leon_yuhanov]

Hi,

I have been a photo enthusiast(obssesed) for some years now. I have been

finding my normal work(IT consulting) rather boring. I am wondering if anyone

has any tips on how to get into the photo journalism bussines. Id like to go to

other countries and take photos of events abroad.

 

Leon

[d_gillespie]

Sounds like a familiar song. Who wouldn't love to be sent across the world taking pictures and having someone else write the checks. Just as you must have done with your current position in the IT world, its all about hard work, experience, training, luck and being very persistent. Most regard a PJ degree as a basic necessity, but there are those cases where sheer talent can overcome the formalized training those schools provide. Many careers have been launched from fairly humble beginnings, such as local newspapers, free ad papers, etc. demonstrating you ability.

 

Not to say that you won't be filling your passport with foreign country stamps and your portfolio with amazing shots of sunrise over the Giza plateau in the next year, but small steps are more realistic. Find local PJs and take a few to lunch, bring along your portfolio and see what sort of reaction the pros give you. Then take their advise.

[pabloconrad]

Very Simply: good luck.

 

Looking at all the job banks related to news, there are very, very few openings. In fact, I think there are less than 2 dozen listed.

 

Most of the good jobs don't advertise and only hire people they know personally or whose work is outstanding.

 

My best advice to you is build a working relationship with local media, keep shooting, study the great documentary photojournalists, keep shooting, ask a lot of questions, and yes, keep shooting.

 

You are in competition with some very young, highly talented college graduates that bust some serious butt. Some are state, national and international award winners who are looking for work.

 

Tenacity is your best friend at this point. Show your work to everyone and get critiques from everyone.

 

Good Luck.

[oscar_h.]

The best advice is to KEEP your current job as it will give you a continued source if STEADY income. Sacrifices have to be made. Photojournalists in general are almost always broke. Here is where the work comes in. YOU have to prove to YOURSELF this is the thing for you. Party days and Social life must go! With what is coming in set aside a percentage of the IT Consulting income that you can live without and bank it! Unload the the fancy and get down to basics. Learn to live in a miniscule budget-First rule of Photojournalism. Stick to it! Do some REAL RESEARCH! Look into a subject that grabs at your soul and pulls at your heart-Second Rule of Photojournalism. More than likley it is a subject you have some knowledge about or have inside you. Expand on any and all related subjects. You will then have a sampling that you can choose from. Set your sights on that target subject and the first and second picks closest your target. See what others have done with those you have chosen. Look up everything you can get your eyes on. Only then will you know what has rarely been done. In this business the only way you can get a REAL start is to do a subject that hasn't been done before that you can call YOURS! Editors want to see something NEW!! Now map out your approach at what it will take to do it. When that is satisfactory to YOU then map out a second approach as equally in tune with your first. Ill preparation financially before stepping into the business is the most common curse I hear! By some stream of chance most have bitten off more than they can chew. Here today and gone tomorrow types. Don't waste your money in a Photojournalism school. Let LIFE be your education. Everyone has one. Take a journalism class or two as you'll have to write the first captions to your photos, even the whole story. Who, what, when, where, why and how applies to journalistic images as it does in journalistic text is the Third rule of Photojournalism. Invest time to do your project. Time being the most expensive commodity is the Fourth Rule of Photojournalism. Use it well and get the most value of every minute. Most of it will be researching your self assignment. Do what it takes to get the images you need to complete your project. If you haven't done so get a point and shoot digital camera and a decent laptop computer. Find one aspect of your project and shoot it. Find another and shoot it. If you can't find a relation between the two members of this project then go back and do it again until these two members of the family called your self assignment talk to each other. This is called PRACTICE!! If you fail at completing this self assignment with all your heart and sacrifice then don't expect to gain entry into this cut throat, want it yesterday business. This self assignment will speak of you and no other. Prove to yourself you can do it. There's no excuses! If your heart wants this to happen you will not fail. I will stake my life on it! When you've hit the limitations with the point and shoot camera start with a basic kit that will get the job done and no more! Get a kit that is as portable as possible. It has to be fast to use, it has to be durable, it has to be able to get serviced quickly and has to become a part of you. This is where having lived on the cheap of cheapness comes handy. With that portion of dough you saved you won't be one of those here-today gone -tomorrow because they couldn't pay for their gear. Don't buy into gear that is not being used in your area of operations. Like the military, gear must suit the location it is to operate in. When you have pulled your self assignment together to the point that you're willing to to the same for others with the same energy countless times in split-second fashion then this is for you! Save enough dough to last you at least nine months to a year. You'll have something to show and give it a try. There's a microscopic few of those who try but you'll be way in front of the pack. The bottom line is you'll have a drive that finances won't kill at the start. A little about my advice. I graduated from the university in the mid 70's with a degree in TV and FILM. I owed the government for some of my schooling. I didn't have a choice in the branch of military where I would have to repay in time served as a combat medic during the Lebanese civil war. AP and UPI photographers did not want to join us on our insurgent hunts. Life there was my education. It became my personal project. I had knowledge of being a combatant. It was inside of me, at the time no one else was doing this as a combatant. It was different in viewpoint. They gave me kits of F-2s and F-3s and all the film I could carry with instructions to photograph whatever came up. Got to see a lot of my stuff in the local press and regional magazines in different languages uncredited. Thank God because for two years Uncle Sam was looking for the source of these operational photos. Hence my start in the business. I sense that this is really what you want. I know of great photojournalists who did what you are about to conquer. From poverty to extreme wealth, all ages! They had the fortitude to give it a try! I salute every last one, sucess or not. What ever your age, don't think about it, do it!! You die only once. Nothing to stop you except yourself. I have faith in you.

[robbie_caswell]

Wow! Thank you Oscar!

 

I do some freelance for a weekly newspaper and keep my day job. Mainly sports, but this year I plan on covering more of the presidential primary in my state. It's something that interests me, something newsworthy, and something to push my creative and story telling skills.

 

My experience has been rewarding. Weeklies publish once or twice a week so there is less deadline pressure. Several of my local weeklies use P+S cameras or run those sorry P+S submissions from readers.

 

While it could be fertile ground, it is definatly the ground floor. However, many make serious contributions to their respective communities.

 

Gear? I would start out with two bodies like a used D70/20D class camera, a kit zoom lens, and a fast 50mm and a flash. One of my award winning pics was a B+W grab shot taken with M3 and 50mm Summilux that were both made prior to 1960.

 

I've won four press association awards in my first year just covering sports. Next year I hope to sweep the floor with them at the next awards dinner.

 

Primarily, I'm using this gig to win awards and recognition and legitimize and develop my PJ skills to get business in portraits and weddings.

[oscar_h.]

Robbie, Don't knock the point & shoot gear! Those in the public eye respond differently to shooters using P&S gear than those using the bug guns! The key is to do what you must do to get it in the camera! I've gotten images using P&S that I'd never have gotten if I was using the big guns. It has been my experience that PR people were more receptive when I acted and was dressed like a local resident, wore the Candidate's buttons and yielded a single P&S camera. Security and PR people gotta make a desicion about who's part of the picture and who's not in a split-second! They may not allow any camera other than Heavyweight Daily shooters in the photopit. Pray they select you and a P&S to make them look good. Watch the news channels, study the crowd, see who's shooting and how. Learn from it. Cheap school,no? I've been known to wear their bumberstickers on a hat and shirt. I was even asked to attend Candidate supporting functions on occaision. While the big guns were corraled into shooting from assigned areas (Usually a lousy vantage point!) with little or no access to their subjects I was shooting from a different vantage point with the other plain folks. You won't be allowed to move about within the crowd. I'm willing to bet that the majority of those in the photopit with big guns had very simular images. Candidate interactions the public are the ones I went for. Emotion resides more in these images than the talking head or handshake images on the podium. Editors will take a shot of a Candidate interacting with real people than the usual talking head anyway. The hug, the kiss, the baby holding. That is when Candidates are more apt to behave outside their PR people's agenda. Presidental tours are extremely controlled. Nothing is left to chance. Nothing! Gear is nothing but a tool. Nothing more. Don't get caught up in that game, it can work against you. I could've humped the big guns like every one in the pit but I was lucky to be one of the chosen few and walked away with different images with a P&S and was not subjected to the use of the pool system. You're ahead of the game, dude! You're in the mix of things, get involved with the political folks in your state. Establish connections NOW. Getting access is the hardest thing to overcome. Expect to get none if you're not with a Heavyweight Daily. I pray your paper is lucky to get on the desired list. You know what you want and now have a different approach to get some great images. I think that your best approach is to work within the crowd. Even being chosen to be a member of the crowd has many hurdles!! Gotta look good to the PR and Security folks! Gotta make their candidate look good and feel safe after 911. I don't want to discourage in any way. I want you to know about a couple things to think about in your quest. No matter what, make the images, take what you can get. You'll do fine. Keep it up. If anything you'll learn what the PJ schools can't teach.

[j._scheide]

Oscar - do you work for a newspaper or other publication?

[oscar_h.]

J. Sheide, I used to many moons ago. My best friend got me into stills photography in high school. I became a fotodope in college papers and the local weekly. Uncle Sam got hold of me, turned me into a corpsman and sent me to S.E. Asia. Out of Command we gotta take a UPI newspuke (Bob) out on a KR hunt. One brave or stupid newspuke he was!! We get sent until he gets his images. On the 5th his shiny gear gives us away. We danced with Pol Pot's merry men and Bullet-Bob got his shots literally!! After that no newspuke wanted to take a ride with us. I met Bullet-Bob again (minus a leg and two fingers) in Lebanon and he talked me into shooting again. In exchange for a 20' oceangoing container to live in, a pair of generators and an AC unit I agreed to bring back images. They supplied all the photogear and film. We both made good. I learned from the bravest (and kindest) newspuke the who, what, when, where, why and how in making good journalistic images. Bullet Bob got images. Upon return Bullet Bob got me a lot of assignments with the good folks at the Ledger Star and Pilot and UPI. Now I've got a REAL job back with Uncle that pays the bills. I stockpile my Vacation and take 10-13 week roadtrips every 2 years with my best friend. I now shoot for myself! No more rules of Photojournalism! Thankyou Dan and Bullet Bob!

[michele_m.]

Why not go to an agency like Sygma or AP. You can start by shooting stuff you are interested

in and then sending it to them. You will make %50 or %60 of what they sell to the magazines.

You can use your savings to travel to the places that interest you and then make the money

back later.

[fay_corbiell]

Wow a lot of advice for you. Here is a bit more that I hope you will find useful.

Book a flight into a region something news worthy is happening, ie. Afghanistan, Sudan,

Iraq etc. Once there register with the local agency that e-mails out press releases of the

local happenings. In Afghanistan it would be ISAF press dept. Go any and all events, carry

your camera everywhere and shoot. Wander the streets and shoot, shoot, shoot. Make sure

you have the technical down and always consider composition and the local color of the

situation. Remember your photo?s have to tell a story and hopefully evoke some emotion.

Send out queries TONS of them! A good resource is the book ?Photographer?s Market?

which is up dated yearly plus a listing of newspapers. You could also hook up with a

journalist and shoot the photo?s for the stories they are working on.

I have been in Afghanistan, and Iraq, where I was the only photographer allowed to

photograph Abu Ghraib prison while it was still under US control, to mention a couple.

Luck and persistence and not being faint of heart are necessary in this line of work.

I wish you the best of luck with your endeavors!!<div></div>