They Are People, Not Subjects

My good friend David LaBelle is at it again, this time talking about a man he met in New York City.

I can point my camera “at” you or I make a picture “with” you. One is a cowardly drive-by shooting, while the other is a collaborative, shared experience. One objectifies, capturing subjects as objects, graphic elements in a broader landscape. The other is a collaborative, shared experience of communion with another human being.

We are journalists, not reporters. Reporting is the first step in journalism, it is not the last. To say something happened or someone exists is not journalism, to tell us why it happened, what it means or who someone is – that is journalism.