Category: Business & Industry

May 1, 2018

Native Photographers

Who best can tell a story – an impartial outsider or someone with a deep connection? It’s a perennial question amongst journalists. The outsider may have no bias but also may lack a depth of understanding. The insider may understand all the issues at hand but could also have been deeply affected by them. Over at The New York Times,...

Categories Business & Industry/Ethics & Legal/Photojournalism

April 9, 2018

The Good Fight, Business Practices and What’s Next

Rick Smolan is known for his book series A Day in the Life of …, a project that started decades ago. He was recently interviewed by Scott Galloway of L2 to talk about those books, his newest project The Good Fight: America’s Ongoing Struggle for Justice and the business of photography. Smolan pulls no punches here – the business model...

Categories Business & Industry/Photojournalism/Thoughts & Theory

April 6, 2018

The Hypocrisy of a Corporate Mandate Urging Independence

By now, you’ve seen the video montage that Deadspin created, with anchors from dozens of Sinclair Broadcasting Group stations reading the same corporate-issued script. You’ve seen the response from media associations like the National Press Photographers Association (and seen the consequences of that statement), you’ve read the analysis from folks like Al Tompkins at the Poynter Institute. The Seattle Post-Intelligencer...

Categories Advice & Learning/At Work/Business & Industry/Ethics & Legal/Journalism/Photojournalism/Thoughts & Theory

April 5, 2018

Setting Rates for Graphic Design

It’s not just photographers that struggle with setting a rate, take a look at this infographic for graphic designers. Does that fit for photographers? I don’t think so. And I’m not sure it fits for designers, either – it accounts for none of their costs and assumes every penny billed goes to salary and that isn’t the case. Granted, the...

Categories Business & Industry/Graphic Design

March 21, 2018

The Ethics of Self-assigned Work

In a piece for the Poynter Institute from 2017, Kainaz Amaria talks about the moment she realized she wasn’t going to be a conflict photographer and the underrepresentation of women in photojournalism. But there’s one line in there, one line that I wish every student and young professional would pay attention to: It’s that I couldn’t justify asking someone to...

Categories Advice & Learning/At Work/Business & Industry/Ethics & Legal/Journalism/Photojournalism

March 19, 2018

They Exist

Anderson Cooper interviewed the artist known as JR for 60 Minutes and it’s worth 14 minutes of your time. It’s not journalism, it’s art, but it’s interesting how he thinks about his transition from being a graffiti artist to doing these photo installations. If you have a few more minutes, after the regular segment airs there’s an Overtime segment with...

Categories Business & Industry/Journalism/Photojournalism

March 16, 2018

Seeing Where You Are

For every photographer who has ever said they need to travel somewhere to make better images, for every journalist who has driven to work with windows up and music playing, you must read this piece by Neeta Satam on how to see stories ethically. Next week, students in our Documentary Photojournalism course will head a little south for our 13th...

Categories At Work/Business & Industry/Craft/Ethics & Legal/Journalism/Photojournalism

March 9, 2018

From War to Fashion

Every now and then I come across someone I’ve never heard of and wonder how I missed them … Toni Frissell is the latest, as featured by Alan Taylor at The Atlantic. Theres a simple elegance to her work that shows in the fashion and war work, clean compositions and nice moments.

Categories Business & Industry/Good Work/Photojournalism

March 9, 2018

Secrets About Secrets

The New York Times just published 15, 15 women who were never profiled at the time of their death, in a series titled Overlooked. The controversial Diane Arbus, a portrait photographer who has been the center of photographic discussions since her 1971 suicide, is featured in a piece by James Estrin. Her work raises a lot of questions about purpose...

Categories Advice & Learning/Business & Industry/Craft/Photojournalism

March 6, 2018

A Narrow Slice if History

Hondros, a film about the late photojournalist Chris Hondros, is now open in select cities. Producer Greg Campbell, a friend of his, spoke with Christopher Booker for PBS News Hour. Because I think Chris knew very well that there were also not a lot of happy endings after he snapped the shutter on his camera. And I’ve heard him say...

Categories At Work/Business & Industry/Good Work/Journalism/Photojournalism