Photojournalism Matters
Photojournalism Matters
Instead of running away from criminals, I run towards them, all guns blazing. Those guns are my cameras, of course. Till today, nothing tops the adrenaline rush I felt while covering one morning of Bernard Madoff‘s trial in April, 2009.
Back then I was still in Columbia University’s journalism school. My photojournalism professor is also a freelance shooter for the NY Times. He was assigned to shoot Madoff leaving his house for court, and encouraged me to go shoot.
Dozens of reporters, anchors and photographers crowded outside his garage, and possibly none of us got a clear image of him, as he shielded himself with black sheets in the back seat. Dragging myself out of bed at 4:30am and hanging out in the cold for 10 minutes of action may sound like sheer lunacy.
But a thrill was present. History was being written in front of us and I (and the other journalists) had the opportunity to document it. Naturally my favorite medium is the still image, which is why I became drawn into being a photojournalist while at Columbia.
Photojournalism (or documentary photography) is tough because the rewards are not easily reaped from a ground increasingly devoid of funding. Even though papers and publications are cutting back on spending, it’s still important to have an institution back you up in stressful, and even dangerous, times.
Having a commercial photography business probably equates to a more financially comfortable lifestyle, but photojournalism is the only form of shooting that, for me, can deliver nourishment for the soul. If you want your photography to be bigger than yourself, turn to photojournalism. And though there’s a distant, fuzzy dream that I can be a successful photojournalist, who truly knows where my lens will ultimately be focused on?
See my photojournalism portfolio:
