Last Wednesday Parsons: The New School for Design hosted Photo District News‘ seminar for young working photographers. Attending were about 100 photographers of various fields. Some were fine art, others were commercial. Then there were a few photojournalists like me.

Moderated by editor Holly Hughes, the seminar involved a few of the latest ‘PDN 30′ photographers who shared their history in shooting, plus some rare tips of making money out of it. However those were hard to come by, as PDN’s photographers kept on yapping about their personal history. (For those who don’t know, PDN 30 is an annual recognition of the year’s 30 photographers to watch).

Clinton Cargill, picture editor of the New York Times magazine, and Brian Smith, Sony Artisan of Imagery (means he’s sponsored by them) were the most helpful as they provided more professional advice and applications. The PDN photographers felt flimsy and immature in their pursuit of photographic excellence.

The best part came after the seminar, where everyone could mingle while downing free wine and food. I spoke to a couple of strangers, and both turned out to be freelance photojournalists who had no formal training in it. Although in a sense they were competition, it’s heartening to see like-minded snappers struggling to survive in the same mine field of journalism.

Overall it’s been an experience, and one that photographers should take advantage of as they’re free, unlike many other workshops. If I hear of upcoming ones, I’ll be sure to post them here.