Tag Archives: photographers

BBC: Powerful audio slideshow shows photographer’s ‘baptism of fire’

The BBC has produced a powerful audio slideshow which documents the experience of Press Association photographer Lewis Whyld when he reported on the riots in Tottenham on 6 August.

The slide show, displayed on the magazine section of the BBC News site, uses Whyld’s own images and audio accountof his “baptism of fire” in covering the riots.

He describes the scenes he witnessed and how he dealt with covering such a hostile environment, often using just his mobile phone to capture images.

Later this afternoon BBC Radio 4 will broadcast “Picture Power: Portraits of five leading photographers”, the second of five programmes looking at photographers who captured images of “the most dramatic events of the past year”.

‘I heard the mechanic click. I knew this is not good’: Joao Silva’s speech

The New York Times blog today published in full a speech given by photojournalist Joao Silva at the Bronx Documentary Center earlier this month. Silva was severely injured after stepping on a landmine in Afghanistan last year.

Silva lost both legs below the knee, with months of recovery ahead of him at the Walter Reed Medical Center in Washington. Just last month his work returned to the front pages, with an image accompanying a story about the closure of the very medical centre in which he was staying.

In his speech, published in full here, Silva describes that moment in October last year when “everything changed”.

I heard the mechanic click. I knew: this is not good. And I found myself lying face-down on the ground, engulfed in a cloud of dust, with the very clear knowledge that this has just happened and this is not good. I could see my legs were gone, and everybody around me was dazed. I was like: “Guys, I need help here.” And they turned around and saw me on the ground. They immediately sprang into action. I got dragged out of the kill zone, for safety reasons, to a patch of ground a few yards away.

Immediately, there were medics working on me. I picked up a camera, shot a few frames. The frames weren’t very good, quite frankly, but I was trying to record. I knew it wasn’t good, but I felt alive. Adrenaline kicked in. I was compos mentis; I was on top of things. So, I made some pictures. I dropped the camera, then I moved to Plan B, which was to pick up the satellite phone. I called my wife, Vivian, and told her: “My legs are gone, but I think I’m going to live.”

Silva also used his speech to offer advice to young photojournalists keen to enter the field. And the key is perseverance, he said.

It’s not an easy industry. It’s highly competitive. Every year there are literally thousands of young kids coming on the stage, a lot of them so talented. For freelancers, it’s a juggle every day. There’s only so much money going around. There’s only so many publications that will employ people. Even though demand for knowledge and content has grown, the market has shrunk. It’s really sad, but it’s a reality.

As for Silva’s own journey, he said it is likely to be another year before he is “fully functional”, but added that the ultimate goal is to get back to work.

Without a doubt, life is strange. Everything has changed. But I hope to pick up from where I left off, to a certain extent. In the meantime, I just take a little more courage and a little more perseverance and quite frankly, take as many drugs as I can.

Redlights and Redeyes: ‘It’s tough to watch photographers get drained through a funnel’

A candid open letter from award-winning US photojournalist Chip Litherland to newspaper photographers everywhere: “It is now on you.”

Dear Newspaper Photographer,

If you think you are safe in your job, you aren’t.

I say that bluntly to make the point stick. You are a number. You are expendable. Your work will win awards. Your work will sell papers … I want this to be positive, but it’s hard to be in this situation. I’ve seen too many friends and colleagues come and go and that choice was never given to them.  Some are still shooting freelance, some had to give up photography as a career and pursue other things – but, they are some of the most creative and beautiful people on the planet.  It’s tough to watch photographers get drained through a funnel as they come into this field, and as they leave. Staying in the funnel is tough and proving to be tougher everyday.

I left my newspaper staff only a couple months ago on my own and loving every minute of it. It’s been busy as hell (knock on wood), but I’m learning everything on the fly which is exciting and nerve-racking. It’s a wonderful feeling. Open book.

Full letter on Redlights and Redeyes at this link…

Newsweek: Is BP restricting journalists’ access to oil spill?

More than a month into the disaster, a host of anecdotal evidence is emerging from reporters, photographers, and TV crews in which BP and Coast Guard officials explicitly target members of the media, restricting and denying them access to oil-covered beaches, staging areas for clean-up efforts, and even flyovers.

Journalists from CBS, Mother Jones and the Times Picayune have been denied access to the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, according to reports, raising concerns that the disaster will not be properly documented for the public.

Full story at this link…

Journalism Daily: Changing business models for photographers and branding for journalists

Journalism.co.uk is trialling a new service via the Editors’ Blog: a daily round-up of all the content published on the Journalism.co.uk site.

We hope you’ll find it useful as a quick digest of what’s gone on during the day (similar to our e-newsletter) and to check that you haven’t missed a posting.

We’ll be testing it out for a couple of weeks, so you can subscribe to the feed for the Journalism Daily here.

Let us know what you think – all feedback much appreciated.

News and features:

Ed’s picks:

Tip of the Day:

#FollowJourn:

On the Editors’ Blog:

Flickr.com/ara-maye: ‘Photographing the photographer photographing the photographers’

Following yesterday’s gathering of photographers at Scotland Yard in protest at a new terror law, this comes from Ara-Maye on Flickr. It’s an all rights reserved photograph so we can’t reproduce here but take a look at this link, for an example of photographers turning the lens on themselves, and again…