Photojournalism

The following is an interview with Donald R. Winslow [left in picture], a photojournalist. He is currently the director of CNET: The Computer Network in San Francisco. He's covered presidential elections, country aniversaries, sports events, the olympics, and other stories from around the world. He is married to a computer language programmer, and they have three daughters, ages 15, 13, and 2.

His Work
His Bio

1. What is photojournalism?

Among the people that I most admire are the people who have stared life point blank in the face and captured the truth of it on film or in words, all the good, bad, ugly, beautiful and poignant moments known to this world. Their work reeks of truth, and truth has always been more appealing and interesting to me than fiction.

Photojournalism is visual truth, not just truth in the conventional sense of the word but also truth in representation and implication. The great photography editor Howard Chapnick, founder of Black Star and one of my professional heroes, captured the essence of it in his photojournalism memoir "Truth Needs No Ally." To be a photojournalist is to be a truthful, honest, an intelligent vehicle of stories. Photojournalism captures the revealing moments, the peak action, the maximum expression of emotion. Photojournalism delivers an understanding of the places and people in the world that we may never get to see and, in some instances, hope to never see in person. Photojournalism provides a tool to visualize our own place in the world, and in culture and in history. Photojournalists bear witness to life.

Photojournalism can create pictures that are often complex in their simplicity, so much so that they are hauntingly beautiful and become iconoclastic. Sebastiao Salgado's photographs are often like this, from his images of famine in the Sudan, to a swarm of workers in a writhing mass climbing the vertical wall of a mine, to the angelic faces of adolescent girls in a Central American religious ritual. They are powerful photographs that are often presented without text, much like objects of art. But when they are packaged with stories their strength takes on a much deeper meaning.

This, to me, is a significant difference between "photography" and "photojournalism," the context within which images are presented. On the gallery walls of the International Center of Photography in Manhattan, images like Salgado's can be seen as a collection of fine art. Published in a newspaper series with stories, sidebars, and graphics, these same images can easily be classified as documentary photojournalism.

2. Tell why you have chosen a career in photojournalism?
3. Explain the history to how you became interested in photography/ photojournalism.

In 1968, the photographers of Life, Time, Look, and the Louisville Courier Journal changed my life. They showed me the strength of pure photojournalism, and how to put images together in essays that tell powerful stories, strong enough to effect great social change.

I was thirteen years old then, and it was in early June on the last day of school in Bloomington, Indiana, where I grew up. Summer vacation for the county school system started the next day. My father was a high school biology teacher and summer activities with him always included some kind of photography, either at the beaches and lighthouses of New England or in his colorful gardens, or sometimes in state parks looking for wildlife. He had bags of cameras and lenses, and on Saturdays we usually ended up hanging around at the little local camera store, trading tips and swapping stories with photographers.

On this last afternoon of school I was already thinking about what was to come. This was the summer I was going to get my own camera and lenses, with money earned by mowing neighborhood lawns. As school tradition goes, the eighth grade plays the ninth grade in a baseball game on the last day at a picnic. Standing there with a mitt I was already dreaming of my first real 35mm camera, the one I would purchase in just a few days. I was stationed in the infield and one of my friends covered second base. Late in the game someone hit a pop fly and the two of us went after it, both looking up shouting "I've got it, I've got it!" Witnesses said our collision was head-on. Neither one of us saw the other running at break-neck speed.

When the dust settled he lay there with two broken ribs, but was able to walk away. I wasn't as lucky. My left ankle was broken in three places, the lower bone shattered, and my knee was severely wrenched. I lay there in agony. By suppertime I was in a hospital bed in the orthopedic ward, my leg packed in ice. By the time Johnny Carson was telling jokes on the black and white television hanging over my bed, I was heavily sedated and being wheeled downstairs for midnight surgery.

The last thing on my mind at that moment was photojournalism. But hours later, when I opened my eyes through the pre-dawn haze of anesthesia, photojournalism was the first thing on my mind. Burning into my brain, the frozen image glowed from the dangling television. Robert F. Kennedy lay dying on the kitchen floor of the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles. Even though people tried to block his camera, Life magazine photographer Bill Eppridge captured one of the most famous moments in American history as the very subject of his campaign story, a man who also happened to be his friend, died in front of his lens.

I didn't realize it just then, lying there in traction, but I was hooked. Photojournalism was going to take me out of this place and into the world.

4. How have you gone about obtaining an education in photojournalism?

Starting in the fifth grade learning large-format view camera photography in 1965, continuing through junior high and high school with my own 35mm cameras and working for the student newspaper and yearbook. I continued to study photojournalism in college, selecting historical photojournalists whose work I respected and wanted to emulate. It's a never-ending education, even after twenty-five years. There are two ways to learn photojournalism: study the great photographs of the great visual journalists, and then put a camera to your face and experiment with your own vision and voice.

5. Discuss the jobs you've held on you way to where you are in your career now.

Name a part-time college job, and I did it. Working my way through school and learning about the world outside of photography made me a better journalist by having a better understanding of the world around me.

6. What kind of time, emotional stress, and resources are required for a career in photojournalism.

Photojournalism is not a job, it is a life-style that requires a great deal of personal time, a lot of sacrifice for time spent away from family and friends, the emotional fortitude to handle very distressing situations where there may be loss of life or great drama, and the ability to change course often, react to constantly changing circumstances, and unending patience. Days or weeks of work can become meaningless as a story changes course. If you are someone whose happiness is based on what someone else does with your photographs, either using them well or poorly, you are unlikely to be happy. The journey itself must be the fulfillment.

7. Tell about a time when you felt discouraged in your career.

When I was young and they pay was poor and it looked like the doors to larger newspapers and a more global career were impossible to open. Perseverance is required and a willingness to never give up if one is to make it in photojournalism.

8. Explain what you think is most rewarding, "pros," about a career as a photojournalist.

The satisfaction of making a photograph that's never been seen before, and having it displayed to the world.

9. What are a few of the bad aspects, "cons," of a career as a photojournalist?

Low pay, bad hours, dangerous situations, lack of career advancement, lack of respect from peers in the news publishing environment, time required and resources needed to make comparable career advancements.

10. What types of stories have you visually documented? Which type are your favorite and why?

Over a two-decade career I've been exposed to almost every kind of story you see in a daily newspaper. My favorites are stories that cause social change, or the story that makes a community sit up and take notice of something that needs to be fixed or repaired in society or culture. Being a documentarian for history is part of the job, but being the voice of the community, visually, is also an important aspect.

11. Do you think a career in photojournalism can provide for you efficiently? For a family?

It is a profession best suited for the young, those without debt or family obligations, and those able to move around frequently in order to advance a career. The hours away from home, on nights and weekends, makes it difficult to be a family member or a parent. Many people leave the profession for better paying jobs and hours when they want to start a family and be a parent.

12. Do you feel that a career in photojournalism is a competitive one? What types of jobs are available?

The number of jobs available for graduating photojournalists continues to shrink as the media industry is hit hard by the economy, and as newspapers continue to cut back on staff and reduce hiring. The salaries are low, and the personal sacrifice to be a photojournalist is high. One doesn't pursue this field for profit or wealth. It is art, and it is social responsibility to be a person who visually speaks truth of the surrounding world. It's a calling, not a job. Journalism schools continue to turn out fleets of graduates every year for a decreasing number of jobs, and that's a cycle that is also damaging to the profession. There's a lack of respect for the photojournalist when there are too many of them available who are willing to work for lower pay, for reduced rights to their own images, and for compromised conditions in order to stay employed.