Please don’t take my photos away!
September 26, 2007That is precisely how I would feel if someone was to take all the photos I had shot and etched a deep red mark across them saying, “These just don’t cut it!” Pardon the pun, considering we are talking about editing.
Combining my Photo 1 experience with what I read in Kobre about editing and the ethics of photojournalism, made me uncomfortable. It made me think.
After shooting nearly 250 photos, I was sorting through the pile, trying to get my “best 20″, when I realized that I am probably the kid who needs boundaries set for me. It was extraordinarily difficult for me to dissociate from the emotion or thought I had experienced while taking the picture. It was exactly what we talked about in class — Trying to make the image look like what you thought it was SUPPOSED to look like. Kobre, in his section on editing talks about the the diametric views Life and Look magazines had about letting photographers edit their own work. I realized that if I was working at Look, I would never meet a deadline. It is a little easier not being in the room when someone is taking the red ink to it.
It may be argued that it is unprofessional, but it is easier just realizing it, than thinking you are a whole different photographer than you think you are.
Also, in the same section Kobre points out that photo editors need to “find out what pictures their readers are actually looking at, than base editorial decisions on their own biases”. I have a problem with that view. I believe, the choice of the editors almost always depends on the content of the newspaper/website/magazine. I mean, how many pictures of poodles and babies can you print in Time magazine? Also, as we saw on the MSNBC site, if photo editors started pandering to the audience, we would never have witnessed some of the most moving pictures in photojournalism history.
I totally agree. I had an odd amount of emotional attachment to my photos, more so than when I write something. And I agree I need to have someone else edit me, because I don’t think I’m all that discerning. But I sure don’t want to be in the room when they start off with the red ink, all the same. It also makes me want to see what photographers’ favorites might be, as opposed to editors and viewers. Would they vote for images that we saw in the media, or would we see a whole new set of unpublished images?
Hey, like the post Rati. It is also very difficult to me to dissaciate from the emotion or thought… but I don’t think you should very worry about it. I think that this is what is going to make your work different from another one. The only thing that is important is to try to create an equilibrium between your emotions and the editing or photography skills: being honest and be a good professional are, at th end, the same thing. As a photo editor I tried to get just the best pictures, the ones that tell the story better and say more things about the character or the situation; the ones you would like to see… this is easier when you work for a magazine that you like, of course because you share the ethic and aesthetic of that particular media.