Thank you to Jeff Foss for letting me come in and hang out with you.
I recently had the opportunity to shadow job over Jeff Foss chief photographer down at Ch 2 news in Reno. I was given the grand tour of the ins and outs in news and broadcasting. Watching Jeff do his thing, he was all over the place up high down low trying I mean trying not to fall. At one point of the day Jeff turns to me and says "There is a wall between you and the subject that you are shooting. There are no personal connection there, you have to keep a professional appeal while you are out shooting." I understood where he was coming from but hearing this kinda got me down because I love to talk while I'm photographing and getting the hole story behind the photo.
At one point of the day I started to think how far would a photojournalism go just to get the great shot? I have always known how far a photographer would go to get the perfect image. I have read an article about money vs ethics, at what point should the photographer drop the camera and try to save people? The photograph, while important, isn't worth letting someone die over. I could ask the same question to myself how far would i or even jeff go just to get that one shot, the truth is that I have no answer. Looking at my photos, I have done some shady things just to get the shot. I guess the real question is I am really ready to put someone's life on the line just to get a photo, time will only tell what will happen.
Alex -- it's cool to hear your thoughts on this. Of course, in some ways, you don't have to choose one single method -- if you like to talk while you shoot, you do that when you're doing your own work, and then when you're on a photo shoot with a news organization, you zip your lip. Different strategies for different contexts.
ReplyDeleteI just gotta say: if it is really a choice between a shot & a life on the line, choose the life, goofball!
but what if this big monster with one eyeball and fire coming out from its head and a rainbow coming out from his ears and its changing the sky multi colored and is trying to grab a little baby then what???
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