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If the war in Ukraine is the biggest story in the world.... are the next generation of great photojournalists there??

Rob Skeoch

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This might be a bit of a ramble. I've been thinking about this for a while.
I'm 63 and grew up as a photographer. I worked full time at five newspapers before switching full-time to sports photography where I spent a career working with MLB and the NFL.
While working at newspapers I attended regular meetings of news photographers and listened to the great shooters of the time. David Burnett, Eddie Adams, Mary Ellen Mark and countless others made the rounds on the 'rubber chicken tour' as speakers at news conferences.
I realize Mary Ellen wasn't a war photographer but the other two were both at Vietnam and seemed to indicate those tough days where part of the road to the successes they found afterwards.

Now this is my question. If the current war in Ukraine is the biggest news story in the world, are the next generation of great photographers over there cutting their teeth? And for all the press and rants from influencer's about how they're giving a voice to people without a voice, or they're the greatest street shooter ever, or how great film photography is, are they going over there with their new Leica M6 (2023) and a hundred rolls of TriX to take important photos, or have they revealed themselves to be a bunch of 'posers'?
Peter Turnley did a great photo essay on people fleeing from the Ukraine by train when the war first broke out.... he did a great job and I can't express how wonderful it was, but he wasn't in the conflict zones or with the troops. But I'm not trying to take anything away from how great the photo story was. (Shot on digital, just to be clear since this is a film website)
Do you feel the next generation of world leading photojournalists are in Ukraine learning how to be photojournalists, or will we be forced to look at photos of the greatest gear ever created for photography, next to a cup of coffee in the safety of the local Starbucks?
Just wondering.

And I could be wrong about this, I'm wrong all the time, just ask my wife.

You can do a google search for Turnley's photos from the Ukraine or find the piece in the Post here..... https://www.washingtonpost.com/magazine/interactive/2022/agony-endurance-escape-ukraine-pictures/
 

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At this time we would be discussing more about opportunists playing into their own future hoping to snap something that will have given them Pulitzer.

For me time will have come after this war is over to look at what was recorded and evaluate then.

In other words I don't think this is the right time to put anything of this nature up for a discussion.
 
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The big difference between now and then (Vietnam for example) is that today there is no viable commercial outlet for still photos of...well, almost anything. Contrast this to the situation in the 1960's and 1970's...we had glossy, full color print magazines like National Geographic, Life, Look, Time and hundreds of daily news papers that paid(!) real money for photos and employed real photojournalists. Where is that today? How can anybody make a living doing freelance photojournalism today? To my mind, the answer to your question is all about economics. Making money by talking about gear on YouTube is real. Lots of folks are doing it. Where's the money in photojournalism today?
 
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Great points. Thanks for commenting.
 
Rob Skeoch said:
Shot on digital, just to be clear since this is a film website)
Click to expand...

This thread is in a mixed workflow section of a website that encourages discussions about digital photography.
You only need to pay attention to where you start your thread.
 
Yes we will see. Thanks for your comments.
 
Photojournalists are losing their lives in Ukraine. So I would never denigrate what they are doing. Also keep in mind that the Ukrainian government is limiting their access to help Ukraine propagandize their point of view. So it must be difficult for anyone including those writing stories from there to get the real scoop.
 
Rob Skeoch said:
Yes we will see. Thanks for your comments.
Click to expand...

My point is this is an ongoing tragedy, not a time to discuss whether someone is gonna photograph a prize winning image (that is how I simplify your question). I could go a bit further, but that would be against what I just stated.
 
There may be many rookie photojournalists covering the current conflict that we are not aware of and whose work we do not see here in North America because, "it's not our war". They may be publishing their work in venues closer to the decision makers, closer to those whose opinion needs to be influenced.

It's difficult to say what I mean with out editorializing. Hopefully, this passes the "no politics" test.
 
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It would help if we actually had some journalism based magazine outlets with real editors and writers to frame and publish this sort of work.

And, no, this is not a partisan political jab; "Angertainment" has overtaken real journalism, period.

So where would the serious photojournalist publish?
 
  • Kino
  • Deleted
  • Reason: off topic
As someone who worked in journalism for years, I agree with Kino. In the early days of blogging there were several journalists who covered their expenses of covering the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq with contributions to their blogs. I suppose today one could try Substack. We just don’t have Vanity Fair paying Lee Miller to cover the war anymore.
 
There has to be maybe a million pictures already taken but aren't they nearly all on i-phones or TV news motion cameras that deliver instant almost live pictures to our TV screens - well they certainly do in the U.K.

Maybe some kind of a massive editing process could produce a few worthwhile books on it at the end but aren't we long since post the days of Larry Burrows/Don McCullin style of photojournalism and that kind of concept of how nearly all war photo-journalism was delivered?

We may have a hankering for those old days but it isn't what the vast majority of people desire given how instant the news of such events are?

pentaxuser
 
Kino said:
the US-based companies are useless.
Click to expand...

Please keep sweeping statements without further argumentation like these at a bare minimum - or, better yet, leave them out entirely.

Discussing the quality of (photo)journalism in itself is very useful, but please let's observe some basic rules of decency.
 
BradS said:
There may be many rookie photojournalists covering the current conflict that we are not aware of and whose work we do not see here in North America because, "it's not our war".
Click to expand...

..but if that's true, why was Sean Penn there.......?
 
My question: Are there enough outlets to encourage photojournalism? Life, Look, Time and Newsweek?
 
  • CMoore
  • Deleted
  • Reason: Interesting point, but inflammatory formulation
Thanks for your comments. Do you know the names of any who have died? Would like to appreciate their work.
 

Very good point,
 
Thanks guys for reading my thread.
I also wonder about other visual artists . If I was a portrait painter, and I'm not, I would want to paint the rawness of what's happening. Maybe there are plenty on the ground, since I have no idea who they are, but didn't artists, including photographers, painters, sculpturers, go and see for themselves... “We must go and see for ourselves.” —Jacques Cousteau, who was not a photographer, but an adventurer.... but you know what I mean.
 
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