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|| SportsShooter.com: News Item: Posted 2007-05-08
Gray Matters: The responsibility falls on you
Jim Merithew asked several veteran journalists what role photo editors play in ethics or the lack there of.
By Jim Merithew, San Francisco Chronicle
Photo by Jim Merithew / San Francisco Chronicle
RJ Cervantes cools off after becoming upset that his prom date's mother is running late and causing them to miss their dinner reservations. Imagine how mad he would be if he was a picture editor and he found out one of his shooters was unethical.
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I have a confession to make.
I'm a photo editor.
I'm really one of you.
It's true.
Some of you may have already noticed this, but for those of you who did not, it may come as a bit of a shock.
I was a photographer and there are even times that I fancy I could be one again, but then I get my semi-regular rejection letter from "that" newspaper and alas I find that I am still a photo editor.
Don't get me wrong. I love my job. I get to look at photographs everyday, I get to assign, coach and edit with some amazing photographers, I get to stay inside when it rains and I don't have to hunt for a parking spot in this city.
Even after eight years of being a fulltime photo editor I still find it difficult to communicate about photography and photographs. It is precarious business to use words to describe photographs because they will stick to a photograph like glue, sometimes in your favor and other times not.
Anyway, the question has been raised as to what role photo editors play in ethics or the lack there of.
"Unfortunately, I believe that there is an inherent pressure placed by some editors (photo and words) on photographers to always make perfect photos. Kick ass, but don't mess up! The reality is that few photo ops are perfect - let alone photos themselves," said Sol Neelman, a staff photographer at The Oregonian.
"Another factor is that many picture editors were never photographers themselves. They don't have a working knowledge of what it means to be "there" and make pictures. The second guessing and lack of trust between editors and photographers can nurture an environment so pressure filled that people are willing to do things they know are wrong," said Beth Keiser, a New York City-based freelance photographer.
As you might expect the majority of the photo editors I sought out saw the situation a different way.
"I've been fortunate in my career to work at places where any undue pressure doesn't exist. Expectations are high, but as a picture editor looking through a photographer's take it's really easy to see how much effort was put into an assignment, and I take that into consideration. Spend five minutes on an assignment and you don't get a photo, well then you deserve to have a little pressure applied," said Mary Vignoles, Senior Picture Editor at the Los Angeles Times.
"I make no assumptions and have no expectations about what a photographer is going to come back with in their camera. I prepare them with precise understanding of the story, the characters involved, a possible situation or two and leave the rest to them. On a Monday it's ridiculous to predict that an assignment on Wednesday will result in a cover picture for Friday," said Ian Malkasian, photo assignment editor at The Oregonian.
I have worked with some photo editors that were amazing and I have also worked with some that I still don't know what they were talking about to this day. Once again I think the responsibility falls on the individual photographer to seek understanding of the expectations and implement those expectations in a reasonable way.
"In the daily workflow if we go to an assignment and the subjects are there to do something just for us, we just shoot a headshot or a portrait. Or we go back another time when they are "really" doing something," said Kevin Swank, AME / Visuals at the Evansville Courier & Press.
Once again, if you happen to work at a place where your bosses have gone to great strides to put you into amazing photographic situations and if when it turns out that those same situations really are not ideal the boss is supportive, then I say hoorah for you.
But, if you happen to work in a place, like so many of you do, where not much thought has been put into the where, when and especially the why of your assignments then that responsibility falls on you. You will need to be a problem solver, not a troublemaker. You will need to look at each photo assignment as a request. It will be a request for you to be a journalist. It will be a request for you do a little journalism. You will have to determine if there is a real photograph to be made and if so, when and where. You will have to ask yourself, where is the picture? And if there is not a real photograph to be made, then you will have to offer visual solutions, more than likely in the form of a portrait. A nice portrait.
"The responsibility rests with the person pushing the button," said Malkasian.
The views expressed in this column are those of the author and the author alone. They do not represent the views of his employer, co-workers, friends or family.
(Jim Merithew is a picture editor at the San Francisco Chronicle. Jim invites you to direct your questions and comments about this column and other issues involving photojournalism ethics to him through his member page: http://www.sportsshooter.com/merithew.)
Related Links:
Merithew's member page
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