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|| SportsShooter.com: News Item: Posted 2006-05-16
Paying Dues: Showing you want it
Breaking into just about any profession-photojournalism for sure-almost always requires the paying of dues.
By Jim McNay, Brooks Institute of Photography
Photo by Brad Mangin
"Breaking into just about any profession-photojournalism for sure-almost always requires the paying of dues." - Jim McNay
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Baseball players often start in the minors; maybe move up to the majors. Musicians might play in small clubs before getting a shot at concert audiences. Actors often do small films or stage productions before getting to Hollywood or Broadway.
Of course there are exceptions, and the exceptions sometimes get a lot of publicity. But that publicity happens because they are exceptions.
Most of us aren't that lucky. We have to start some distance from the top and over time, show we're ready for prime time.
Student photographers do this by climbing a familiar ladder. They might start working for a campus publication. If there is nothing on campus, students will look into the local community where they attend school and find a way to get published-regularly. The cleverest ones will do everything they can to be involved in some kind of publishing effort every semester they are in school.
The next step in dues paying tends to be internships. The target is to have one of these (or assistantships) every summer one is in school. If for some reason summer internships don't work or are inconvenient, then a fall or spring term internship is a good substitute. There may be fewer internships then, but there are also fewer students chasing them. The odds of getting on improve for the prepared photographer.
After graduation, of course every photojournalism major is ready to take on the world. New graduates may not have heard much of their commencement speaker's comments. Almost every one of them heard the obligatory part of that speech that told the graduating class how great they are. This is the part the new grads invariable hold on to and believe.
Which is a bit unfortunate, since that is a bit like actors who start to believe their good reviews. For in the working world, there is an unfortunate cliché new graduates face:
No matter if you are graduating at age 21 or 42, no matter if this is your first degree or your fifth, to the professional world, you are "just out of college." That means there is a large sign over your head flashing "beginner" in bright red letters.
No, it doesn't matter, much, where you went to school, where you interned, what awards you won in college. Journalism is very now-driven. You may have done wonderful things while attending a great university. The truth is, you haven't yet done wonderful things in the town where you hope to be hired.
You were the college photo editor two years in a row? Great. You had three internships, each time at a bigger and better publication? Neat. You won a category in the College Photographer of the Year contest, and placed in two others? Super.
That was then. Today you are someone Just Starting Out.
This is often the tough part. We paid a lot of money for school, sometimes one with a big rep. We sweated through a lot of tough critiques and lot of boring local assignments in our college town or at our internships. We want to think we have paid our dues already.
In the eyes of the profession, mostly not. Instead we are about to begin paying the dues that mean something to the pros.
What that means is we often start our post-college careers at publications and in companies smaller than we might like: Small newspapers instead of large ones; small circulation magazines instead of the major weeklies; small market television stations instead of those in major markets.
It's called paying dues.
The good news in these situations is, we are working, we are getting paid, and we probably have digital cards given to us, and our work is seen by several thousand people regularly.
We can complain about our lot all we want. Frankly, this ain't bad for a Beginner. We are In The Game. We have a chance to work in journalism, so show what we can do, to work with our favorite journalism tools every day.
Not bad for a Beginner.
And even at this entry level we are considered professionals. Other pros will start to take us seriously. And when we ask questions, seek critiques, or just want to hang out; we have a chance to edge in a bit from the outer circles of the professional ranks. We have a chance to show we are serious, to demonstrate we are committed to this line of work, to prove we're passionate about what we do.
Not bad for a Beginner.
Bottom line: What college does is earn us the right to start paying our dues as a pro and to start building a career from there. Not bad for a Beginner.
Photographers, particularly those in school or seeking to break into the photojournalism, are welcome to send ideas for future columns to Jim McNay at jim.mcnay@brooks.edu.
Questions about getting started in photojournalism that might be answered in future columns are also welcome.
Related Links:
Brooks NPPA Student Chapter
Brooks Institute of Photography
Jim McNay's Member Page
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