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|| SportsShooter.com: News Item: Posted 2002-11-04
Review: 'Get the Picture' by John Morris
What Photographers Should Be Reading
By Jim McNay, Brooks Institute of Photography
This is an extraordinary time in photojournalism. We're lucky in to live in it, as many of the veterans who put the foundation in place are writing books to explain the background of how we arrived where we are today.
Veteran picture editor John Morris has just offered his contribution to the discussion with his new book, "Get the Picture." He worked as a picture editor at LIFE magazine, The Washington Post and the New York Times and serving as the Executive Director at Magnum Photos.
One of the most useful insights Morris' gives us is how big companies with great talent and massive resources may not always do things right. Often the tendency is to think our small organizations just can't get it right, but the Big Boys, well, they get it right all the time! Morris pulls back the curtain to show that to be a myth. It may give us some relief as we work at our newspapers and television stations that the battles for the best picture use and best visual storytelling are exactly the same ones being fought in the major media outlets across the country.
Along this journey, Morris introduces us to many of the major figures of the early years of both LIFE and Magnum. We meet the photographers of those times, including Magnum founder Robert Capa. Also strolling across the scene are people such as Ernest Hemingway, Ingrid Bergman, John Steinbeck and photographer Lee Miller, about whom probably far too little is known among contemporary photojournalists. This fascinating woman seemed to affect everyone who knew her in a special way, while coming away with some of the most memorable pictures of World War II. And with the picture Morris chooses to include in his book, will we ever be able to look at a champagne glass the same again?
Though Morris is more of a picture editor than photographer, he embodies the commitment to photojournalism found in many of the finest photographers we admire. This often appears when people have the choice between going after greater income or choosing the path leading to the most interesting work.
Morris' choice came when left a staff job an the then very influential Ladies Home Journal to run Magnum. Though Magnum was willing to pay him more than anyone had received previously to do this job, it was still a $2,000 pay cut from what he had been making.
This kind of decision follows the pattern of so many of the excellent, committed photographers Morris knew and worked with. The work was of the highest importance. If they could get paid something for it in the process, then all the better. But it was not about the money. It was about the opportunity to work with great talent and to tell the most interesting stories relevant to the time. We might well ask if today many of us would make the kind of decision Morris made, following his commitment to pursue the most interesting work.
Today Morris lives in Paris, is deeply involved with the W. Eugene Smith Foundation and administers the Smith awards each year. In addition he is often a judge of the World Press Photo competition. Given the great photographers he has worked with it was time for Morris to set it all down on paper. His look at the development of photojournalism during the last several decades is a special one, seen through the eyes of an excellent picture editor. He offers a special insight into the recent development of photojournalism.
Related Links:
Book: Get the Picture
Jim McNay's Member Page
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