Spotlight on Lisa Krantz

TID:

Lisa, we're excited to feature an image from your
Sam Houston High School project.

This was part of a large body of work that was a finalist
for POY's Community Awareness Award. Can you tell us
about the project and how it got started?







LISA:


The proposal for the project was put into motion when Sam
Houston High School was placed on the school closure list
by the San Antonio Independent School District. Facing the
loss of the only high school in San Antonio’s predominantly
African-American East Side, the community rose up and
loudly opposed the decision. I started the project not knowing
if I was documenting the last year at a school with a 58-year
history or a year of a school in transition, struggling to turn
itself around and lose the stigma of a failing school. The
original access was granted by the new principal and arranged
by the orginal reporter (who left the paper before we started
the project) and my photo editor, Anita Baca, since I was out
of town as the meetings took place.


TID:

How long did you work on this project?








LISA:

After meetings with administrators, the public information
officers and school faculty, all access issues were figured out
by October 2009, but I wasn’t able to start photographing until
mid-October because of previous commitments. Basically I had
from mid-October until early June. Graduation was on June 6
and it ran that Sunday and Monday. The picture you chose for
TID, I made at the end of my first week of really trying to
immerse at the school.

TID:

Can you talk about how you worked to gain access?


I had almost complete access to the school in terms of being
able to walk in the door and into any classroom. But the
access to the real moments and the students’ lives was what
I had to come up with on my own. And of course that was
the tough part, especially with teenagers who think you are
there to portray their school in a negative light. They really
didn’t know why I was there except their school was being
scrutinized and possibly shut down. I explained over and
over but with 750 students, I was still meeting them and
explaining what I was doing through the school year.









I started out the project photographing the football team
because the coach and the players were very open, and it
was an opportunity to get to know them and sit in the stands,
meeting students and parents in a less structured setting.
Also one of the biggest reasons I followed the football team
was I could go after my shift. I work 7-4 Friday and 8-5
Saturday, so I could almost always get on their bus and could
always make it to the game and not worry about getting called
to go to a last minute assignment or news. The players ignored
me and accepted me so it seemed normal for me to photograph
them at school too which morphed into the other students being
more accepting. Following the football team turned into a section
for the online presentation that didn’t have much to do with
sports, it was about the coaches serving as surrogate fathers to
boys who didn’t have positive male role models in their lives. It’s
one of my favorite parts.

I always sat down with students, asked them questions, listened to
their stories. I talked to them about how to tell their stories. Some
understood, some didn’t. It was a ton of following up with them,
lots of texting, especially for photographing them outside of school.

Access even to the very end was an evolving process. I always felt
at risk of losing the access I had. Teenagers are so aware of the
camera these days and they were very aware of the negative
perception of their school and their neighborhood. They were
very protective of how I would portray their school. That made
it a challenge to photograph some of the more difficult moments
and stories because the students would react to that and tell me,
“You are just going to make us look bad,” or “Miss, don’t take a
picture of that.”

So to counteract that, I went to everything I was invited to. Every
band concert, every awards ceremony, everything positive to show
I wasn’t there only for the negative, which I hoped would allow me
a little more leeway to photograph the “negative.” I thought that
tactic would work better than it did, but I do think it was very
important to do in the long run. And I got to know, and love, more
kids by going to so many of their activities.









TID:

You made the bulk of the images in between assignments
and on your own time. Can you tell us how you managed to
balance the project with your work and your personal life?

LISA:

Personal life? What’s that? I have to admit I didn’t do much
outside of work between daily assignments, other stories that
I worked on throughout the 9 months, and Sam. I didn’t even
exercise much, which is really important to me but when faced
with the decision to photograph after school/after my shift, I
couldn’t say exercise was more important. In hindsight, keeping
my life more balanced would have cleared my head and helped
the project. It’s hard to see that when you are so immersed. I
felt like I had such a small amount of time to tell such a big,
multi-layered story that had so much potential so I put a lot
on hold, including the important relationships in my life. My
family and friends were extremely understanding and supportive
though.



TID:

Was there any moments of conflict, or times when people didn't
want you to take pictures? If so, how did you handle it?

LISA:

There were many moments of conflict when people didn’t want
me to take pictures. Many students thought I would make them
look bad - their perception of media coverage for their school
and neighborhood was largely negative. When I would raise my
camera to photograph tense moments, the students would ask
me not to photograph. Once, a girl starting punching a boy in
the head and it had to do with me. They were joking about who
I should be photographing and next thing I know she’s punching
him. So, do I take the picture of something my presence actually
caused? After a moment I decided to take the picture, raised my
camera and effectively she stopped. In the process, I upset the
other students. That was kind of a constant battle, at least in
my head, how far to push in that regard.









As I’ve described, many a click of the shutter felt like it could
turn the students against me. I had to stay focused on why I
was there, that I wasn’t a good journalist if I didn’t show every
side. I wanted to tell their story as purely as possible, with
balance and fairness.

I’ve made a habit of being focused on light and color as a
storytelling element, but there I couldn’t. Florescent lights,
school uniforms of white, orange or green polos and khaki
pants. I had to focus on moments, and I’m glad because that
was the way I think this story had to be told. I was completely
focused on the moments, the interaction, something I feel
photojournalism often loses in the quest for “style” and “vision.”
I say this because I’ve been lost in that quest myself at times
in my career, as we are hopefully constantly evolving in our
development as visual storytellers.

The project was truly an emotional roller coaster. I wrote about
this in the NPPA article - I noticed I didn’t listen to the radio anymore.
I really didn’t care about anything else, all I could think about was
their stories, and how to tell their stories. I’m already pretty focused
and obsessed when I’m working on a project, so I’m sure I was not
too much fun to be around during this process.


TID:

Now, to the image. Can you give us some insight?


LISA:

I had been hanging out with the students on the left since I
arrived at the homecoming dance. They were gathered
outside and a couple I had recently met were being affectionate
so I was trying to capture that. It was also a really diverse
group so it was a good opportunity to try to tell that part of the
story. I walked into the dance with them and continued to watch
them. Honestly, I don’t remember my exact thinking at that
moment, except I had been watching them. I somehow noticed
the girl dancing near them and anticipated her dancing by. As
you can see, they weren’t paying any attention to her at first. I
don’t remember if I even saw what her shirt said. I’m
embarrassingly inattentive to some details. It was a pretty
simple situation.






TID:


In situations like a high school dance, people are often
very aware of a photographers presence, and yet you seem
to be able to blend in very well. Can you tell us how you achieve
this?

LISA:

I really don’t know how I achieve this. I feel somehow I am easily
ignored by most people I photograph. I have no idea why or how.
I’m sure this happens with most photojournalists or we wouldn’t be
able to do our jobs but I am always amazed at the situations I walk
into and start to photograph and nobody pays me any mind.


TID:

You've worked on numerous long-term stories. Can you
tell us your motivation behind this type of work?







LISA:



The whole reason I want to be a photojournalist is to bring greater
understanding to issues and people’s lives, to educate viewers about
people, places, things they would otherwise not know about, or might
turn a blind eye to. A long term project has so many layers and is
always growing. It can bring depth to a story and people in a way
rarely found within a daily assignment. To me, a story should be told
in layers, with each photograph building upon the next to tell the story
in the truest way, with an ebb and flow of emotions and situations.

The kind of photographer I am is both a blessing and a curse, because
I always think there is a better picture to be made if I just wait long
enough for the moment. I think the light, the composition, if I keep trying
to make it better, that it will be better. I despise the phrase, “good enough,”
because I feel I can and should always do better. So this is especially
applicable to a long term story, because you can tell the story in a
much more complete way.









TID:

Thanks for all your insight Lisa, one final question. Do you have
advice for photographers who want to work on community-type
stories that span over long periods of time?


LISA:

Time is everything, tons of time. The time you put in equals
access, comfort level and our ultimate goal, becoming part of
the scene so life goes on as if you aren’t there. I think showing
the people who’s story you are trying to tell how committed
you are goes a long way in their openness to you. Above all
you must be committed and self-motivated. You can’t expect
anyone else to push you or stay on top of what you are doing.
Most newspaper editors are too busy to deal with long-term
projects on a regular basis.

With a community story, there are many layers and many stories
within the bigger story. It takes listening to people a lot and
engaging them to find out their stories. Sometimes their stories
are the ones you want to tell, sometimes their stories lead to
other stories. Within every situation I’m in, I’m looking for the
next story, the next situation I want to put myself in where I can
make pictures that will tell the story I’m trying to tell.

Stay organized (although I am incapable of following this advice).
Organize names and phone numbers, and try to use the same
notebooks for the story. Stay on top of the editing. Get an editor,
mentor, teacher, trusted friend, etc. to give you feedback throughout.


+++++

Lisa Krantz is a staff photographer at the San Antonio Express-News. She joined the Express-News in 2004 after working at the Naples (FL) Daily News for five years. She received a psychology degree from Florida State University and earned her master’s degree in photography from Syracuse University.

At the Express-News she covers everything from hurricanes to the NBA Championship but her true love is finding and telling intimate, untold stories in her community. She is a three-time NPPA Region 8 Photographer of the Year, in 2005, 2009 and 2010, for a diverse array of assignments and long-term projects.


In 2011, Lisa was awarded third place Newspaper Photographer of the Year in POYi. Her project chronicling a year at Sam Houston High School, a troubled school threatened with closure, was also awarded second place Issue Reporting Picture Story and named a finalist for the Community Awareness Award in POYi. The project was part of the portfolio that earned Lisa the 2010 Scripps Howard Foundation National Journalism Award for Photojournalism and was named a finalist for the ASNE Community Photojournalism Award.


You can view her work at:

http://www.lisakrantz.com/

Sam multimedia:

http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/education/item/Sam-Houston-High-School-Video-Container-3633.php/




+++++

Next week on TID, we'll take a look behind this image from Lexey Swall:





As always, if you have a suggestion of someone, or an image you
want to know more about, contact Ross Taylor at: ross_taylor@hotmail.com.

For FAQ about the blog see here:

http://imagedeconstructedfaq.blogspot.com/

Spotlight on Justin Cook

TID:

Justin, thanks for being a part of this. I'm very excited to feature
this picture. It's remained, in my mind, one of my favorite and
surprising images that I've seen over the years.

Please tell us about this picture.









JUSTIN:


Thanks Ross, it is an absolute honor to be featured on this
blog in the company of so many talented photographers. I
read each new entry and always come away feeling more
educated.

This image is what I consider the peak moment of a drug
raid in Durham, North Carolina, an image I made during my
senior year at the University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill.
In summation, undercover officers purchased drugs from this
home on multiple occasions as part of a sting operation. After
obtaining a search warrant, they raided the house with the help
of a SWAT team. I was only 22 years-old at the time I made this
photo and really inexperienced, so it was a rather intense
experience leading up to moment of the image.



TID:

Since this image is part of a larger body of work, please talk
about the what the story is, and where it fits within it.


JUSTIN:


The larger story I was working on was about the Durham Police
Department's Gang Enforcement Units, or Gang Units for short.
Gang-related shootings and homicides were spiking in Durham,
and there was a lot of national attention to gang issues and I
wanted to do a story that somehow captured that. When I
discovered this unit I was fascinated by what they were doing
at the street level. I essentially broke the story down into simple
themes and wanted to capture them in very defined moments.
This photo fit into one of the themes on my list: "an intimate and
unexpected moment." I hunted for such a photo for months with
no luck, and then it just happened one day, very quickly, when
I least expected it.








TID:


It's remarkable to me that you did this at such a young age. How did
you manage to gain access to this story?


JUSTIN:


It’s actually very random. Pat Davison, my professor at UNC,
told me that someone from PR at the police department called
him and wanted to know if any of his students wanted to come
ride along with an officer. The department needed some generic
photos of officers doing their jobs for an annual report. The
department figured it would be a good way to give students a
chance to see the police in action.

I went out one afternoon with an officer, and it was really uneventful.
At the beginning of the summer I got an email from the PR officer
again, and she wanted to know if I would be interested in coming
out one night when the department was doing “city-wide operations.”
She said it would be a chance for me to see some “really gritty
stuff.” I couldn’t turn that down.

What happened next changed me forever.


I rode along all night with the Durham Police Special Operations
Division while they executed search warrants with a SWAT team.
To say it was intense was an understatement for someone as
green as I was. Back at the station I sat down next to a woman
dressed in a t-shirt, combat boots and tactical pants. She started
talking to me, and asked me how my time went. I told her it was
the craziest night of my life and that I’d love to do it again. We
chit-chatted a lot and I told her about the in-depth projects I was
doing for my photojournalism major at UNC. Then she introduced
herself.

Turns out I had been talking to the Major of Uniform Patrol and
she was third to the Chief of Police in command. She said if I ever
wanted to come ride along with the Gang Units to let her know, and
she gave me her card. I asked her “How about tomorrow night?”
She obliged. The next night she “embedded” me with Gang Unit 2
and my time with them was crazier than the night before. I emailed
her when I got home at 2 am, slightly stunned, sent her links to my
work from school and asked her if she would be open to me doing
a project about the Gang Unit. She arranged it so I could go ride
with them any time I wanted to. I had an all access pass. I was in
but things hadn’t gotten crazy yet. The real trick was getting along
with my subjects.









TID:


I'm assuming there was some complications. What were they, and how
did you overcome them?


JUSTIN:

I think many of the officers were skeptical of me at first, and that
was a huge hurdle. I think it is only natural for the police or anyone
that functions as a unit or team to be suspicious of outsiders. I also
felt like a third wheel at first since the major was insisting on me
riding along. They ran their mouths to me a lot and talked shit to
each other all the time. They always joked that if they did anything
wrong that I would “run and tell the Major,” like I was some whiney
kid sent to spy on their unit. It was how they bonded and how they
tested me, to see if I could hang.

I tried to earn my keep, and I began to talk junk back to them, and
I think they respected me. But I came back basically every night that
summer and many times each week during the school year. Soon it
was like I was part of the team. We developed an interesting rapport.
They were cocky, hilarious and they were good at what they did.
Their tactics were wild and unorthodox compared to the popular image
of a police officer. I have to say I liked them immediately.

When they weren't making fun of me or telling me my photos
sucked (they were always "dark and blurry") they were looking out
for me on the street. They even tried to goad me into joining them
when they worked out together as a team. Eventually they opened
up to me and told me all sorts of things, from bitching about the
politics of the police department to showing me photos of their kids
and how tall they had grown in the past month. Their jobs were not
glamorous, rather they were grueling, and they witnessed a lot of
hard things day in and day out. They still got the job done on their
terms, though. I admired them for their ability to do that, and I realized
I could never do what they do. Some days it was like the movie
“Super Troopers” and other days it was white knuckle until their shifts
ended. They really seemed to trust me, and I’ll never really know why.
Maybe they just wanted to be heard. They even gave me a nickname,
"Clickit," after the noise my camera made.











The gang units worked with the SWAT teams on more dangerous
assignments such as the raids on houses, vehicle take-downs, and
standoffs with armed suspects, because even with their best intelligence,
they never knew what to expect. Some of the on-call SWAT officers
worked as gang officers during the day and they began to take
notice of me. A lot of them were ex-military, and they were much
quieter than the regular gang officers. They seemed curious about
me, and I began to build rapport with them. They wanted me to take
photos of them and soon enough I was riding in their raid van on the
way to the houses, in a stack of urban soldiers who were dressed
in full combat gear. It was one hell of a summer, and it was humbling
to have the access I had.

A big challenge was trying to stay out of the officers’ way. Often I
was up front and center in moments of great chaos. Some of the
raids were really intense and my senses needed to be sharp.
Sensory overload was common - the noises of stun grenades
exploding, doors being shot open, the sounds of frightened
children and occupants was a commonplace. What I experienced
couldn't compare to actual combat (which I have never seen), but it
felt like the Wild West.

The officers could be squirrely about me shooting photos on private
property, but often I would talk to the residents and explain what I
was doing, and they wouldn’t mind me being there. In a sense, I
think some of them wanted me there because they felt if the police
abused their authority, I’d have it on camera. I think on the same
coin the police felt that I’d have the events on camera in the case
that a suspect made a false claim against them. Eventually it
wasn't an issue and I’d began to move very freely in the houses.
Sometimes suspects just thought I was a cop. I carried a model
release with me just in case.








Another complication was my own emotions. What I saw in
Durham was a sick game: a cycle of poverty and crime that was
really frustrating. It was a microcosm of a national trend. There
were so many things contributing to that game, things so much
bigger than myself, and I felt small and adrift. I frequently
glimpsed people’s inhumanity, their desperation and the
damage done by community apathy. I felt powerless and an
immense sadness which fueled some of my photos. I closed
myself off from my friends a lot and bottled my frustrations.
That’s why began to relate to many of the officers’ frustrations
with their jobs, and sometimes they could be very comforting.
An officer from the SWAT team who usually operated the
battering ram during raids gave me great advice once: he said
that he “focuses on the guy next to him and on knocking down
doors together,” and that I should too. That is pretty deep if
you think about it in the context of community.

I also saw some of the most sincere expressions of love
within some dire circumstances, and I realized that people are
people no matter how they live - whether they are cops or criminals.
Most importantly it made me realize how screwed up things
can be in our own country, and how important it was for me
to know my own community, including its underbelly. I realized
that I didn’t need to go to some war-torn country half-way around
the world to photograph poverty or violence. I asked myself,
“How can I help people in Africa if I can’t serve people in Durham?”


TID:

Now, onto the image. Tell us what lead up to the image and how you
handled gaining access to it, and what was going through your mind
at the time.

JUSTIN:

The Gang Unit was working with SWAT to serve a search warrant
after establishing probable cause that drugs were sold in the home.
Officers often never knew what to expect. There could be a huge
stash of drugs or guns there, or there could be a tiny bit of pot, it
all depended on the timing of the raid. If they showed up too late
everything could be sold, distributed to dealers or transferred to
some other place for storage. They hit the house hard and had to
ram the door open. The explosion of the stun grenade they used
was deafening. The first thing I saw was a woman laying on the floor
behind the door, a sandwich laying next to her. She was completely
startled.

The occupants were detained on the front porch as officers
searched the home. Officers rushed to the back of the house
to intercept some people trying to flee from the back door. The
last people out of the house were a mom and her young son.
She looked visibly shaken, but her kid seemed unfazed by the
chaos, and this grabbed my attention immediately. I began to
photograph the scene on the porch.






Most of the officers have kids and they hate seeing a child caught
up in a raid like this. Some guys from the SWAT team brought him
a stuffed animal to calm him, but he was calm and the mother
needed it more than he did. A SWAT officer whispered in my ear
that the kid had experienced a raid before and that was why he was
so calm. I was shocked. It was wild to think that this might be a
normal experience for this kid. I shifted all my attention to him.
During the search, SWAT maintained their formation around the
house and the kid began to high-five and hug one of the officers
on the porch. He started playing with his flashlight. The mood at
the scene really shifted and it was easy to forget I was at a drug
raid. Suddenly the child looked up at the officer and said “I gotta
potty,” and he was escorted into the bathroom. I rushed in front of
them to catch the scene. I fumbled with my camera settings and
focus and tried to melt into the background. I only made three frames
of the whole thing before the moment ended.

TID:

Was there any concern about you taking this picture at the time, and
if so, how did you handle it?

JUSTIN:

Their wasn’t much concern. It was in the heat of things, and the
officer and the child never even acknowledged me in that moment.
Honestly I barely remember taking this photo, but I will never
forget that day. I remember a Sergeant walked past me after I took
it, and he made some snide joking comment about how I was a
pedophile. I fired my own choice words back at him (joking of
course since that is how we related). And just like that we were
off to raid a house down the street. I didn’t even have time to talk
to the kid’s mom. I really want to meet her and see how she is doing today.

Concerns developed more after I made the image. A few days
later, I brought a print of it to the special operations commander
and he loved it. The general feeling amongst the officers was that
the moment captured the often complex nature of their job: one
that requires brute force and a soft heart. To me it was a slice of
humanity wedged between moments of chaos and some larger,
unfortunate circumstances. One of the officers who never really had
nice things to say to me (not out of spite, but mostly to toughen
me up) pulled me aside one day and told me “Clickit, I talk shit
to you a lot but I wanted you to know that your photo is great.
It’s like a 21st century Norman Rockwell painting.” I thanked him
and then he told me I was “still a piece of shit.” I think that is the
greatest compliment I will ever receive.

Everything got weird a few years later. An online blog got ahold
of the photo and decried it as a moment of police brutality, evidence
of the over-militarization of our police forces. People even said I was
a pedophile and not a journalist and it was really frustrating. It’s funny,
the first people to defend me were the officers I worked with, which
really blew my mind. I have never been so humbled in my life.

A few years ago when I was working for The Roanoke Times I got
a call from a US Marshal. He wanted to know if I was Justin Cook,
a photographer who went to UNC and used to live in Durham.
Confused as to why he was calling, I told him that was correct.
After reassuring me I wasn’t in trouble, he asked me about this
photo. A long story short: he was part of a federal court case
against a polygamist cult in Texas that was broken up and raided
by federal argents. The cult’s defense attorneys had stolen this
image from a website and entered it as evidence in their federal
trial. They claimed that the photo was made during the raid on
their compound, and was evidence of police brutality during the
“unjust” raid. The US Marshal needed my help in proving that they
had entered fake evidence in a federal trial, which was easy for me.










I was shocked but also laughing hysterically in disbelief. It was
surreal. After he proved to me that he was a real agent, I faxed
him documents to prove that the image was mine and even sent
him raw photos, including some before and after the moment. He
thanked me profusely and told me my help was crucial. The now
defunct Court TV even called me about the image too for a story
they were doing about the trial. It was really bewildering. I went to
bed satisfied knowing a single photo shot in 2005 might help
discredit the defense of a potentially dangerous cult halfway
across the country four years later.

Regardless of what people thought of the photo or of me, I am
glad it made people pause and that it sparked varied reaction
and debate. I guess that is the point of a photo, to start a dialogue.
I felt like I had done my job, for that moment at least. The image is
kind of ambiguous but I hope I have cleared up the misconceptions
about it.

TID:

I think many people think you have to be a very seasoned photographer
before you start pushing deep into social issues, but you dove right in
from the beginning. I encourage people to look through your website to
see more examples of your intimacy. That being said, it took me years to
feel comfortable in situations you seem to feel comfortable in right away.

What goes through your mind, do you think, to make this possible.
How do you think you're mental process is different than others?

JUSTIN:

I don’t think I will ever really feel comfortable in situations like this,
but I know that I often thrive in chaos. I really like the challenge of
making people feel comfortable and working your way in with your
camera. I was mischievous as a child, and sometimes I get that same
feeling when I have my camera in a situation where cameras are often
not allowed. It feels like I am eating brownie batter out of the bowl
when my mom isn’t looking. Coupled with that emotion, I often feel
sadness and empathy for the subjects I am photographing. Burning
between those two emotions is a special place I go to where the real
“sculpting” or “making” of a photograph takes place. I try to spend
more time listening to subjects, and when they are done talking I try
to share with them something I have experienced in order to relate to
their situation. If I can’t really talk to them, I try to make eye contact
with subjects and let my body and face speak. Non-verbal cues go a
long way.

Sometimes it is hard to lift the camera, sometimes it feels like acting
when you have to swallow your fear, but it doesn’t have to feel like acting
if you are really concerned for people. My good friend and wonderful
photographer Jared Soares said it is often like a dance between compositions,
emotion and interaction. Some photographers I admire are Joseph Rodriguez
and Eugene Richards, and though I will never reach their level I tried to
study their interviews and approaches. From them I have learned to balance
being unassuming/invisible with being present (be it your proximity or
emotional presence). I had some good coaches along the way during my
short time doing this: Melissa Lyttle, Steve Jessmore, Pat Davison to name
a few.











TID:

In conclusion, what advice (think mentally) do you have for photographers
to gain access to these type of situations?

JUSTIN:

The most important lesson I learned was to accept the blurring
of the lines of journalism. I had to unlearn some of the holy
tenants that I was taught in class about drawing lines between
you and your subjects. To maintain the access I had, I needed
to relate to the officers. They wanted to know that I was human.
I couldn't do that by being a quiet, uptight bump-on-a-log. I had
to be involved but I couldn't be too much of a pain in the butt.
When they told me to do something, I did it; when they wanted
me to help them I helped, and all the while I tried to have a
sense of humor.

I simply had to be there as much as I could. There is no
substitute for having your boots on the ground. Sometimes
an officer would call to tell me that their operation that was
planned for 6pm was now at 4pm. It would be 3pm and I
would be in math class at UNC. I would just quickly pack
up and rush to Durham without explaining to my teacher.
Why the hell would she believe me anyway? It is good to
have your heart broken too. The tough things I saw in
Durham broke my heart over and over. I met really amazing
people and connected with people suffering in the wake of
gun violence. I was suddenly thrust into the middle of
everything and in the process I learned a truth: Get close
to your subjects.

I think people have a fear of being unknown. I like to think
that people are inherently relational. Finding ways to relate
to anyone and everyone is key to getting access. If people
can relate to you they are one step closer to liking you. By
nature, people want to be around those they like. I got close
to my subjects and I think it served me well in my future
projects.

My advice is to just be real, be yourself and be dedicated.
My subjects were all those things and I tried to be that to them
in return. It also never hurts to have a little fun.









+++++++


Justin Cook is an independent documentary photographer who lives in Durham, NC with his two cats. He previously worked as a staff photographer at the New River Valley Bureau of The Roanoke Times in Christiansburg, Va from 2007-2010. His work has been entered in the Pulitzer Prize twice, awarded by College Photographer of the Year, Pictures of the Year International, Virginia Press Association, Society of Professional Journalists and other organizations. Although Cook’s photojournalism is award-winning, he gauges his success not in trophies but in the relationships he establishes with his subjects. Cook likes to get close with his lens but even closer with his heart.

Cook’s passion is telling stories about the South and capturing rural and inner city issues. He believes in the power of community and the importance of documentary photography in revealing the tapestry of ordinary peoples’ lives. He has seen that where there is struggle there is triumph, and in the direst of circumstance the most sincere expressions of love. With a little luck he believes the camera can sometimes promote social change.

A 2006 graduate of The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Cook interned at The Dallas Morning News in Texas, The St. Petersburg Times in Tampa, Florida and the Flint Journal in Michigan. He has photographed stories from the wilds of the Scottish Highlands to the sanctity of a 1000-year-old Spanish monastery, the freezing cold of Michigan to the heat of the southwest, the chaos of inner cities to the solitude of rural Appalachia. He has been blessed by many friendships he has formed along the way with people from all walks of life.

Cook enjoys shooting weddings and is accepting freelance assignments anywhere as long as they don’t conflict with televised UNC basketball games.

You can view his work at:

http://www.justincookphoto.com/

+++++++


Next week on TID, we'll take a look behind this image from Lisa
Krantz's impressive body of work on Sam Houston High School:






As always, if you have a suggestion of someone, or an image you
want to know more about, contact Ross Taylor at: ross_taylor@hotmail.com.

For FAQ about the blog see here:

http://imagedeconstructedfaq.blogspot.com/

Spotlight on Chip Litherland

TID:


Chip, it's great to have your image featured here. Please tell
us about it's context.







CHIP:


Thanks for having me, Ross...love The Image, Deconstructed.  
Great information from some really amazing photographers.
I used to carry a scanner in my car way back in the day and
was a major spot news hound.  I would chase anything and
everything.  As I learned quickly, spot news is mostly hurry-up,
get told no, and then stand around for two hours. Most useful
photos are made within the first few minutes of arriving, the
rest is spent trying to get a PIO to give you some semblance
of information about what you are shooting.  









I was having lunch, when I starting noticing plumes of dark
smoke rise along the highway from outside the window of my
home-away-from home, Chick-fil-A.  Knowing my community
and all its back roads came in handy, as I sped out east to see
what was going on.  A few calls to the newsroom confirmed it
wasn't a prescribed burn, which most of the time it is, so I knew
there was a big blank rectangle somewhere in the newspaper
for a photo.  I was there before roadblocks (photo-blocks) were
put up, so I was literally able to drive right into the blaze, which
was swallowing up trees and brush alongside my car and
threatening a subdivision of homes nestled right in the middle
of it.


I knew I was in the right place when just in front of the wall of
smoke and fire, I saw two women in shadow running along the
fence line in their backyard - one in bright blue.  The other in
bright green.  The photo gods threw me a bone for leaving my
lunch behind.









TID:


Ok, now onto the image. Can you describe what was going on
in your mind as the image took shape, and then also what you
were thinking when you made the image.



CHIP:


I believe it was Melissa Lyttle who told me once that she thought
I carried Mennonites in my trunk for when I needed a person in
a photo.  I didn't have any of them (this time), but I knew there was
potential for a photo once I saw the splashes of color against the
darkening background.  I'm a color addict, so once I see it and
want to use it, I tend to just concentrate on that aspect.

I had been shooting for at least an hour before this, so I knew I
had plenty of your standard flame-on-tree, helicopter-with-bucket,
fireman-pointing-at-fire photos.  I don't want to reduce a scary event
like a fire to a joke, but when you cover so many, they become one
in the same.  That's true for a lot of gigs at the newspaper.  My goal
every time I was sent out to make photos was to come back with
something that I liked to look at, and perhaps runnable.










Here's my train of thought for the photo:  "Green.  Mennonite.  Fire.
Smoke.  Crap.  Wait.  Maybe if I stand over here and mentally will
her over, she'll come.  Green.  Green.  Click.  No.  Green.  No.  
Click.  Click.  Click.  Click.  Click.  Ah, that was the one.  Wait, no.  
Cliiiiiiiiiick (that's the motor drive).  Whew.  I hope she'll give me
her name."











Literally that is it.  When I am in a situation that I know is unique,
I tend to just blank out and concentrate on color, light, and
composition.  Reducing the photo to these essential elements
for me is what works.  If a good moment slips in there, then sweet,
but moreover I'm more concerned with setting the stage and
letting life do what it may.

In the end, I just shadowed her for as long as I could, making all
sorts of wide frames of Joyce watching the fire swallow up the
forest behind her house.  After while, the backyard became a very
dark, Burton-esque landscape with a splash of green floating in-
and-out of my frame.  When the wind would gust, her dress would
catch it, so I just moved into a spot where no trees would intersect
with her body language, letting her breathe a bit.  I was standing
on a cinder block so I was able to get just high enough to keep
the separation there. I'm extremely anal about my compositions:
a place for everything and everything in its place.


TID:


You mentioned in a previous email about how you thought this image
represented for you the thought of "not abandoning your vision, even at 
spot news." What does this mean for you?










CHIP:


I don't ever want to just purely document.  I want to see and destroy.  
Even at spot news.  Nothing good can come of making the same
photo every time.  I've seen so many accidents, so many fires, so
much sadness that I have to zone myself out and make it purely
compositional to come up with something different.  That just doesn't
apply to spot news, but in everything we cover as photojournalists.  
It's not about winning a contest or the proverbial pat-on-the-back
from The Man.  It's about making images that satisfy myself visually
first and foremost.  I don't ever want to shoot like someone else,
because I am not.  It's the one thing each of us has in this field is
an eye.  A vision.  A way we see things.  It's more important than
a splashy business card or that random new piece of gear I could
care less about.  In the end, it is all about the rectangles.

The people in the photo matter.  They are someone else's loved one.  
I try to respect that by at least making a photo that make readers
want find out more and perhaps help and/or learn from it.  The only
way to do that is to sucker them into reading eight inches of text
with some eye candy.

Most spot news contest winners tend to be really awfully composed.  
They are great moments, but composed as if my toddler shot it.  It
is getting worse with the iPhone stuff out there (no, not Hipstamatic -
relax).  I'm talking about "user generated content."  Everyone has
a camera with them. Everyone.  Newspapers will run it.  They'll
take it, not pay for it, and run it.  What the millions of people have
that you don't is reach.  What we have that they don't?  Eyes.  Well,
physically most of them have eyes.  They don't have vision, they
don't have a point-of-view, they don't have that squishy pink thing
you have in your skull.  That is uniquely yours.  Use it.  It really is
the only way to survive.


TID:


What were some problems or challenges you encountered during
the coverage of this event, and how did you handle them?

CHIP:


The only challenge I had was physical.  I had to figure out how to
trespass in order to get permission to trespass.  That's harder than
it sounds. When I saw the Sauder sisters, they were a football field
away from me.  I had to get the courage to bury my head, act like
I belonged where I was, and head straight into their backyard to
see if I could hang with them as the fire approached their house.  











Luckily, they were fine and were as transfixed by the Sleepy Hallow-
ness of the scene as I was.  They were taking photos themselves
even as the fire ripped through their backyard, so I knew they
understood why I materialized there.  I still asked.  Always ask.

In general, most people shoot first and beg for forgiveness if they
do something wrong.  I usually just try to be a human, know where
the limits of what I can/can't do and work around them.  In this
instance, I had to break a rule in order to make a photo.  Worth it?  
I don't know, but it looked sweet on A1, and I didn't have to be a
jerk in order to make it.

I came back a few days later and dropped off a print - she came
out in a another dress.  It was grey.  We joked about how the
green dress worked better.










TID:


I'd like to hear your thoughts also about how you approach
much of your work. I have always been impressed by your
use of color and composition. With that, can you lend us
some insight into how you make images?



CHIP:


I approach my work as if I don't have anyone hiring me to do
it.  I didn't always work that way, but I am now.  I don't want
to even press the shutter if it doesn't fit what I've developed
as my vision.  Sometimes I have to, and it's sickening. I break
down a scene before I even start shooting.  I look around and
find that one element that will make or break a photo.  It might
be some random person's red shirt or a tiny patch of window
light hitting someone.  I try to find that key element (i.e. green
dress) and abuse it.  I'll bypass what could be really wonderful
moments at some point to get to a wall or pocket of light where
something may or may not happen.  If I'm wandering for a
feature or street shooting, I scribble down intersections, times
of day, etc., so I know when to come back and stalk.











Color is king over anything else in my work.  Following closely
by composition.  Then light.  Then moment.  This is just me, but
a moment is worthless if its surrounded by sloppy composition
and light.

The advice I have for anyone out there struggling to find
themselves and develop that vision they can call their own is
to really stop and think before shooting.  It doesn't matter if you
are at breaking news event, sports, or even a meeting at city hall.
Seriously, just stop.  Then think.  In the end, you might make less
photos, but it should be about making The Photo.  Thinking about
everything you are including is way more important that including
everything.

The world would be a much better place if everything was painted
a different primary color.  I just wanted to say that.


++++++

Chip Litherland is a self-diagnosed color addict. Pretty much sums it up. He is also an award-winning photographer based in Sarasota, Florida, with over a decade of experience working in photojournalism. He is a contributor to The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times Magazine, St. Petersburg Times, TIME, and ESPN the Magazine. His work has been recognized by Pictures of the Year International, Best of Photojournalism, Atlanta Photojournalism Seminar, Southern Short Course, and the National Press Photographer’s Association. Chip is married to his lovely wife, Elaine, and they have two beautiful daughters together. He is on a 12-step-program to break the cycle of addiction to random gratuitousness, filling rectangles with extremely anal compositions, and sick perversion to oversaturated color. Apparently, he also rants on his blog from time-to-time with a wide range of topics from the evils of Hisptamatic to the death and/or rebirth of photojournalism - depending on the day.

You can view his work at:

http://www.chiplitherland.com/ | portfolio
http://www.chiplitherland.com/blog/ | blog
http://www.chiplitherland.photoshelter.com/ | archive



+++++++


Next week on TID, we'll take a look behind this unusual image by Justin Cook:


>


As always, if you have a suggestion of someone, or an image you
want to know more about, contact Ross Taylor at: ross_taylor@hotmail.com.

For FAQ about the blog see here:

http://imagedeconstructedfaq.blogspot.com/

Spotlight on Angelos Tzortzinis

Editors note:

In the wake of yet another death from the coverage of the conflict
in Libya, it seems even more appropriate for this Saturday's post.
This week, we're taking a break from the normal path of examining
one picture and the mentality behind it, to the mentality of covering
a single theme - covering the news in Libya.

I'm thankful to Angelos for taking the time to lend insight to his
time there, as well as to all the photojournalists who have died
in Libya, including Chris Hondros, who was not just a friend, but
someone who helped show me, and others, the reality of war.



TID:

Thanks so much for being a part of this, we're excited to hear your
insight into what it's like to working in such a difficult situation.

Lets start with getting some of your background of why you went
to Libya in the first place.








ANGELOS:

I would like to thank you for giving me the opportunity to share
my experiences and reflections on such a special story as Libya.
Anything that happens around me draws my attention and
intrigues me to follow it. My motivation for following the story
in Libya was my interest in the fact that one man could spread so
much fear and insecurity to his people, finally turning his military
forces against his own people.

I proposed the story to the greek magazine ''KAPPA'' and I was
assigned to cover the conflict. I traveled 7-hours from the
Egypt-Libyan border to arrive at the city of Benghazi, a deserted
city where the people were concentrated in the central Tahrir
( Freedom ) square - the main gathering point against the regime.
There were no certain feelings at the moment, only questions on
how I would set the pieces together and describe the situation -
and a certainty that the feelings to come would be constant and strong.


TID:

When you arrived in Libya, what was going through your mind?

ANGELOS:

After entering Libya, I spent a night at the city of Tobruk. My
thoughts and worries were focused on what I would face upon
my arrival at Benghazi, and on my efforts were on getting the best
contacts. The risks of being a freelancer are enormous and no mistakes
are acceptable if you want to have a good result. On the way to
Benghazi, there were no signs of war except some checkpoints,
which grew in number as we approached our destination, as well
as my concerns.







TID:

Now, onto, some of the images. We've all seen so many war
images that we almost become numb to them. Can you tell
us what it was like for you mentally as you began to making
these images?

ANGELOS:

After settling in Benghazi, on the first morning there was the
rumor that the city of Ajdabiya has been reclaimed by the rebels.
I worked to secure a driver ,and I reached the spot as soon as
possible. The defeated army of Colonel Gaddafi had been hit by
the French air force on the outskirts of the city and the first signs
of the defeat were obvious from distance. Smoke was rising on the
horizon, and as I approached, the smell of burning oil filled the air.






I didn't shoot at first, I only observed the joy of rebels
over the death of their enemies. Seeing dozens of mercenary
bodies, others incinerated, others totally deformed, created
a momentary shock that was overpowering. The question that
still bothers me is whether it's worth getting paid to kill, or be
be killed, with money as your only motive.

I totally agree that war images have entered our daily lives, and
it's easy to ignore them, but I am certain that there will be some
people that will see them and be concerned about it. That's part
of why I do this.


TID:

It's obviously very dangerous there, can you talk about your mental
approach to photographing in such difficult places?

ANGELOS:

In such occasions as Libya, the conditions for photographing are
very difficult; the feelings and the approach can change instantly.
I always try to take images that could generate questions to the
viewer and fill them with many feelings. You must remain
concentrated so that you could cover your story with the same
personal tempo, in order to have a coherent result. I try not to
be carried away and I approached the image in front me as
news, telling the story through what was I seeing, while keeping my
own feelings personal.

In my opinion, this is the most difficult factor of keeping your work
under control.









TID:

What surprised you about covering this conflict?

ANGELOS:

When you cover such stories, you are often present to very
unfamiliar scenes that can stun you and show you other aspects
of everyday life. In Libya, I was surprised by the fact that there
were people without any substantial military training and
organization but full of enthusiasm and faith on liberating from
a cruel regime. The people were also very open to the western
media. There  was an unprecedented need for telling their
personal stories and a constant effort to condemn a regime
that was killing its own people.

TID:

Since this is an educational blog, can you please explain
logistically how you cover a conflict like this?







ANGELOS:

Before starting your journey for covering such a conflict, you must
get the best information that you can. You should get a better knowledge
about the country's history and how things devolved into to a situation
like this. You must learn how you can access the main spot of the story
with safety, as well as the possible dangers. Moving safely is so important
because when there is a constant change of the frontline, you never know
whether the area you are moving is safe or not. One of the most important
things to know is about communication in this country. Is there a working
telephone network and any internet networks online?

If not, having a satellite phone could save you from very difficult
situations. After gathering this information, you prepare your gear
for your journey. My opinion is that you should be as lightweight
and compact as you can be. One backpack containing with one or
two pair of clothing is sufficient. One small plastic bag with
medicine that should include a general antibiotic, painkillers,
vitamins and medicine for intestinal disorders and poisoning.

The photographic gear depends on the photographer. For me,
2 dslr bodies and 2 lenses are adequate to cover my story. A
laptop, a map, phone and battery chargers, memory cards, a card
reader, a portable HD disk,if possible two for taking better and
safer backups must be included in your backpack. Finally, one
of the most important things to consider is the money that you
should take with you. Many unexpected events could cost you
more and exceeding your budget is almost sure in any occasion.
When you are thinking about if you should take something with
you or not that could prove necessary, just take it. It is better to
carry something extra with you in case you should need it than
not having it even in the most simple occasion. Always remember
that the smallest detail could prove lifesaving.










TID:

Were you ever scared, and if so, how did you handle it?

ANGELOS:

Fear must always be present is these situations. Always be aware
of the situation around you and be alert for any invisible dangers.
Fear should be your shield and not a burden. The most fearful
situation for me was after the fall of Ajdabiya, when the convoy of
the rebels was moving towards Brega. Colonel Gaddafi's forces
launched missiles and tanks shells that hit the convoy near me.
My first thought was to cover and take a quick look around me.
Then, I waited for 2-3 minutes in order to avoid the panic of the
rebels' retreat and I searched for my driver in order to leave the
spot to a more safer position.







TID:

What did you learn about yourself in covering this conflict?

ANGELOS:

I keep discovering new things about myself, not only from my
trip to Libya, but from all my trips. In Libya, I appreciated some
aspects of life that were not considered important and were
taken for granted. The value of human life is always downgraded
in conflicts. However, seeing the Libyans still keeping their faith
to their cause of fighting the regime, unveiled the inner strength
of the human being of surviving and resisting.

Things in life could change unexpectedly and the loss of freedom,
existence, safety, leisure, love can sometimes make you stronger
which also helps achieve your purpose. Somethings last, but not the
least is that death always gets more intimate. It reminds you to live a
life with a better understanding of things around you.










TID:

In conclusion, what advice do you have for photographers who
want to cover conflicts.

ANGELOS:

In my opinion, the first and most important is to understand the
reason why they want to cover such a story, and what they want
to express. After clearing that in their minds, they must
calm their enthusiasm that could lead them in making wrong
decisions.

Always put your safety first. It is not necessary to go in the front
line to do great images. The image is everywhere and you must
discover it.







+++++++


Angelos Tzortzinis was born in Athens, Greece, in 1984. He studied at Leica Academy of creative photography. He is a freelance professional photographer associated with the French Press Agency (AFP) in Greece since 2007. Simultaneously, with the completion of his studies, he was selected by the competition ¨Young Greek photographers 2007¨. He has also been awarded with POYi 67 General News, PDN photo annual 2010, Honorable Mentions in Px3 and IPA International awards 2010, Chipp awards 3rd prize General News 2011. He works for Greek and international magazines, having carried out assignments for Time magazine, Newsweek, International Herald Tribune ,The New York Times. He lives and works in Athens.


You can view his work at:

http://www.angelos-tzortzinis.com/



++++++

Next week on TID, we'll take a look behind this beautiful image by Chip Litherland:





As always, if you have a suggestion of someone, or an image you
want to know more about, contact Ross Taylor at: ross_taylor@hotmail.com.

For FAQ about the blog see here:

http://imagedeconstructedfaq.blogspot.com/

Spotlight on Scott Lewis

TID:

Scott, thanks a lot for agreeing to be a part of this.

We've known each other a long time, and we used to 
photograph in adjacent cities for competing newspapers. 
I never told you this, but I loved having you as "competition," 
not just because we were friends but because your work 
inspired me, and it always pushed me to become a better 
photojournalist.

One of the images you made while working at The News & 
Observer struck me, and it still resonates with me today. It's 
an image I wish I had taken, and I still can't pass a dunking 
booth without thinking of this picture.







Can you tell us about the assignment you had that day? Was 
the dunking booth part of the original assignment or how did it 
play into things?

SCOTT:

Thanks Ross. During that time when we were working at competing 
papers , I'd see your work in contests I'd be happily surprised to 
see you producing such great work but alternately saddened to 
see that it rarely saw the light of day in the paper. It's a real honor
to hear you say that I was an influence. I've watched you evolve into
a really bold photographer with a strong point of view and if I or my
work had any role in that then I'm humbled.

This image was a part of a Photo Column called Acts of Faith
that I worked on for two years when I was on staff at The 
News & Observer in Raleigh, NC. Each week we were 
responsible for covering some aspect of the faith community of 
North Carolina but mostly around Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill. 
Research, reporting, scheduling, photography, writing, etc. was 
done entirely by the photographer. 

The column space was heaven, really, as it allowed for you 
to direct a part of your photographic life and take some risks
that would then come back to influence your coverage in other
areas and in turn influence others at the paper. It was a great
showcase for creative approaches to reporting and storytelling,
that weren't controlled or influenced by others. As a result it
opened up more conservative-minded  eyes at the paper as to
what photographers could do, and how great they are at doing
reporting in ways that challenged the status quo approaches. 

This photo column, this was one of like 5 or 6, was part of a
wonderful overall team environment that eventually led the Editor
of the paper to see photographers as the among most creative
and aggressive journalists in the newsroom.

At first I didn't have any interest in the column but the Director 
of Photography at the time convinced me that it would be good 
for me to do and he was right. I discovered that not being religious
at all allowed me a particular insight into seeing the faith process
and understanding the value it held for those that were religious.
Over time I discovered that what I was interested in were not just
the oddball moments that are always interesting but the common 
threads among all faith communities that bound people together. 
A sense of fellowship, cultural identity, rituals, traditions, passing 
all of these down to children, doing community service, etc. all 
became themes that I looked for at each situation. The whole 
point, for me, was to have the images not be like the ones in 
the rest of the paper. I wanted to give readers a surprise in 
content and style and hopefully deepen their experience of 
the paper, and community. 









It was my idealistic hope that each Friday it'd be someone's 
favorite thing to look forward to.

I always tried to find just one picture in each situation. One frame 
that was either meaningful, interesting or just plain quirky. 
This picture was taken at a little carnival as part of this church's 
bible lessons. Part of this section of the Bible talked 
about celebration and fun and they'd just simply included the 
dunk tank as a part of the carnival theme of their party. It was 
really nothing special or unique. I can't remember how I found 
out about the carnival. I could have found it by researching the 
weekly listing of faith events or I could have seen something 
while driving around, both of which were a couple ways I found 
out about little happenings like this.

TID:


I have always been curious - was this image pre-planned in your 
mind or was it more serendipity? 

SCOTT:


Initially my thought was that I'd say this was pure response and 
no planning, but the more I've thought about it there was actually 
a decent amount of planning that went into getting this picture. 
It's just that all that planning happened within just a few seconds 
in my head. After you've been shooting a while, I think you forget 
about what's involved in your shooting process and it becomes 
instinct so even though there was planning it still felt instinctual.

With the freedom we had in this space of the paper, I tried hard to 
transcend the obvious pictures or the kinds of pictures the paper 
typically publishes. In this case, I remember thinking there could be 
interesting possibilities as each person was dunked and thought that 
it could be kinda cool to just view this scene from within the tank. 
I'd say most of the images were just a blur of water (it required some 
combination of concentration and luck while shooting as I couldn't 
really see anything emerge within the tank, since it happened 
pretty fast and there was no way of predicting, dunk to dunk, how 
the person was going to react once in the water). 









Most of the time it didn't make interesting pictures at all. 
The murky water made it hard to see and it was starting to look 
like it wouldn't yield anything. 

Initially I was hoping for a face or something clearly dramatic/fun/
curious. But then in this one frame her foot popped out from 
the center. If I'd gotten what I thought I wanted, like a face, it 
probably would have just be ok. But somehow, I think, the foot is 
more intriguing, more curious. If I can go this far, it's more immersive 
because the foot is an implication of a person and that makes it 
more mysterious or interesting than if I'd gotten what I initially 
thought I wanted like a face. For me this picture was only maybe 
a contender in color but once it was black and white and it toned 
up nice and dramatic it was clear that it was a winner. This picture 
accomplished what I was always trying for in the column space. 
Taking the ordinary, often mundane, activities of a faith community 
and transcending the literalness of the scene. Take the viewer into 
a different place either because of access or ideas.

TID:


This sounds a little obvious, so forgive me, but do you have advice 
on how to advocate for a picture like this running in a newspaper, 
or for a news organization?

The reason I ask this, is that I can easily imagine an editor telling a 
photographer they can't run this picture because it's too "abstract." 
With this, what advice do you have for photographers on advocating 
publication of this type of an image?

SCOTT:


That's hard because, at least in this case, I didn't have to make any 
argument at all. This week the editor was in the office when I was 
editing the shoot on a Saturday and he walked by the screen and 
just calmly said "that's the one." And for the photo columns the 
edits were often pretty easy in the "argument" sense. Photographers 
were often left to make a lot of the editing decisions, within reason 
of course, since they were really the most invested in the space. And
over time, the photographers that worked on the columns earned the
respect of the other editors. The photographers knew they had to be 
responsible and the editors learned to give the photographers some 
freedom to explore and take some breaks from the routine approach.
Even though there was all this freedom, it was always a collaborative
effort. Sure, this picture is a bit abstract for a daily newspaper 
and would be much harder to get on the front of a Metro section or 
even Page 1.

In advocating for an image like this, you have to be careful. You 
have to make the right case, for the right picture at the right time. 
If, for example, you're covering a contentious school board meeting
and make something abstract and more arty or interpretive, you might
end up wasting a lot of time arguing for it. Photographers can have
a tendency to fall in love with their ideas and their insecurity can 
make them impatient about seeing it published, which can seem 
like either complete validation or rejection. When it's not 
published, some photographers can lose sight of the big picture. 
Publishing or not does not take away that you made the image. The 
reaction to your favorite shot not being published should be to 
motivate you to find a way to get an edgier or more personal style 
to have the same literal news "meat and potatoes" content as a more 
literal image. Bring a distinct vision to each situation and eventually 
it'll start to find it's place, but never sacrifice the basic need to tell 
the story of the news in front of you. 









It's actually inappropriate to run pictures like this when the news 
story, the reason you are there, is of a more literal "beginning-
middle-end" or decisive moment nature. There's a time and 
place for these kinds of pictures. Just because you made an image 
like this does not mean it's the best or right image to publish at the 
time you made it.

If you make the wrong case, at the wrong time with the 
wrong picture, you'll lose credibility and then when you do make 
the right picture at the right time, your advocacy will fall flat. You
will end up "the photographer who cried wolf" and your editors 
won't want to follow you in your reasoning. If you want to push 
the envelope or the status quo, you have to be careful about 
how you go about it. Photographers must be articulate advocates 
for their work and the story. It can't just be about your vision. 
For that there's the gallery wall. Publications have an obligation 
to tell stories to their readers and photography is an integral part 
of that process and photographers need to be sophisticated enough 
to know when and where to make the case for getting more creative.
But of course you're never going to get photographer and editors always
in agreement about if you've got the right picture, at the right time with
the right case. 









If you can't get the photo editors behind you then there's little to 
no chance they'll go to bat for you with even more literally minded 
word editors. When working as part of a team, you need to show 
respect for the demands on an editor and not make their job harder 
by wasting time on the wrong effort. It doesn't mean you shouldn't 
challenge an editor's thoughts, that's part of our job as the 
front-line, in-the-field component of the storytelling. However, it's 
important to know when the argument is worth the effort. There will 
be another opportunity.

TID:


in closing, can you talk about how you approach situations like this 
in general? What advice do you have for photographers in seeing 
outside the proverbial box?

SCOTT:


I don't want to sound cliche but there is no box. The proverbial 
box, as it is, is all manufactured limits placed by us or others. If 
you spend your time thinking that you need to work outside the 
box then I think all you'll see is the box. You'll judge yourself by 
the box and whether you thought far enough outside of it or not. 
You'll end up over thinking the simple and under valuing your 
instincts. For me, it can be like food. Sometimes the best, most 
perfect thing in the world is a beautiful piece of fruit, untouched 
by any crazy cooking technique but paired with an amazing and 
surprising piece of cheese or glass of wine. For example, I just 
saw this video (http://pdnpulse.com/2010/12/pdn-video-pick-dan-
saelingers-popsicles.html) on pdn that was about nothing more than 
melting popsicles but it's done so creatively and beautifully that it's really 
satisfying. It's really wildly creative but it's also really really simple 
without being overly styled or heavy handed or pretentious. 

It's just cool as it is.









My advice to other photographers is to trust and believe in your 
view of the world. What do you find interesting and how are you 
going to tell the reader about it? The most important accomplishments 
for a photographer is that a reader or viewer walks away with a new 
appreciation for something familiar or that their previous understanding 
of the world has been challenged and even changed. I think young 
photographers have a tendency to rely on gimmicks that are visually 
cool or make the image look unique. But stripped of the easy to employ 
techniques the images need to have value in and of themselves. Cool 
techniques are fine to use but their role should be to reinforce an 
already powerful moment. Over time technique fades and meaning deepens.


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While lost and unfocused in college, Scott Lewis discovered the power of photography and never looked back. After getting his Masters of Arts from the University of Missouri, Scott had the opportunity to establish the photographic vision and approach for a new weekly magazine-style newspaper, named Fox Valley Villages 60504 for the zip code it covered in suburban Chicago. While on staff there Scott was awarded with the NPPA's Region 5 Photographer of the Year; the POYi Community Awareness Award and several awards for picture editing and Best Use of Photography. Scott then brought his approach to community journalism to North Carolina as a staff photojournalist for The News & Observer in Raleigh, eventually moving to the Northeast with his wife in 2005. Among many other awards, he has also received a First Place in the World Press Photo contest and was a 2005 recipient of a Getty Images Grant for Editorial Photography for a project on the evolving range of expression, belief and community in the increasingly diverse spectrum of faith in the U.S.

Now based in Philadelphia, where he lives with his wife Caroline and kiddos Ari and Margot, Scott, 42, works for a diverse set of clients and subject matter.

http://www.scottlewisphotography.com/



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Next week on TID, we'll take a break from examining one image, and
discuss the mentality behind a collection of images from the conflict
in Libya by Greek photographer Angelos Tzortzinis





As always, if you have a suggestion of someone, or an image you
want to know more about, contact Ross Taylor at: ross_taylor@hotmail.com.

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