More thoughts about photojournalism
03/09/07 21:40 Filed in: Photography
Hello
Ariti
As Chief Judge, I can report that it was the unanimous opinion of the entire panel that the work we viewed was a distinct improvement over last year's efforts. Indeed, over the three years that I have served AMPOTT in this capacity, there has been a steady, year over year increase in both the quality and quantity of the submissions to the competition.
As a working photographer, I see the results of being able to see your photos while you are shooting and the sense of adventure that results when the constraints of a defined roll of film have been traded for the relatively endless potential of a memory card.
That said, there is still much more that photographers might be doing with their newfound freedoms.
We are, as photojournalists, still some distance from the best work that is being done in the field internationally and training for working photographers in the media is, if anything, even sparser than that offered to working journalists.
I hope that Ampott can leverage the growing sense of pride and ownership it is cultivating in local photojournalists to bring opportunities for coaching and learning to the field. Rivalry between media houses encourages growth, but unnecessary rivalry and rancour between photographers is needlessly counterproductive. As a unified force in the growing media sector, photographers and videographers have more potential to change their own situation than they realise.
I believe that visual reporting, via video and photography, will be a crucial leveraging factor in the changes that the media will be undergoing over the next decade. Effectively telling stories with images and footage will become a critical point of distinction for media houses as they jockey for position on Internet-enabled ways of viewing information.
The remarkable changes that we have seen in the last few years as film has waned into near insignificance and photography has been commoditized down to where almost everyone has access to some kind of image capture device. This will not make photography as common as salt. It will liberate the medium as a language of visuals and the media leaders will be those who have the best imagemakers.
It was the hope of the judging panel that participants viewing the winning entries would see what we saw, a powerful selection of photographs that can hold its own anywhere in the world. The winners of this year's awards set a powerful baseline for the future and we hope that our choices encourage photojournalists to work more enthusiastically and creatively to inform the public with their visuals.
As Chief Judge, I can report that it was the unanimous opinion of the entire panel that the work we viewed was a distinct improvement over last year's efforts. Indeed, over the three years that I have served AMPOTT in this capacity, there has been a steady, year over year increase in both the quality and quantity of the submissions to the competition.
As a working photographer, I see the results of being able to see your photos while you are shooting and the sense of adventure that results when the constraints of a defined roll of film have been traded for the relatively endless potential of a memory card.
That said, there is still much more that photographers might be doing with their newfound freedoms.
We are, as photojournalists, still some distance from the best work that is being done in the field internationally and training for working photographers in the media is, if anything, even sparser than that offered to working journalists.
I hope that Ampott can leverage the growing sense of pride and ownership it is cultivating in local photojournalists to bring opportunities for coaching and learning to the field. Rivalry between media houses encourages growth, but unnecessary rivalry and rancour between photographers is needlessly counterproductive. As a unified force in the growing media sector, photographers and videographers have more potential to change their own situation than they realise.
I believe that visual reporting, via video and photography, will be a crucial leveraging factor in the changes that the media will be undergoing over the next decade. Effectively telling stories with images and footage will become a critical point of distinction for media houses as they jockey for position on Internet-enabled ways of viewing information.
The remarkable changes that we have seen in the last few years as film has waned into near insignificance and photography has been commoditized down to where almost everyone has access to some kind of image capture device. This will not make photography as common as salt. It will liberate the medium as a language of visuals and the media leaders will be those who have the best imagemakers.
It was the hope of the judging panel that participants viewing the winning entries would see what we saw, a powerful selection of photographs that can hold its own anywhere in the world. The winners of this year's awards set a powerful baseline for the future and we hope that our choices encourage photojournalists to work more enthusiastically and creatively to inform the public with their visuals.
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