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The current and future state of photojournalism

The jury of Czech Press Photo 2011 were asked ...

Photojournalists are complaining that their photographs have less and less chance to be published. What is the reason for this? How do you see the development of photography in the next few years?

Daniela Mrazkova, Director Czech Press Photo

Photographers are right when they say that it’s difficult to get their work published. Here, and most probably also in the rest of the world there is an increasing demand for sensational photographs. Serious photography – a witness to life and its problems, photography that deals with issues, is rarely published these days. I think that circumstances will force photojournalists to expand and shoot video too. In the future they will be working in both areas – photography and video. Personally I believe that there is nothing better than a single still picture to express the essence of an event and at the same giving the viewer time for quiet contemplation.

Marian Pauer, pedagogue, publicist, curator, Slovakia

The accessibility of photography to a wide public plays a big part in this. With the arrival of digital photography everyone now thinks that they are photographers regardless of whether they have a qualification for it or not, and they all offer their photographs for publication. Unfortunately in newsrooms and on picture desks they don’t have the setup where they can judge suitable or unsuitable press photographs. The position of art director in newspapers and magazines in this country is completely neglected. In the West the art director is the second most important person after editor-in-chief, while here he doesn’t have the authority he should. He can’t make decisions, he doesn’t have the right of veto and doesn’t have the right to say: “we won’t use these pictures, we will use something else.” As long as this is not going to change, the attitude to photography in the various media is not going to change either. It’s difficult to say which way photography is going to go. In the past people had to wait for a day or even a week for newspapers and magazines. Today, they can have the information on the Internet immediately after the event. Print media will probably decrease; only those capable of surviving will survive.

Celina Dunlop, Picture Editor, The Economist, Great Britain

On the contrary, I think that opportunities for photojournalists have expanded in the last year. If The Economist is typical of other publications, we have increased our usage of photography by at least 50% in the last twelve months. The opportunity for photo reporters has expanded along with the use of stock imagery. The turnover of the number of stories that can be published and the length of time between publishing stories has shrunk. We are publishing in all sections of the paper across the world everywhere from stories that are centred in South America to stories that are in South East Asia or the Far East. Our photo sources have expanded too because we are now able to receive material quickly on schedule to meet deadlines from photographers in all areas of the world. I don’t know who are the people who are complaining as  my experience is that the use of photography is immediate and quick, you don’t have to commission it like artwork, you don’t have to prepare statistics like you do for charts or maps or tables. Photography is the obvious media to use to file stories.

Petr Josek, photographer Reuters, Czech Republic

I don’t know how photography is going to develop; there are so many possibilities! I think that photography is here to stay and good photography, be it in the form of a photo essay or one great single image, will always find its use. I understand that in times of crisis nobody wants to pay much for photographs because in a way it’s a nonessential art form. In theory society can live without photography although I would not like it. Photography is part and parcel of our world. It’s possible that in the future photography will be replaced by video, such as video news.

Tsvetan Tomcev, photographer, Chairman of Bulgarian Press Photo, Bulgaria

I can’t say that photo reportage is on the way out. In my opinion a good photo story will always sell, in Bulgaria it certainly will. And the future? I think the future is in short video news on the Internet.

Andrej Reiser, photographer Bilderberg, Czech Republic

The reason is that picture editors can access a vast number of sources of photographic material on the Internet. They can buy instantly available pictures for the next issue of their newspaper, magazine, etc. They don’t have to go through the lengthy and expensive process of commissioning photographs. The future of photography? I don’t think it will be much different from what it is now.

Tomasz Gudzowaty, photographer, Poland

The world of photojournalism – and here I leave out celebrity photography – seems to have a problem. There are different reasons for this – the circulation of newspapers and magazines has gone down in the last few years just as prices for photographs have decreased. The problem is that there are too many pictures on offer. Thanks to the fast development of digital technologies, together with the easiness of publishing on the Internet, photography is now cheap – in all senses of the world. Unfortunately. Publishers pay for what they can print and not for what they think is good photography. Whenever something happens in the world, at least three people take pictures of it with digital cameras or smart phones. They can send pictures off immediately and the speed and the immediacy – not the quality of the information – is the only interesting thing. Good solid press photography is not a sustainable profession anymore. On the other hand there will always be people who look for a deeper meaning and the importance of information. That’s a hope for the future but perhaps we will have to find a new business model for photojournalism that would guarantee the necessary creative freedom.

Lee Yong-Hwan, pedagogue Chung-Ang University, South Korea

It’s now difficult for photojournalism all over the world. On the Internet we can easily find pictures taken by amateurs and this type of business is flourishing. We have the same problem in South Korea and we are looking for new ways. But where will the money come from? The photography business is changing too. Photographers used to work for newspapers and magazines but now they have to find alternative ways to earn a living. They use social networks where they post documentary exhibitions. They are paving the way – also in Korea – for new opportunities.

Mladen Antonov, photographer, editor-in-chief AFP Photo, France

Photographers have less and less opportunities to publish their work. They get fewer and fewer paid assignments. And there is less and less money for photography. The print media is in crisis and there isn’t the necessary financial support. We have to accept it as a fact. Photographers working in the field have to be very flexible and fast these days and aim their work not only at the print media but also at the Internet. The Internet offers new possibilities. Photographers should also learn to produce multimedia work, shoot video and write text. That’s the future of photography – not just taking a few static pictures.

Peter Korniss, photographer, WPP Advisory Board, Hungary

Unfortunately there are fewer and fewer opportunities for photographers. The print media is shrinking. There are still plenty of glossy magazines but fewer publications are using photojournalism. On the other hand, there are new opportunities on the Internet – there are online magazines and various websites. I see a growing trend where photographers who can’t publish in the print media present themselves on the net. They have their own websites; they use Facebook. They send pictures to specialised competitions like Czech Press Photo, World Press Photo or Hungarian Photo. They can show their work there and compare themselves with others.

Walter Bergmoser, pedagogue, curator, Germany

The media is changing because people are changing the way they use it. The printed press is gradually disappearing.  At the same time everything is moving faster, including the way we perceive our surroundings. There is no time to edit photographs or even pay for the editing. And as our behaviour is changing, our expectations of an image are changing too. For a classical documentary photographer this development is problematic and he needs to move with the times, be flexible and take up the possibilities that digital photography has to offer. It’s not about the angle of the photographers’ view but it is about how people see or want to see it. I am not saying that photo documentary is going to disappear completely but it will exist only in a specialised area; tacked in a corner. Photography will be strong in the future because the way we receive images will be on so many levels of whatever media we will have in the future – whether it’s the iPad, smartphone or something else. There will be new media in the future and there will be more emphasis on shooting video. The reality is that today anyone can photographs with smartphones and anyone can be a photojournalist, “people’s photojournalist”. That’s a new phenomena with a great future while photojournalism as we know it today will die.

Silvia Olmedes Alegre, curator, pedagogue, publicist, Spain

It is a worldwide problem. Magazines with the traditional support for documentary photography don’t exist anymore and so photographers who have an important story to tell have to find an alternative way to show their work. In the future photographers will have to learn more skills, learn to sell themselves better, use the Internet and social networks, find curators, festivals, awards and grants. When you have a good story it will get published but you can’t rely on magazines anymore. Magazines are only interested in what sells the magazine. When the printed press is not interested in your work, you have to find an alternative.


 
 © Oleg Homola