Picture Stories by Stephen Alvarez

Burgess Death of Photojournalism followup

Reflecting on Neil Burgess' Death of Photojournalism editorial (here). One of his major points is

"Magazines and newspapers are no longer putting any money into photojournalism. They will commission a portrait or two. They might send a photographer off with a writer to illustrate the writer’s story, but they no longer fund photojournalism. They no longer fund photo-reportage. They only fund photo illustration."

In my career I have shot for many many magazines. Most of the publications operated like Burgess describes they want(ed) the photographer to illustrate a written story. Most of those publications are already gone. Only one magazine has ever sent me out the door to actually be a photojournalist and it is still in business, still assigning photo essays, still accepting proposals from photographers.

I've always thought that National Geographic was unlike any other magazine in the world. I think that now more than ever.

Stephen Alvarez

Sewanee, TN

Neil Burgess says Photojournalism is dead

We have heard this before, photojournalism has died many times, but when the man who represents Salgado says it maybe we should pay attention. Read it HERE.

"...Seven British-based photographers won prizes at the ‘World Press Photo’ competition this year and not one of them was financed by a British news organisation. But this is not just a UK problem. Look at TIME and Newsweek, they are a joke..."

-Stephen Alvarez

Sewanee, TN

Losing the News

I am about to go hear Alex Jones talk about why we have to save newspapers (here). Jess Brown offers a satyrical view of why they are dying below.

-Stephen Alvarez

Important to note the talk is by Alex S Jones from Harvard not Alex Jones the wing nut.

Free is dead, or at least dying at the New York Times

The NYT announced that in 2011 it will begin to charge of some online content (here). I hope this means the insanity of giving information away is coming to an end. Let face it, advertiser supported news gathering is failing and people will have to start paying for information that they need. Subscribers to the print addition will still get the online one for no charge.

Look for other big names to move to a similar model soon.

I think that this is good news for those of us in the magazine business. Free was never a sustainable business model.

-Stephen Alvarez

19.45 Billion dollars

19.45 Billion dollars, that is what American Magazine Publishers brought in last year from advertising sales (Magazine Publishers of America here). While that is a small part of the US's 14 trillion dollar GDP, it is significant as consumer spending makes up 72% of US economic activity (numbers here).

Consequences by NOOR, Kadir Van Lohuizen in Brazil

The agency NOOR continues its excellent coverage of climate change with Kadir Van Lohuizen's Amazon work (here). See the whole group project here. 

Agencies like NOOR are in a unique position to replace -in some cases- traditional media. You take a group of incredibly talented, hard working photographers and let them loose on a subject, the results are stunning. Why do you need a magazine as the distribution channel?

-Stephen Alvarez

 

Obama's War: Danfung Dennis 5D MK II footage used in Frontline

Obama's War on Frontline.  Anyone who reads this blog knows what a fan I am of publicly funded journalism, Frontline and NPR in particular. But play close attention to the opening scenes. They were shot by a one man camera crew on a small, still camera. 

That footage was shot by Danfung Dennis on his 5D mk II. There is an excellent post about his camera set up here. He has a documentary on the War in Afghanistan in process (trailer here).

Great work

-Stephen Alvarez

Canon 7D as a VIDEO Camera first impression

By Stephen Alvarez

pimp my ride, my 7D set up for video

Unlike Ira, I bought the the Canon EOS 7D to use primarily as a video camera. Why you ask? You CAN buy a pretty good dedicated video camera for the same price. Well for 1700 bucks I get a video camera that accepts the excellent canon lenses that I already own and unlike the EOS 5D Mark II it supports multiple frame rates. Also after using it for a day or two the camera is more than good enough to serve as a backup to my 5D MK II's on a still shoot and the really fast still frame rate opens up some possibilities that I hadn't thought of (see that video at the bottom of the next page).

Jack Shafer on the Death of Journalism

Jack Schafer quotes journalist Mark Sullivan's memoirs Education of an American (on Slate here) to point out that journalism has always been in a state of decline. In 1938 the veteran newsman Sullivan laments the passing of the American newspaper as ad dollars flowed from print to radio.

Far from being depressed Sullivan says

I felt as if I were like one of those old monks, the scriveners, who continued to copy by hand long after printing had been invented. To young writers looking forward the lesson is as plain, and even more important, than to old writers looking backward. Learn the art of writing, of course, but learn also the art of the motion picture, and of the radio.

Sound familiar? Good advice for today's journalists.

Schafer is interesting on this subject, in a previous article he says (here)

If newspapers, magazines, and broadcasters don't produce spectacular news coverage no blogger can match, they have no right to survive.

Personally I couldn't agree more.

Last year after Look 3 I came home more excited about telling stories than I had ever been but also more depressed about making a living as a journalist. The barriers of entry to story telling are now ridiculously low and there are many more stories being told. But how any of us -including Jack Schafer- will make a living? No idea

-Stephen Alvarez

Aphoto editor on the death of "Best Life"

" It’s just that some of these magazines are starting to look like wall street ponzi schemes." Here