Once upon a time, before I went to graduate school, I wanted to be a photojournalist, but I didn't know how. I had a Yashica Mat my parents got me at a used camera store in Connecticut, and access to a darkroom, and so I made portraits. In high school, I photographed people I knew. In college, I got a little braver, venturing out on the weekends for long drives (still a favorite activity). I made portraits. Always portraits. I never got used to introducing myself to people, and yet they were always wonderful and accommodating. During the days I've been home, I've been furiously organizing things, to keep my mind off the great unknown that looms after my internship at the Dallas Morning News. Old prints, letters, books, scraps of paper. I've also been finding little notes to myself from years ago. "Danny Lyons-- 'go to where you really want to be'" & a note from a Eugene Richards talk-- "the thing you have to do is do it. do your muddling as you practice." With that said, I'm off to muddle and practice in the early evening light of Seattle.
Here are a few frames from long, long ago. The couple, below, I photographed when I was 17. The other two, above, are portraits from a summer spent in New York with my dear friend Mara when we were just 21, sharing a tiny apartment and a tiny bed. I am much more interested now in the work I do for newspapers, because I have a sense that work is about service to a community. In true Herald fashion, I have come to love moments and photographs that speak to little truths caught and saved. Still, portraits. That's where I started. How did you start?
4 comments:
just so lovely..... and i like what you;ve written. i am missing so much that aspect of being a working photojournalist... feeling, as you say, a sense of involvement as service to a community. you are going to where you want to be.... what could be better than that
fabulous post, dear. I say keep using that camera!
these portraits are just so stellar. i really like the straight-forwardness of them. amazing that you were shooting like this so long ago!!
This has been up for a few months obviously, but just saw this post. The top two are gorgeous. Subtle and full of personality. When I was 17...well let's just say I wasn't shooting like this (or at all). I encourage you to break it out more often and convince the papers you work that its a good idea to publish these kinds of pictures. Good, feature journalism always comes down to characters and what better way to show people. I think ordinary, non-photographer people respond to this kind of work too. There's a place for this at any paper if you can just work the "gates" to get them on board with you (when its appropriate for a particular story). Something as simple as a "faces of _____ville" would be a great piece for any paper. I am offering my unsolicited harping, b/c you obviously have a talent for this and would love to see you get to do it on the clock.
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