A Little News

The journey from being there to being intimate is not simply the goal of photojournalism, it is really the goal of life itself. I desire intimacy with my wife. I desire intimacy with my God. I also desire intimacy with my community as a photojournalist.

Photojournalism has three basic levels. First there is the record. I was there and this is what I saw. This level lets the reader see what the person photographed is doing. The second level is the emotional level. This level allows the reader to see what the person is feeling. The highest level is the intimate level. At this level, you are actually putting your readers into the subject’s life. Obviously, this is the toughest level to attain in daily photojournalism.

Intimacy in photojournalism usually requires time and time is something most of us do not have in our daily assignment schedule. We walk into someone’s life and spent fifteen to thirty minutes, on a good day, and walk out again. I have rarely attained an intimate photo from this type situation. If you are married, you know that intimacy, physical or emotional, takes time and energy. It doesn’t happen quickly and it doesn’t happen without trust. The same can be said of your photo subjects. If you have never been exposed to the person and just walk into their life and back out there is never time to develop trust and intimacy.

The solution is usually to find a story on your own and develop the story over time. This allows you to go back several times and spend time with the subject. This will allow the subject to understand your motives which is a big hurdle to photographic intimacy. If someone feels you are simply exploiting them you will never get inside their life. If they understand where you are going with a story and why you need to be there to shoot those private moments they are more likely to open up to you.

Developing a situation where intimate photos can be made requires some effort on your part. You may find the situation while working on a daily assignment and come back to the person later with a more in depth story idea that you can pursue over time. While you are out in the community remember to talk to people. Don’t just show up and be a robot. My co-worker Jonathan Palmer does this as well as anyone I have ever seen. He is always talking to people and developing story ideas. Not all of them lead to intimate photos but you will develop all kinds of story ideas this way and the more you develop the greater the possibility that you will be shooting intimate pictures.

It is a good idea to listen when you cover the mundane assignments during the day. I was covering an assignment a couple of years ago about a local charity handing out air conditioners. Not real exciting. However, I talked to a couple of people there and turned the “boring” assignment into a trip to a lady’s home who did not have an air conditioning. I didn’t really make an intimate picture but I did improve a poor assignment. You never know what or who you will run into as you do your job. Keep your ears and your mind open and you may end up with a very satisfying photo.

The photos with this post come from two self-generated assignments. The top photo is of a young woman who lives in a group home for special needs teens. The home has three residents and about twice as many live in assistants who work in shifts. The photo of this girl is, in my opinion, one of the most intimate photos I have ever shot. She gets into this position to lock out the world when the circumstances overwhelm her. I really feel her pain as I look at this image. The bottom photo shows a husband comforting his wife while she is in labor. The photo is from a story I did on natural childbirth. She is in a birthing spa and the thing that amazed me about all this is she was naked and still allowed me into her life for this very special day. She and her husband were great and the only thing that they really asked of me was to protect her privacy in the photos which is a given because the newspaper would not publish anything offensive to the readers anyway.

Photos copyright The Decatur Daily. The opinions expressed in this blog are my own and do not necessarily reflect those of my employer.