A Little News

My wife teaches Latin to our kids and in the process she teaches me some too. We were talking one day about compassion and she asked me did I know what it meant. I said I thought it meant something like having sympathy for someone. She said it is actually born of two Latin words that combine to form the English version. Com means together or with and passion means suffering. Literally then, compassion means suffering with someone. Compassion is a tremendous identification with the condition of our fellow man.

I don’t know about you, but most of us got into this profession for reasons greater than just going out and shooting pictures. We wanted to make a difference. We wanted our pictures to be documents of such import that they helped change things. I don’t know if I have ever gotten there with a photo but it is a greater aim than simply shooting good pictures and winning a few contests. Part of what makes a great photojournalist great is his ability to identify with his subjects. By identify, I don’t simply mean that he gets along with the person being photographed, I mean he actually enters that person’s world and attempts to feel what that person is feeling. Then he takes that experience and translates it into photographs so his viewers are able to enter into the subject’s life as well.

Okay, I am not ignorant. I know how hard that is to accomplish when you are rushing between four or five assignments that are spread out across three towns and you have to do it all on deadline. If you are shooting for a living, you know what I mean. You pick the subjects that you can do this with and go in depth with them. Usually, photo essays are born out of this but you can apply the trait of compassion on your everyday jobs too. It just means you slow yourself down mentally and really try and identify with what your subject is going through whether they are having trouble with the city not picking up their trash, a person with an outrageous electric bill or a little kid hitting his first home run.

Since it is Sunday as I write this, you guys pretend you are back in Sunday School with me for a minute. Jesus was frequently moved with compassion for the suffering of the folks around him. Throughout the gospels you will find a phrase something like, “Jesus, being moved with compassion…” When he was moved with compassion the dead were raised, the sick were healed and the hungry were fed. I don’t know how many miracles you and I will be a part of but we can apply compassion as we go about our lives and jobs. Allowing yourself to feel compassion for a subject first and foremost means you are not judging them. If you judge someone you can no longer build that compassionate relationship with them because you will have locked them into your perceptions rather than allowing them be who they are. Let me give you an example.

The greatest act of compassion I have ever witnessed happened while I was working on a story on the homeless. A reporter and I had been following a homeless man around for a couple of weeks and he agreed to introduce us to a guy who lived in a junk yard. It sounded like a great photo to me. We arrived early one morning to find the poor man suffering from alcohol withdrawal. He could barely speak he was shaking so bad. Our homeless guide excused himself for a few minutes. When he returned he had a bottle of beer which he gave to the man going through the withdrawals. I was a swirl of emotions. The guy looked like he had just been given a kingly gift. Here I was a “Christian” and had never even thought to do this and was somewhat offended by it at first. When I saw the gratitude and realized what a sacrifice the one homeless guy made to give the other one the beer, I was shamed. One guy had identified with the subject of my photograph and that guy was not me. I learned something that day.

How you apply compassion then is going to be diverse. Until that day, I would not have considered it compassionate to give an alcoholic a bottle of beer. When you are working in photojournalism you will find yourself taking more than you give because of the nature of the beast. However, from time to time a moment will present itself where you can give back, either with your camera or in some other way. Let compassion be your guide. It will make you a better person and a better photojournalist.

About the photos: The top photo is of a woman and her son taken a couple weeks after the husband and father was killed in an auto accident. The pain of their loss was palpable and they were also angry because his life might have been saved had a highway guardrail been in place where he wrecked. I wanted to show the depth of their emotion so I used a high contrast lighting style and their expressions did the rest. The bottom photo is of a lady with Alzheimer’s disease. Her son in law is kissing her on the forehead and holding her hand. In that moment, I felt both the love of the man and the hopelessness of the situation and I hope they both come through in the photo.

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