A Little News

Dedicated readers of this blog will recognize Corey Wilson right away. Corey did a post for us about shooting in the deep freeze at Lambeau Field for the NFC Championship game between Green Bay and New York. Corey is a graduate of Eastern Kentucky University and has been my friend for about seven or eight years now. We worked together in Decatur for two or three of those years and he has worked in Green Bay for five years. Corey is one of many photojournalists whose work inspires me. He is a wonderful shooter and a good man to top it all off. I hope you enjoy his musings on covering one of the NFL’s true legends.

History. When does it become such? As soon as Father Time ticks to the next second? Months later? Years later? As far as I know photography is the only way to stop time. Every photograph represents a slice of history. Is it your child’s first steps? A birthday? A war? A sports feat?

Most photojournalists like myself are in this business because we can’t get enough of capturing time…in fleeting moments. I’ve been fortunate enough to cover the NFL, namely the Green Bay Packers, for the last five years. This has always been a dream of mine and it’s one I’m proud I’ve accomplished. Unless you’ve been living in Northeastern Siberia for the past two or three weeks you know one thing. Brett’s done. Brett Favre that is. He donned the uniform like no other quarterback has from 1991-2007. He NEVER missed a start during his entire Packers playing career! (That’s 253 for those of you who are counting). He’s a legend and everyone has heard of his magic feats on the field.

I did a lot of reflecting as I pulled file photographs for special sections, books and audio slideshow productions that my paper, the Green Bay Press-Gazette, would be publishing in the days after his retirement on March 4, 2008. Covering Brett Favre has been a once in a lifetime opportunity. You could go an entire career as a photojournalist and not photograph a legend like that. It’s an opportunity I’m extremely thankful for. Thumbing through all these hundreds of images over the past couple of weeks made me sentimental. Do we realize that we are literally photographing history at the time we’re actually shooting it? Or does that come much later? Does it ever come at all?

Have you ever been on an assignment when you suddenly realize that what you’re doing, in that very instant, is going to be documented as history for years to come? Does it take a monumental event to seem important? A career like Brett Favre? Or do other events like murder trials feel like live-history? I fall victim to feeling like lesser-scale events like plays, church services, portraits or city council meetings matter less. Aren’t they just as important? You bet they are.

I guess all the reflecting did one thing for me. It served as a wake-up call. It hit me that our smaller communities are not made up of Brett Favre grandeur. As photojournalists we have a tremendous responsibility to document everything around us as if it were just as famous. Don’t we? How do we not?

With that said I’ll never forget the moments I had covering Brett Favre. I’ll have the newspaper covers to remember it. I’ll forever have my spot in the new Sports Illustrated Commemorative Edition of Brett Favre. I’ll have the black & white picture I shot with my Holga 120 plastic film camera (retail $20) as he ran onto Lambeau Field for a game in 2005.

***If you would like a glimpse of my 2007 reflections of Brett Favre please copy and paste the following link to a first-person audio slideshow:

http://www.packersnews.com/includes/newspaper/assets/soundslides/2008/030408remembering4/

Be aware that everything you shoot as a photojournalist is important. In 10, 20 or 30 years, when memories begin to fade, it will be YOUR photographs that remind people of days-gone-by.

Photos copyright Corey Wilson. The opinions expressed in this blog do not necessarily reflect those of the writer’s employer.