Photojournalism - a dying profession!

“Send us your pictures!”

…the phrase that causes the local photojournalist to reach for the bottle!

Everybody’s doing it, in the media that is, holding out their begging bowls for YOUR pictures and videos!

Saves ‘em money, you see! Why pay professional photographer fees when star-struck newspaper and news website readers are falling over themselves to send in pictures for free? The more pictures the better, fills up this week’s newspaper without costing the publishers hardly a penny.

I say ’star-struck’ because an average person in the street would LOVE to see THEIR photo printed in the local newspaper, along with their names.

The media are onto a good thing! Boosting their profits by preying on star-struck laymen.

Meanwhile, their freelance photographers are sent out miles away to cover the church fetes in remote villages, or to cover other events of which Mr Joe Public won’t be taking pictures. Or perhaps they’re not sent out at all…
Remember the Dunes Pub Fire at Winthorpe Skegness, some weeks ago? I covered the story on my local news website. We went out to the scene of the fire, got some pictures and uploaded them to my website. Next morning, I had a phonecall from the Sheffield Star, who are part of the Johnston Publishing press organisation. The guy asked if he could use of of my photos of the Dunes Fire in the Sheffield newspaper, the pictures were the best he’d seen on the web thus far, he added. “Of course,” I said, “that will be £x, the usual fee”. Er, I’ll get back to you… the guy said. Never heard from him again!

Ofcourse, the reaction he really wanted was: “My picture? The Sheffield Star? OMG, yes yes” … swooning into rapturous orgasm!

Now I want to get one thing clear, I DON’T make money from my websites, photos or videos and I have NO intention of ever doing so, but I’m in a funny situation here…

You see, my HUSBAND is a professional photojournalist which means that if I go round giving out free pictures, I’m usurping HIM, if you know what I mean.

Luckily, he is in the fortunate position of having a wide range of markets for his photographs, so he is not entirely dependent on photojournalism. He reaped from the profession in its hey-day.

But let’s turn the tables a moment: you’ve got a job, you go into work day after day then someone comes in and says to your employer “I’ll do his job for free!” Your employer is rubbing his hands with glee. You’re sent home, ‘course you’re happy for this to happen, aren’t you? Try explaining to your wife and kids why they’re not getting any dinner today!

Get the picture?

So I’m sure in future you will spare a thought for the professional photojournalist before you “send us your pictures” - he depends on the job for a living!

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