A while back I wrote an article in the Register giving my perspective on recent trends in photography and related business models developing on the Internet. It generated much more feedback than I'm used to in this blog backwater, so that was good.
Unfortunately most of the feedback wasn't encouraging and kinda confirmed what I already knew.
I intended to write a follow-up but never got round to it. The point of the original piece wasn't (as some responders argued) Luddism, a distain for amateurs, or a defence of any priviledged 'status' as a professional photographer ( yeah, I wish...).
If anything, I was arguing that:
1/ Anyone reading posts on this blog about the changing landscape of photojournalism, it's interface with video and the Web ought to see I'm no Luddite. The issue though, is was who controls the tech, not who uses it - a subtle but crucial distinction.
2/ All 'content providers', amateur or not, are entitled to fair payment. Currently many so called Web 2.o business models mean amateurs are unwittingly beating down people wanting to take the risk on creating as their full time task.
3/ There's never been any barrier to entering photojournalism. I covered my first stories with a camera which cost 20 quid and sold my first pic to a national paper when I was in college and so by definition, an amateur - but I was paid the going rate for the job.
Yes, this can be as nepotistic, backscratching and cliquey as many other businesses, but ultimately it always boils down to the pictures. If you take good pictures consistently, have ethical and professional standards in how you behave and in how you're treated and are willing and able to provide images to deadline, to a brief, then you're a photojournalist - and I don't care if you work for Newsweek or a parish newsletter.
The issue is whether your professional standards reaches to being fairly paid for your work.
Like I say, I was gonna write something...then I came across this article which hits so many nails on the head, the banging was making my ears hurt.
Check the article out for yourself and ponder what it means in the light of the Citizen Journalism trend, microstock photo-libraries and the resulting huge job losses in media companies.
When you peel away the Web 2.0 collaborative wrapping, what's left is often simply
"private capture of community-created value."
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