Photojournalism

[iltby]

Hi guys,

Just wondering about making your way into the field of photojournalism or travel photography. How would you go about it and where would you start?

Any help would be hugely appreciated!

[Kirislin]

I found this.

http://www.digital-photography-school.com/...photojournalist

[Ashanali]

I listened to a National Geographic photographer talk about this a couple of months ago at a conference. He got his job the old fashioned way about 20 years ago by continuously pushing himself on the publishers and begging for a job. He started at the bottom and worked his way up because his work is awesome.

However as much as he loves his work, it's the bottom of the food chain for photographers... around $300 per day only when you're on assignment. He makes most of his money self publishing and selling his own books of his work (which he said takes about $30,000 to start off with when doing it properly - and he already had a name behind him that helped with distribution.)

Another photographer I know would LOVE to do this sort of work, he has lots of accolades and awards (including a nat geo award) and he's brilliant, but his day to day income comes from child and animal portraiture.

Very hard to get in to and not really enough to solely make a living from unless you are incredibly unique.

[carebear]

my dad used to be a photojournalist up until about the mid 90's, when he had a number of publications owing him thousand's declare bankrupt. by then he'd had enough and got a regular job.

he started off doing it part time/casually on weekends and stuff (on top of wedding photography), as he was working full time, but in the early 90's it was his sole source of income, which is why he threw in the towel after a few bad experiences and went back to the industry he was in prior.

eta. it's a tough industry to get into, and i believe whilst the digital age makes it easier, it also makes it harder for the same reason

Edited January 5, 2011 by carebear

[iltby]

Thanks for the replies guys, I appreciate it. I suspected it would be something that's tough to crack into, but maybe it's a goal for 10 or 20 years down the track. I just don't know where to start out. Even just starting off getting some photos published here and there in magazines would be nice.

[KnucklesDutchnUs]

Thanks for the replies guys, I appreciate it. I suspected it would be something that's tough to crack into, but maybe it's a goal for 10 or 20 years down the track. I just don't know where to start out. Even just starting off getting some photos published here and there in magazines would be nice.

Why don't you give a few newspapers a call and ask about cadetships?

Or talk to somewhere like Getty Images or AAP? They are news wires (amongst other services) and pride themselves on their photojournalists. I would be picking their brains.

I have been fortunate to work with a few great Australian photojournalists and even members of the prestigious Oculi group. In fact if you click on 'Steven Siewert' my image is the first thing on his page. He won the Walkley award for an amazing image of my friend.

Dean Sewell also from Oculi is an amazing photojournalist and took emotionally charged photos of Aceh days after the tsunami.

Good luck! It's hard work but photojournalism is a important role in our society and needs to continue.

[iltby]

Thanks a lot for the information D&K. I'll definitely start looking into things like that.