Article about photographers, or the lack thereof

http://www.iowascribe.com/1/post/2013/06/newspapers-arent-dying-theyre-committing-suicide-part-1.html

 

You hit that one right on the effin' screws.

 

As someone who just took a terrible photo that will run on A1 tomorrow, I agree 100 percent.

 

A-bleepin'-men.

 

Holy shit. You sound like you worked with me.

 

No, he sounds like he worked with a lot of us.

 

Damn, that's spot-on, IowaScribe ... especially this part about the "nitwits taking photos":

The only question I had is which "McPaper" in Iowa you had to watch being ruined. (and I realize you're keeping it anonymous).

Sad truth is, I can think of several shops that went through what you described during the 2000s, when I worked in and traveled around eastern Iowa.

 

Uh, yeah, this is pretty much exactly what happened at the rag I worked at until January.

 

Very interesting and true piece, but I think there's another takeaway from this. The more skills you have now, the better your chances of surviving.

 

Yeah, this is a disturbing trend. Not only is it an insult to the craft of photography as a whole, it makes the entire paper worse. Lost count of the number of times as a designer I was forced to run crap as centerpiece art just because it was "local" and taken by a reporter.

I don't know which is more unrealistic: asking reporters to produce good photos or asking photographers to produce good copy.

 

Photos getting copy. You can shoot 700 frames and get lucky. You can't write 700 words and do the same.

 

I swear I just had the exact same conversation on Sunday and again tonight. Spot on and damn depressing.

Damn I'm outta beer.