Inger
Think of the photojournalism game as a bit like a forest, there is more to a
forest than just trees. While it will forever be a nuisance to professionals
it will always be a joy to us amateurs to see our photos published. However,
you have the additional drive, knowledge and skill to travel, chase up
stories, take consistently excellent photos, write an interesting story and
get it to a paying publisher. We can only ever dream of that.
Greg Little
-----Original Message-----
From:
On Behalf Of inger vandyke
Sent: Monday, 23 July 2012 1:03 PM
To:
Cc: ;
Subject: What value a photo?
Hmmm I agree with about 90% of what you are saying David. It is a little
bit hard to compare a shot taken with expensive gear, via expensive travel,
to expensive locations of an exceedingly rare species in a highly remote
place to sweatshops churning out masses of clothes cheaply using cheap
materials and sold for expensive prices in developed countries.
I was recently approached by a publication to use my shots of Orange-bellied
Parrots, without payment. How do they think I took those images? By taking
free interstate and chartered flights, with free gear, free meals and free
accommodation? The answer is no to all of those questions.
What I hope for with these conversations is for photographers to think twice
and take a stand in order to stop our industry from diminishing even more
into the cheap commodity that it has become.
Inger Vandyke
Professional Wildlife Photographer and Writer Expedition Leader - Western
Tibet Expedition (16 September - 7 October, 2013) Assistant Publicity
Officer - Southern Oceans Seabird Study Association (SOSSA) Guest Lecturer -
Photography, Freelancing and Photo Journalism - Bond University, Gold Coast,
Australia
Mob: +61 402 286 437
www.ingervandyke.com
Date: Mon, 23 Jul 2012 12:55:28 +1000
Subject: What value a photo?
From:
To:
CC: ; ;
It is a fact of life that the "digital revolution" is changing things in
many areas. We see banks and others moving their call centres overseas to
take advantage of lower costs - expedited by the improvement in computers
and communications. In my former area of employment (luckily I am retired
now) of software development there has been an increasing tendency for large
software projects to be contracted out to developers in India and other
places. There are now websites devoted to getting quotes for software
development from individuals - and the lowest quotes are usually from India,
China or similar countries and are at prices that would make it impossible
for an Aussie developer to compete. I gather even the "grunt work" in law
firms and accountancy is now being sent overseas.
In non-digital areas of course we see similar things - how much
manufacturing is left in Aus?
In many cases it is only jobs that require a physical presence - such as a
tradesperson - that seem safe from such competition. Taking photographs of
course fits into this category - but the same digital revolution now makes
it so much easier for anyone to take lots of photos without the expense of
development and printing which used to hold people back - and some of those
will be acceptable to publishers.
So whilst we all benefit from the changes in society - bank charges would
probably be higher if they did all these jobs in Aus - there is an
increasing threat to many jobs. It has of course always been like this - not
too many steam train drivers around now - and probably always will be.
So whilst I have the greatest sympathy for those whose livelihoods are
threatened by amateurs, you are not alone as many others face competition
from cheap labour in other countries, which you will not do!
<>
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