As I drove home from a basketball game tonight, I stopped on the side of the road to take a break from the thoughts that were in my head and the inevitable comments of discontent that would await me back at the newspaper. This is something quick I wrote up just to get some thoughts out there, but I am tired, sick and have a splitting headache, so it could be a lot better.
I'm sitting in the photo department at the newspaper alone and distraught as I read over the comments from today's events. Against the smart advice of my girlfriend, I sit and refresh the page and read the latest comment. As I began to read, I began to generalize and fall into the same mindset that is making me so upset and frustrated. I blame the community for being so ignorant. I blame the community for wanting photographs of only cute puppies and rainbows and smiles. But that is a generalization as more and more comments come in. Some support the photograph and some hate it. All express concern for the family, the most important thing, and some express more discontent with the photograph than support for the family.
When I received the call this morning from my boss and editor, Ryan Wood, I rolled out of bed and headed out in the rain towards the scene. He called me several minutes later to notify me that it was heard that two children were possibly trapped inside. My heart sank and I forced myself to push my car's accelerator. To keep driving. Upon my arrival, I noticed a large amount of people standing watching as firefighters worked the scene amidst the light rain. I approached the house and saw the front lawn littered with toys, bikes, and a stroller. I try to add context to the frame as I compose the burning house in the background with the stroller in the foreground. I keep thinking about my home, if I turned off all the lights, if the stove was off from making grilled cheese last night. What if this were my home?
Having shot many frames of the home, I took a step back and noticed some people huddled together and approached thinking they might know something. One of our reporters was there standing in the muddy ditch in front of a neighboring home. A woman was smoking, a woman was crying, and a man had a blank stare on his face. Their expressions separated them from the rest of the onlookers. I asked a tearful woman if she knew those involved. It was the aunt of one of the children. Her husband was standing close by and the mother was right next to them.
I am a shy person and it takes me a long time to raise my camera in situations like this. I asked if they were ok being photographed and they nodded and agreed it would be fine. I made a few frames. They began talking about the children and the home and the mother broke down in the arms of a friend just to my right. That's when I made the photograph. I took just a few frames making sure I wasn't obtrusive, loud or coming off as offensive as I scanned people's faces looking for any form of discontent. Any face or glare to tell me to stop photographing. Nothing. A few times the faces I did catch, I looked at hoping for someone to tell me to stop photographing. "Please," I thought.
I don't wake up and choose to go to these events but my job as a newspaper photographer working in a country with freedom of the press is to photograph the truth and I wouldn't have it any other way. To photograph any and every situation as unbiased and objective as possible and to inform readers visually. As I read the comments, a frustration grew as people who may not have been there and who may not know the family seemed to be speaking for them and about the situation. Not knowing that I asked permission, even though legally I didn't have to because it was public property. Not knowing that I spoke with the mother and made sure to get her phone number because she mentioned setting up a fund to pay for her daughter's funeral. People were criticizing not only the newspaper I and those who work here work extremely hard to produce day in and day out, but generalizing and stereotyping the media as being one large exploitative form of communication. What's more frustrating is the notion that some people would rather see puppies and rainbows over real life, factual information and events. Newspaper's do not have to appeal to anyone. Cancelled subscriptions and senseless jargon will not stop journalists from writing what needs to be written and photographers from photographing what needs to be seen.
Knowing what I know now and given the same situation, I would take that photograph without a doubt, knowing that it needs to be seen. If maybe it makes you think twice about leaving a light on when you leave your home, double checking the batteries in a smoke detector, explaining fire safety to your children. But all I can do is hope that a photograph, no matter how happy or how somber, can make some sort of difference in someone's life. Struggling to push the gas pedal, struggling to lift the camera next to a tearful mother; my inner struggle is worth every thought and every bit of energy.
9 comments:
dude. that photo is bad ass!
I admire what you're doing and recognize the courage it takes to not just photograph the event, but how the event affects people. Don't let it get the best of you!
Absolutely you did the right thing, which is the hard part of our job sometimes. We don't make pictures to make web site commenters (who I have found are inflammatory for the most part...I can tell you some horror stories) happy. We make photos such as yours to tell the story to others, to increase community awareness, and hopefully bring something positive out of a horrible situation. I'd take your girlfriend's advice and just not read the comments, you can be sure there will be more, but clearly they're spawned out of a lack of understanding for what we do and why. Good job man, keep it up.
John,
Sadly that is the name of the game in community journalism - new to town or not, these are your people now and they either love you or hate you. Usually you mostly hear about it when they hate you. You will be called insensitive and a bottom-feeder, people will make ignorant, racist comments about your photos and stories. You will be demonized when you are unwelcome and hailed when somebody thinks you are there to help them.
As August said, you are better off not reading the comments, especially the anonymous ones. It will cause you to wrap yourself in a protective cloak of cynicism that will do little more than deaden your sensitivity and empathy.
Don't fall into that trap and instead go on doing what you do best - which this photo is an example of - and continue to document the highs and lows of your community.
Unfortunately for many people life isn't about puppies, kittens and snowflakes but to not print that sort of photo is a disservice to your community. So long as you know you approached that person with compassion and sensitivity, you are doing your job.
You don't really need anything else said- You know the community's view already- clearly... and you know yours... and you know the people behind you as well... But- I can say, personally, as someone who is drifting from the field... It still needs to be seen... All the shit I look at (shit...meaning...not shit, just a lot of stuff) in the news... the pictures and headlines... Everything's so terrible right now that everyone, including myself, is becoming desensitized. It's pictures like these that remind us that these are real human beings and real human emotions- and I don't care what small-town community "righteous" people tell you... I wouldn't give two shits about that story from all the way over here in Asia if I just saw another shot of a burning house... But that's not what I saw, and thus... that's not how I feel. If no one showed grief, no one would care... that's all- no more beating the dead horse... Well done Tully- rise above the comments...
we just went through the same situation at the herald regarding the murder of a mother and her one year old son. same thing, all of the awful comments...
if i were you, i'd ask the editor if you could post a response to the comments saying that you understand their concerns, but you did ask permission before taking pictures and you were given the ok.
after our murder/comment situation here, i talked to my dad for a while about it. he said that back in the 1970's, they had the same thing happen. so he and another photographer at the grand rapids press started a research project. whenever they ran an emotional photo in the paper, such as family members grieving, or a similar situation, they would call the subjects about a month or two after the picture came out, and ask them how they felt about their picture being in the paper. my dad said 90-95% of the subjects said that they understood why the press was there, and most even said that they were glad the press was there - especially regarding all of the community awareness and assistance that it inspired.
don't worry about the comments. you know that what you did was right... that's all you need.
nothing gets me down more than the comments section, because the veiled identity that it gives people really brings out the worst. thankfully though, the minority speak out for the majority. you did the right thing.
What we do is seldom glamorous, and it sure isn't emotionally easy. Like August said we are here to increase community awareness. You might hear a lot of gripes and complaints, but what is really important is people are going to be more cautious about situations such as these. If your photograph leads to one person double checking the stove, and saving the lives in that household, I promise you you won't know about it. They might not even make the mental connection, but photographs as powerful as those have the ability to change lives and in a way, save lives. Keep up the amazing work.
Read the comments. Then go back and read them again. And again. That's your audience, that's who you purport to work for. You don't owe them an apology, and you don't owe shit to the community as a whole. Answering and subjugating yourself to the masses is the quickest way to become jaded - do what you do for the people who want to listen and fuck the ones that think they got the world figured out from their living room couch.
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