Michael Kamber, known for his camera work in documenting crises, recently expressed his concern about what he sees as a dying phase of photojournalism. He mentioned on BBC that the work of documenting things through pictures is now a much wider field.
A photojournalist today has to be much more of an overall journalist – video, written pieces, and multi-media are crucial to stitching together a living. Do I like this new developing model? Not much. Does it allow for a photographer to have job security, raise a family with health insurance, know that someone will evacuate him or her if injured in a warzone? Absolutely not.
Kamber also expressed concern that photojournalism is being replaced by a “ghettoized” form journalism that is restricted to an elite community. Given new modes of communication, only a small population of people in the world actively use these news modes.
It is up to the photo community to break out of this new model, democratise it and reach new audiences. I can see it happening already. And though I may not like the business model, the bottom line is this: there is a new generation out there shooting pictures in the corners of the world every day.
What does this mean for photojournalists in East Africa? It means that photographs taken by the likes of Javed Jafferji, Muhamed Amin, and Graham Mercer are likely to being devalued as more people use digital modes of taking and exchanging images. But does that mean photojournalism is necesarily dead for East Africa? Judging from newspapers and magazines flooding the streets, I see this problem having a different nature in East Africa which may not lead to the “death” of photojournalism per se, but the innovation of it as a field and career not only restricted to print media.
Related links:
- BBC article: Michael Kamber on photojournalism today
- BBC article: Photos put Zanzibar on the map (Javed Jafferji)
- Wiki article: Mohamed Amin
- Tanzania – Globetrotter Travel Guide (by Graham Mercer)
Photojournalism will never die,it’s just envolving.Photojournalism was once centred around a group of people who carried big cameras around their necks but now that’s not the case.
Smartphones,digital cameras etc are all going cheap;that coupled with Web 2.0 in particular social networks which allow every individual to be a content creator has brought significant changes on the way we all look at a field like journalism.