I came into this class truly knowing very little about photography and the world of photographers. I respected the industry, though I did not know exactly how or why it all works. I do not feel I understand it all now, but I certainly have a more firm grasp on (at least some specific) photographers and their motivations in their work. Motivation came up a lot over the course of this semester – with the many of the horrific or inhumane events/realities we covered, we would all look to the photojournalist in the middle of it all and question, “Why do you do this? How do you do this?” In our discussion with Ron Haviv and Ashley Gilbertson, I think they gave a fair response – “How do you not?” Perhaps that is not satisfying for some people. Are they in it for the fame? the art? the thrill? the possibility of changing the world? But I think they are completely entitled to give such a response. I do not need to know their entire reason for wanting to enter a war-torn country or an impoverished city, and perhaps they do not even completely know themselves, but regardless: I am certainly grateful they do what they do and I respect them even more than before I took this course.
In observing this wide swath of photographers, their motivations were certainly varied for more reasons than we know. The one thing that seemed to be consistent amongst everyone, though, was the dedication of the photographers to their work. Looking back now, this seems like an obvious thing to observe; how could these individuals not be dedicated to what they do? We discussed so many things that separate photographers from one another – the minute differences between photojournalism and documentary photography, the way women are treated differently than men in the industry, where people differ if they are in an agency vs. with a publication vs. freelance vs. under an editor vs. on their own – and the vast number of differences makes it seem there is little uniting the world of photography. Dedication to the craft, though, across all fields and all types of photography seems to be a powerfully unifying force.
Calling something “art” leads to many nuanced layers of connotations, but for lack of a better term, the art of photography only still exists in the world because of the dedication of the men and women who keep it alive. Whether they are fashion photographers who spend hours laboring over the right shot, documentary photographers who seek out social justice in the far reaches of the globe, or conflict photographers imbed with a military overseas, these people bring a passion to their work that is incomparable in other industries. I think back to reading about the early days at Magnum, and that same passion is present then, too; an empire in the photo world was built from a group of individuals who were dedicated to photography. Even though the industry and even the mechanics of photography have changed a lot over the past few decades, the passion is what remains.
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