Experienced my first Street Scene
Seems Like a Cool Job
One of the lesser featured characters on the Lou Grant TV show was the staff photojournalist, Animal, played by Dennis Price. He was an oddball slob, but his job seemed like the most exciting one at the newspaper. He was definately more colorful than Jimmy Olson at the Daily Planet.
He certainly made the idea of being a news photographer a possible career option for me. During my second year of photography study I took a class in journalism/news photography mainly because it seemed more interesting than fashion photography.
A few weeks after starting this class I was driving home wondering how I was going to complete our mid-term project to take pictures of a news event. As I turned the corner in a neighborhood in Oakland I saw police lights, an ambulance, and a small crowd gathered in a tight circle. Something newsworthy seemed to be happening twenty five feet away. And I needed something newsworthy.
This is Real
I took my camera with me and edged up through crowd. Obviously something terrible had just happened simply seeing the reaction of the crowd in front of me. It wasn't something I had ever seen before, and I wouldn't care to see again. A young boy was lying on the ground after apparently being struck by a hit and run driver. He was alive (the paramedic said) but he was in critical condition.
It was gut wrenching, and real. No Hollywood actors pretending to be news photographers.
This is what our teacher had told us to possibly expect if we chose to become news photographers.
After a few minutes of internal debate, I decided to take a couple of photos and then leave. Interestingly, just that day our teacher taught us how to discretely shoot "shoot from the hip" by aiming the camera at the subject to not bring attention to a volatile situation.
So I took several photos and quickly went back to my car. I was trying to process what I saw...and photographed. It didn't seem real. Actually it wasn't real until I developed the photos a few hours later that it hit me much harder than I expected.
The stark black and white image of the child surrounded by first responders was graphic, sobering, heartbreaking, and uncompromising It was probably the out-of-classroom experience I needed to realize that scenes like this one could be a part of being a news photographer.
I received a B for the photo and the teacher used it as an example of capturing live, unpredictable news events for our class. He explained as a news photographer you usually won't be witness to such dramatic scenes, but sometimes, " you will see things you wish you didn't see, and that you won't forget."
My decision to not become a news photographer wasn't just based on that experience, but it probably played a part. This is why we need teachable moments to separate the classroom (and television unreality) from the real world.
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