I'm comforted by the fact that this post can be deleted should I be wrong about all this. Feel free to tell me your opinion.

A Byline as Payment

The future of the craft has been on my mind for quite some time now.
The thoughts stemmed from a few incidences. First - appearing many years ago now, but still quite common- was a segment run on 'Channel Nine' news here in Melbourne. It is the "send in your photos of a current event!' box which occasionally appears at the end of the bulletin. The viewer is advised to send in their images of local news to the news agency, and it may be shown on television with a byline.
The byline is payment.

After seeing it on Nine News many moons ago, I thought nothing of it. Then I saw it appear in the 'Herald Sun' Newspaper. I was not surprised. I currently work as a volunteer on a small (non for profit) local paper. It is a beautiful little organisation, full of lovely, dedicated volunteers. But before I joined, there was no photographer. All images were shot using a single point and shoot given to the journalists on request. Everyone thought the images were 'good enough'.

The scary part was that, to the lay eye, they were right.

Coined in 1913 by Émile Borel in "Mécanique Statistique et Irréversibilité" he writes:
"...ces singes dactylographes travaillent avec ardeur dix heures par jour avec un million de machines...Et au bout d'un an, ces volumes se trouveraient renfermer la copie exacte des livres de toute nature et de toutes langues conservés dans les plus riches bibliothèques du monde"
Translated: "...These monkey typists work [furiously], ten hours per day on a million typewriters... And with the end of one year, these volumes would contain the exact copy of the books of any nature and all languages preserved in the richest libraries of the world."


The typewriter has been created:

The digital age has meant that we are all more connected than ever before, with access to cheap cameras capable of creating quality images. In itself, a cheap, easy to use camera is a good thing. Family snapshot albums have been loved for decades. But today, there is a difference. I think it was Canon who recently aired a television advertisement here which stated any lay person, using their new patented technology (read "in camera software manipulation"), can take an image like a professional. The ad begins with two women, one standing near a tree and another taking a photograph of her. The ' photographer ' Umms and Ahhh's, asking the subject to stand a little to the left, then a little to the right. As the subject moves around, the advertisement shows the camera's LCD screen, and in it the subject is being pampered by makeup artists, with men moving lighting and cabling around. The ' photographer ' takes a shot and reviews the image. "Oh that's good!" she remarks, with a touch of surprise and a sly smile.


I now present the following hypothetical which I hope describes the philosophical monkey.

A freelance photographer who heard about an event rushed to the scene. He did the light readings set his aperture and shutter speed on the expensive camera he invested in. Using his years of schooling and experience to compose an image which accurately and beautifully conveys the scene. He approaches the paper with his piece, and asks for a $150 fee to use the single image on page 23 of the paper.
On the other side of the crowd, another man notices the same event.
Using his camera phone he is able to send it instantaneously to a news organisation. He can send video of the event to be used on websites. This man might be a banker, dentist, baker, or belong to any other profession. He is among the other 50 people who may have passed the same news event, snapping it on their camera phones: But he is special. His image is slightly blurry but captures the majority of the scene. He bought a phone with a 3 megapixel sensor. He submits the image. He wants to get his name in print, and show his family, friends and colleagues at work. They'll all be impressed.
The editor, himself a writer, not a photographer, with the intention of saving a little cash has picked the man with the camera phone. The scene was conveyed - 'Citizen journalism' at work, he'll say.

This a generalisation of the problem for illustration. The repercussions of common 'occurrences' have been discussed at length on the lightstalkers forums:
[link]


I don't know what to think. This issue is not one of good and evil, right or wrong, but one of personal preference. I'm obviously biased in my feeling that a newspaper is a poor place sans the artistic flare of a talented photographer. But who am I to be up on my pedestal? Perhaps all that is required of images in newspapers is that they represent the scene, even if they're slightly out of focus. Perhaps they are, as has been said, "good enough". Hell, in some cases the other guy might by chance hit the exposure just right, at just the right angle and take a much better photograph than the trained photographer.

Either way, the question still remains. I'm beginning my career as a professional photographer. Where is the value in my craft if the end result is competing with a service being given for free?

I'm not hopeful of the future.