So, last weekend I was privileged to join 159 of the best photojournalists (students and pros, that were willing to take a trek out to the NYC for the NYT Lens Blog Portfolio Review. Overall, it was amazing and inspiring much like the Eddie Adams Workshop, which happens to have the deadline in a month. Just a reminder to some out there. At the end of the Sunday sessions, we got a nice chat with one of my favs, Matt Eich. During that he said something that just shocked me. He said that he never wanted to work for a newspaper after a couple of his internships. Now, granted he explained it perfectly and actually made me miss freelancing a bit, but then it got me thinking about why I love working for newspapers.
Now, we all know newspapers are laying people off, students can't find jobs, the money is in the crapper, benefits suck, your doing the job of three people and whatever else you can possibly think of is enough of a reason that any person would probably steer away from even going at a staff job. I mean if you just stay healthy and remember to pay your taxes (yeah that one got me) then freelancing is great. Plus, time to do personal projects! Yet, it's something that didn't fully satisfy me during that time. I didn't feel the connection to the people who I was serving. Being able to get out there daily and work on the stories that matter to the readers is amazing. Plus having the medium to present it to that large of an diverse audience is great. I know, I know your project got funded by Kickstarter and made some waves on the web, but it's nothing like looking someone in the eye, whom you have never met before, and hearing how your story affected their live. And even lower than that, when a see a parent buying several copies of the paper because their child is the main sport's photo. Moments like that can't be matched, even by not always cringing at the email for a meeting or tiptoeing around your boss.
