Avery on the Airwaves

Life and death are of supreme importance. Time passes swiftly and opportunity is lost. Let’s us awaken… Awaken. Do not squander your life.

Staring red-eyed at the mirror in front of me, having spent another day and half of the night with my computer, I ask myself fundamental questions: Why radio? Why documentary? Answer: No other medium can provide me with more freedom of creation and investigation. It meets my urgent interest in reality and the desire for a ‘musical’ expression. The material (der Werkstoff) is sound. And sound always surrounds us.

—Helmut Kopetzky

In Defence of Photojournalism I think it is time we send out a missing persons report. What I want to know is what happened to the Art in journalism. Or perhaps it is more appropriate to say, “What happened to our respect for Art in journalism?”. Print reporting has been replaced with an overbearing importance on Twitter and no matter how many times Margaret Atwood tweets that Twitter encourages literacy I still cringe every time I have to sum up a news story in 140 characters. Television reporting has been reduced to a medium for the A.D.D viewer whose attention span runs about 0.8 milliseconds at best. Where live hits via iPhone FaceTime and Twitter tickers rule the screen. Radio reporting (my eternal soul mate) seems to be the only medium unchanged by an attention deprived generation, though our dependence on social media has changed the game considerably. But, among the withered trees in the shrinking forest that is modern journalism, the most lamentable is the at-risk art of photojournalism. It hangs dangerously on a rotting branch. Somewhere along the way of camera phones, or point-and-shoots outfitted with the umpteenth mega pixel and the falling price of SLRs (that most people, let’s be real, don’t ever take off auto) we lost our respect for photojournalism, and further to that, the journalist behind the camera. Never have I been more touched, drawn in or effected by a medium than I have by photojournalism. If you could just imagine for a second a 20-something girl standing in a D.C. Museum (or more accurately the “Newseum”) bawling in public while moving from photo to photo in the Pulitzer Prize Photojournalism Gallery. That’s me. In defence of my public display of emotion: it’s not about a beautiful picture or perfect composition, it’s about a captured moment in time that reminds us that humans have struggled in unimaginable ways, as well as triumphed over adversity with strength and pride. Photojournalism gives you an eye into the past that can make you question everything about the future. Photojournalism doesn’t just show you what happened, it captures raw human emotion and that’s something that should make your stomach turn. Funnily enough what made my stomach flip-flop this morning was reading this article (“Where Have All the Photojournalists Gone?”) about the dying Art of photojournalism. GOOD Magazine cites a memo to staffers from CNN senior VP Jack Womack that says as user-generated content and social media continue to grow they have decided they can afford to part with 12 full-time photojournalists. In other words… people will send them iPhone photos for free, so why do they need the professionally-trained and talented photographer? (I hope this feeling in my chest is only heartburn…) All this said, I CAN see the value in the citizen photographer who is in the mix, in the middle and part of everything, happening anywhere, anytime. Cell phones have captured important events the photojournalists couldn’t get to in time. We now have the ability to capture action quickly and share it immediately. You can tweet a request for a photo of earthquake damage thousands of miles away and have it at your fingertips within minutes. We can connect with the rest of the world in ways unimaginable even 15 years ago. Somehow though, it all seems so superficial. With an iPhone photo we can see what is happening, but it is much more difficult to see the meaning behind it. What photojournalists do, to me, is invaluable. Relying solely on a photo from a cell phone camera to tell the story is like tweeting a news story and then leaving it there. I don’t disagree that iPhone photos are important in a new age of media, but generally with every tweet there is a more in depth story behind it. Siphoning off photojournalism is like telling newspapers they don’t need to write any articles, they only need someone to sum up what’s happening in 140 characters. Without photojournalism we are doomed to barely skim the surface. What happened to a thirst for depth? What happened to a need for the Art in current affairs? What happened to our respect for talent and vision? I dare you to watch this and tell me that we don’t need Eddie Adams. I beseech you to watch this TED talk and tell me that James Natchwey could have been replaced with an idiot with an iPhone. What I am trying to say here is without the photojournalist we are doomed to see the world through the blurry lense of an iPhone camera. So I declare today “Hug a Photojournalist Day”… don’t let them go extinct. Here are some fine choices (for transparency sake, I went to school with all these beautiful people in Maine at the Salt Institute for Documentary Studies). Sarah CraigMadeleine PryorDavid FosterAdrianne MathiowetzLeah Fisher There are more… I just can’t find their websites.

In Defence of Photojournalism

I think it is time we send out a missing persons report. What I want to know is what happened to the Art in journalism. Or perhaps it is more appropriate to say, “What happened to our respect for Art in journalism?”. Print reporting has been replaced with an overbearing importance on Twitter and no matter how many times Margaret Atwood tweets that Twitter encourages literacy I still cringe every time I have to sum up a news story in 140 characters. Television reporting has been reduced to a medium for the A.D.D viewer whose attention span runs about 0.8 milliseconds at best. Where live hits via iPhone FaceTime and Twitter tickers rule the screen. Radio reporting (my eternal soul mate) seems to be the only medium unchanged by an attention deprived generation, though our dependence on social media has changed the game considerably.

But, among the withered trees in the shrinking forest that is modern journalism, the most lamentable is the at-risk art of photojournalism. It hangs dangerously on a rotting branch. Somewhere along the way of camera phones, or point-and-shoots outfitted with the umpteenth mega pixel and the falling price of SLRs (that most people, let’s be real, don’t ever take off auto) we lost our respect for photojournalism, and further to that, the journalist behind the camera. Never have I been more touched, drawn in or effected by a medium than I have by photojournalism.

If you could just imagine for a second a 20-something girl standing in a D.C. Museum (or more accurately the “Newseum”) bawling in public while moving from photo to photo in the Pulitzer Prize Photojournalism Gallery. That’s me. In defence of my public display of emotion: it’s not about a beautiful picture or perfect composition, it’s about a captured moment in time that reminds us that humans have struggled in unimaginable ways, as well as triumphed over adversity with strength and pride. Photojournalism gives you an eye into the past that can make you question everything about the future. Photojournalism doesn’t just show you what happened, it captures raw human emotion and that’s something that should make your stomach turn.

Funnily enough what made my stomach flip-flop this morning was reading this article (“Where Have All the Photojournalists Gone?”) about the dying Art of photojournalism. GOOD Magazine cites a memo to staffers from CNN senior VP Jack Womack that says as user-generated content and social media continue to grow they have decided they can afford to part with 12 full-time photojournalists. In other words… people will send them iPhone photos for free, so why do they need the professionally-trained and talented photographer? (I hope this feeling in my chest is only heartburn…)

All this said, I CAN see the value in the citizen photographer who is in the mix, in the middle and part of everything, happening anywhere, anytime. Cell phones have captured important events the photojournalists couldn’t get to in time. We now have the ability to capture action quickly and share it immediately. You can tweet a request for a photo of earthquake damage thousands of miles away and have it at your fingertips within minutes. We can connect with the rest of the world in ways unimaginable even 15 years ago.

Somehow though, it all seems so superficial. With an iPhone photo we can see what is happening, but it is much more difficult to see the meaning behind it. What photojournalists do, to me, is invaluable. Relying solely on a photo from a cell phone camera to tell the story is like tweeting a news story and then leaving it there. I don’t disagree that iPhone photos are important in a new age of media, but generally with every tweet there is a more in depth story behind it. Siphoning off photojournalism is like telling newspapers they don’t need to write any articles, they only need someone to sum up what’s happening in 140 characters. Without photojournalism we are doomed to barely skim the surface. What happened to a thirst for depth? What happened to a need for the Art in current affairs? What happened to our respect for talent and vision?

I dare you to watch this and tell me that we don’t need Eddie Adams.

I beseech you to watch this TED talk and tell me that James Natchwey could have been replaced with an idiot with an iPhone.

What I am trying to say here is without the photojournalist we are doomed to see the world through the blurry lense of an iPhone camera.

So I declare today “Hug a Photojournalist Day”… don’t let them go extinct.

Here are some fine choices (for transparency sake, I went to school with all these beautiful people in Maine at the Salt Institute for Documentary Studies).

Sarah Craig
Madeleine Pryor
David Foster
Adrianne Mathiowetz
Leah Fisher

There are more… I just can’t find their websites.

I send text messages in AP style.

—From “We Are Journalists. Let’s Keep It to Ourselves.” Amanda Hess’ response to the We Are Journalists Blog

Making everyday extraordinary.

Let the pictures tell the story. From an amazing collection of photos from the conflict in Libya organized in order from February to October: HERE Via The New York Times.

Let the pictures tell the story.

From an amazing collection of photos from the conflict in Libya organized in order from February to October: HERE

Via The New York Times.

Success is liking yourself, liking what you do, and liking how you do it.

—Maya Angelou

I work with some pretty amazing people. All sorts of Free FM love!

“Life of Flowers”