Remembering The Good Old Days

Susana, Belinda and I at the Pettijohn Awards 2007




Photographers Scott Fisher and Carline Jean




Me with my Pettijohn 2007




Pat, John, Kavita and Kathy



It's a bad time right now to be a journalist. Not because there isn't a wealth of stories to report on: corrupt politicians, the war in Iraq, poverty, recession, drought, polution and I can go on and on and on...



It's a bad time to be a journalist because newspapers' advertising profit is dropping fast. The bad economy isn't only hitting the housing sector, gas prices, food cost or our paychecks, it's also hitting newspapers. Businesses are buying fewer ads and circulation is going down. As a consequence, papers are cutting, cutting, cutting saleries, pages, and (what hurts the most) staffing. The Sun-Sentinel where I work has tried to think creatively to prevent loss of jobs. We have a website that's doing well and now we're going to have a television station in our newsroom. But, despite all this, we're going through another round of layoffs, firings or "staff reductions" ...however you want to call it.



As the Director of Photography I'm in the thick of things. I've never been in this position and never imagined I would be. In the 10 years I've worked at the paper we've always been positive about the future, we've always made profits and we've always put out a great product for our readers.



But, with the downturn in the economy, things have changed. A cloud of dume and gloom has loomed over our industry and now our paper. It's been very hard to keep positive trying to motivate my visual team to concentrate on the work for our readers. How can we be positive if our jobs are in jepourdy?



What keeps me hopefull is the strong believe I have in the power of photography. A photography can truly be more powerful than words. A picture can stop you cold to make you think of the world you live in, a person across the ocean dying of starvation, a war a world away that kills our men and women every day. A picture can also make you laugh. Capturing a silly baby playing or a dog painted to look like a clown. When I remember these pictures, my faith in photojournalism resurfaces giving me the will to fight another day to save someone's job. Why? For my staff, my craft and my readers.