Steve Parker at St. Louis Today, passes on a lament from the recent Order of News Design competition - the release of emotional images from our newspapers.
The comments lifted from the SND report ring too true:
Amid all our positive observations, we became concerned about the land of photojournalism in the pages we saw. We missed emotional photographs.
Glossy magazines and newspaper pages with vast, luxurious expanses of space were largely barren of powerful photojournalism.
The want of strong, documentary images puzzled us. We wondered if this has something to do with reduced investment. The manufacture has lost so many positions for picture editors and others, and yet great photographs can`t be made without time, care and commitment. Perhaps in places where the process is being done, print space to showcase it is no longer available.
Having had the lavishness of seeing hundreds of papers in the final few days, we`d like to produce a red flag on this issue. It`s one of print`s great powers to enable users to savor moments captured in the best photos. How can we recapture and have this respect to readers?
And it`s true - our readers have shied away from coverage of heavy things, relevant things, emotional things. They need it promptly and comfortable and happy. And if you don`t do that, they click away.
So what do we do? Well, I nonetheless think we want to recite stories that matter. But we can`t but have pictures of impoverishment and war and disasters - we want to refer those to our readers, we need to express them that poverty is an effect in India, it`s also an event in Peoria.
And that it`s an effect they can do something about. Don`t simply looking at the symptoms in your work. Go beyond the causes, too - go for the cure. Tell THAT report and people will pay attention.
It isn`t easy, but it is relevant and emotional. And that`s how we save storytelling.