Last week the Chicago Sun-Times made a bold (and some might argue ill-advised) move, when it fired its entire team of photographers.
In their place, they’ll be using freelancers and iPhone photos taken by their reporters.
As an individual with a journalism background and a blogger, I have some conflicting emotions on this issue.
On the one hand, it makes me sad to see this time-honored profession get thrown aside for amateur photography.
For a long time, photography was the backbone of strong print journalism. The words would shape the stories, but the pictures really made it personal and immediate. There’s a reason they say a picture is worth a thousand words.
In a world where print journalism is a dying institution, it’s sad to see these visionaries kicked to the curb and exchanged for a lower quality product.
But on the other hand, in a world of blogs and immediate information, sticking with the old way of doing things is a sure way to get left behind.
Freelancers may not be the professional photographers of days gone by, but they have tools and resources that past photo journalists did not. The older professionals may not want to hear it, but you can take some pretty awesome pictures with an iPhone if you know how to use it correctly.
At the end of the day, it’s sad to see so many talented individuals fired, but with the direction that journalism is heading, it makes sense. Only time will tell if the correct decision was made.
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More on the Story: NY Times
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