this post was submitted on 13 Nov 2023
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Photography
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This is not a good place to simply share cool photos/videos or promote your own work and projects, but rather a place to discuss photography as an art and post things that would be of interest to other photographers.
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You’ve probably got a lot of advice here so I’ll take a different tack.
Be ready to be a conflict photographer. How fit are you? You may need to be able to keep up with a trained infantry unit while carrying your gear if that’s your thing. Fitness is never a useless thing.
How is your ability to take good photographs very quickly and under duress? Hard to train for but consider some local documentary projects to practice.
What are some stories that need to be told in your own community? Drive some of your own personal projects.
In terms of payment another Avenue may be that armies actually have paid photographer positions. I wouldn’t be surprised these days if they also included videography. You’d be photographing everything from combat to portraits of generals to events to recruitment images etc. like army positions though they go through basic training.
Just some ideas but I’d say don’t make conflict your first project, get some chops on your local area telling stories and build up many of the skills you’d need.
Realistically you’re not going in with a military unit. I’m pretty sure those days are mostly done. The army has an MOS specifically for Combat Photographers. The government gets to claim ownership of the photos and control the narrative there’s not really any reason to take responsibility for a civilian who’s probably going to just document misconduct anyways.
There are combat photographers in Ukraine, probably Gaza, and other flashpoints around the world. It's not all just about conflicts involving the USA. That said they may be mostly self-funded and working on speculation that publications will pick up their work later.
I was under impression that photographers and journalists are not allowed on frontlines by Ukrainian ministry of defense. Not even considering russian side as an option, because censorship etc. So most work is being done mostly behind the frontline, so no combat photography unless something happens unexpectedly? Correct me if I’m wrong.
You may be right. It’s possible because some of the earlier footage of the conflict was Russians targeting journalists so perhaps they don’t want that to happen. Even behind the front lines fitness is important though, still possible a person could be targeted by drones and artillery.
My bad when you said keep up with infantry I assumed you meant US military Infantry. I have army brain.
All good. You’re right that the us has their own people, hence why I mentioned jobs above. I’ve seen photography jobs in aus military as well and it’d be safe to assume probably Canada, uk and other western countries have photographers or media positions. But if you’re wanting to document conflict in its rawest form you’ll find that with photographers that go to the most dangerous places in the world, which I honestly don’t recommend. That said I’d be very tempted to head to Ukraine if I didn’t have other people in my life to consider.