this post was submitted on 13 Nov 2023
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Photography
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A place to politely discuss the tools, technique and culture of photography.
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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A friend did this semi-successfully in the early 2010’s.
He spoke a few different languages, including helpfully Arabic and French, and would fly out to somewhere at the first sign of troubles kicking off, work and charm and convince his way to the front and then ‘embed’ with people who wanted to get their pictures out there. He sold photos to the wires and to some newspapers directly and normally managed to cover his costs but not make much ‘profit’. I think one or two amazing shots could raise most of the money for a trip.
Over time he got to know people and they would ask him to go to places and be more explicit that they were interested in photos, “Are you thinking of going to Syria” etc. He also built up relationships in country, so he would have ‘fixers” or similar - particularly if someone was happy about a big photo that had been in newspapers. A lot of this was the Arab Spring aftermath which sounded chaotic as hell, loads of militias roaming around Libya and Egypt etc. He almost got killed a couple of times in quick succession and decided to stop, it didn’t seem like there was an obvious route to a staff position or being better protected or paid.
To be honest hearing him talk about killed any sense of romance and adventure about it. It sounded incredibly grim all the time, living in squalor often with horrible people who generally didn’t care about him and hoping not to suffer an unpleasant death.
I worked on Vice on HBO for a bit in 2015. I was excited to jump on cause I liked their content since it came out. They loved me and offered a staff position, but I could never. Some of the sketchier stories I heard from other crew were very intense. I had to leave because my laptop got hacked, it was freaky.
I'd love to hear some stories if you're willing to share.
Also, great username :)
There are so many. I can’t really go into too much detail. There were crew members getting imprisoned in ISIS jails in Turkey, journalists getting held and beaten in basements by the Russian army, I mean shit was real. But they were also not very open and honest with what you were getting into and played a lot of things down, that was my biggest issue. Also didn’t seem like they had their t’s crossed and i’s dotted unless it directly involved Shane. Once Shane was off location it felt like you were fending for yourself. A lot of people were loyal and were excited to work for them, but they also burned through sooooo much talent, they definitely had a reputation in the industry, not a good one. Some of the stuff was definitely very interesting, I just really wish they were more professional about things and the work culture was a bit more buttoned up. I think they could’ve grown into something special.