The first question was, “What got you into photography ?” they all said they started when they were young. The dangers of news photography were varied. Madonik said he felt danger in Vietnam, Afghanistan and Haiti. Bock said he felt it in India. Spremo was always afraid of landmines.
One lady asked if they had suffered from PTSD. All said they had and Russell coped with physical exercise while Spremo said he had depended on family.
Most all of the panel said they were motivated by the need for action, the words “action junkie” was mentioned often. Whereas reporters become editors and even publishers, photographers stay photographers their entire careers.
The nature of news photography has changed by virtue of the fact that everybody now has a camera in their cell phone and can send those pictures off to the news outlet. It was mentioned that Sports Illustrated has laid off all their staff photographers (the magazine is buying their images from photo services who are contracted with their subjects).
The seminar was very interesting and Boris Spremo took some gentle ribbing for being a bit of a star among photographers.
Adu Raudkivi
