The end of the year is in sight and it’s freaking me out. I’m ruminating on how many assignments I did and whether I can see any good that came from those stories. I’m measuring progress have I made on longterm work and feeling like I didn’t spend enough time on it. The Financial Situation in the Journalism Industry is precarious and scary and somehow if I can quantify these things or just freelance better maybe I can somehow transport us all back to when newspapers and magazines could afford to have full-time employees. Did you guys know that health insurance premiums are going to be like $600/month next year hahahaha
For my photojournalism practice to be sustainable, I want to to “move at the speed of trust” as my coop mate L says. Instead of fixating on the numbers I’m writing here.
I can come up with a thousand excuses why I don’t have capacity to work on longterm projects. But when I look back on my archive, I’m really proud of those stories where I kept showing up.
“I very much like to work on long-term projects… There is time for the photographer and the people in front of the camera to understand each other. There is time to go to a place and understand what is happening there. …When you spend more time on a project, you learn to understand your subjects.
There comes a time when it is not you who is taking the pictures. Something special happens between the photographer and the people he is photographing. He realizes that they are giving the pictures to him.”
So that’s what i’m recommitting to. Here, I’ll share updates on my work and celebrate fellow photographers and filmmakers who are making work that inspires me.
I’ll start with those who are creating here on this newsletter platform because I can embed them and I’m still learning how to format this. Follow Tim Nwachukwu and Andrea Bruce at the links below!
Would you like to talk about your longterm work? I’m thinking about photojournalism and documentary work, but I’m also really interested in what longterm projects mean to you in your context. Are you collecting or archiving something in your community? Do you have a longterm goal outside of work that you want to talk about? I’m thinking about how people can maintain stamina and build projects that don’t burn them out.
When is it time to move on? What are the costs of this work? How do you decide what you commit to?
I’m excited to start writing more, and I’m grateful to you for reading.
❤ C
