Newspapers are full of trends, free-ranging inside stories, photographs and design. While photographing the infant cough and cold medicine
story photo illustration I experimented with one — the use of a ring flash that has been made popular in fashion and portraiture.
However, after a trend becomes established, prevalent and hackneyed, it turns to taboo. The faded trends begin to age, and once heralded as fresh and groundbreaking, they can turn into crutches.
This is what happened to photo illustrations in the late 1980s and early '90s. This is not to say there is not a place for photo illustrations. Far, far from it. Such images can tell stories in ways that, at times, photojournalistic photographs cannot. But there are instances where they take away and replace the power and symbolism a "straight" photograph offers.
During my university education, a period during which the basis for my journalism mores was molded, photo illustrations were the rage. But as they became more common, they started replacing strong, poignant photojournalism. People realized the presentation of people doing actual activities, affected by forces within and outside their control and representative of a story's premise, were stronger and more effective than static illustrations with models or items. Trying to document a story's assertions through real people, through both words and photographs, often conveys more to the reader than other forms of storytelling.
Thus allowing photojournalists to photograph, attempting to create images of people with emotion and impact through a variety of means — such as symbolism or metaphor — and documenting moments can be stronger than any other method of storytelling for certain stories.
There are times such an approach does not work. Or, on the other hand, times that it does not meet the exacting, preordained criteria some people have when they look at the resulting work — not able to "see," blinded by pragmatism or conventional thinking.
During the summer of 1988 my internal ideas about photo illustrations changed. Working for the Kansas State Collegian after my freshman year ended — just a pup in the woolly, dark woods of newspapers — I had to photograph a story on the lack of rain and how it affected farmers throughout the state. We came up with an illustration idea to have an attractive model standing in a wheat field with an umbrella, wheat shaft between her teeth, looking for rain with her hand out. The black-and-white result looked great with nice light, nice wheat and nice model.
"Portfolio for sure," I mused.
Then Kansas City Times staff photographer John Sleezer, alum and former College Photographer of the Year, visited while on assignment around Manhattan. Before the man, a legend and great photographer in my mind (and many others'), I put some of my recent work, looking for praise. He turned to the illustration and verbally ripped it apart.
To paraphrase, he said "Why do an illustration when you had the chance to make a great photograph of people actually affected by the situation within the story?"
Dumbfounded, I could not reply with a real answer of meaning.
"This was the easy way out. You blew it."
The words have haunted me since, and any time someone suggests an illustration of any type I first try to think of what way can this be done candidly — even if it is my own idea to do one.
The illustration on the front page of today's Baltimore Sun does not have a byline, pulled by the photographer. Within the Newspaper Guild's contract with the paper is a rule stating that reporters and photographers can remove bylines whenever it is deemed fit. The photo illustration was made by me yesterday afternoon, and I requested the byline not be used. In my reasoning, I questioned taking away from, in my opinion, a strong, storytelling photo (although not perfect) with energy and immediacy and replacing it with a static one. From my experience, the reader does not gain as much with the illustration. Not that I did a bad job -- it turned out better than I expected and some of the outtakes looked even better -- but it is just with candor I say it did not do the job as well as what could have been.
