Photos of the journalist. The best photojournalists of Russia Soviet and Russian reality through the eyes of photographers. Vladimir Vyatkin: "Photography is not just a set of frames, it should be a story about what is happening"

We present to our readers the best photographers-journalists of Russia - the owners of prestigious world awards, whose work has made a significant contribution to the development of Russian photojournalism.

Vladimir Vyatkin: "Photography is not just a set of frames, it should be a story about what is happening"

Laureate of international prizes and competitions, winner of more than 160 awards, including: "World Press Photo" (Holland), "Mother Jones" (USA), "Great Wall" (China), Saddam Hussein's "Golden Prize" (Iraq), "Silver Camera" (Russia), the title of "International Master of Photojournalism" of the International Organization of Journalists (IOJ). Photojournalist of RIA Novosti, lecturer at the Faculty of Journalism of Moscow State University and the National School of Television, academician of the International Guild of Media Photographers, member of the Union of Journalists of Russia.

Winner international competitions: Interpressphoto, Mother Jones Photo Contest (USA), SSF World Sports Photo Contest (Japan), Humanity Photo Award and Great Wall (China). In the work of Vladimir Vyatkin, socio-social, geographical, ethnographic themes, as well as art and sports, prevail.

Igor Gavrilov:"To become a good photographer - shoot, shoot and shoot, and love this business."

Winner of many international titles and awards, including the Golden Eye at World Press Photo. Today Igor Gavrilov collaborates with Time, Focus, Russian NewsWeek, is the head of the Russian department of the European photo agency East news, the author of many books on photography. Took part in the project "One Day in the Life of the USSR" and in the preparation of the book "The Soviet Union tоday" "National Geographic". Igor considers analytical reporting as the main genre in his work, and defines the purpose of his work as "showing the truth." The photographer has visited more than 50 countries of the world, traveled all over Russia, working in hot spots, including at the site of the Chernobyl tragedy.

:"Photography is how I see the world the moment I press the shutter release."

Winner of the Golden Eye Award "World Press Photo". He worked as a photojournalist for RIA Novosti, a columnist for the Voice of Russia radio and the BBC. Currently - photojournalist agency "Fly - Nig", member of the Union of Journalists of Russia, author of documentaries. His photo reportage from Afghanistan, which demonstrated the real military operations of the Soviet troops, received great fame.

:“Over time, I start to love my photos more and more”

Two-time laureate of "World Press Photo", winner of numerous awards of world photography exhibitions and competitions. Recognized master genre photography and a psychological portrait, he himself calls his shooting "Country and People". The real glory came to Viktor Zagumyonnov after a series of photo essays and the life of the Russian North.

:"If you do not see the frame that you need, then it simply cannot be here."

Twice winner of the Pulitzer Prize (for reporting on the 1991 Moscow putsch and photographs of President Boris Yeltsin dancing at a rock concert). Photoreporter Associated Press, chief photographer of the Moscow bureau, photographer of the Kremlin pool. His works were published in the book “Vladimir Putin. Best Photos ”(2008).

: "Tragedy always happens with a specific person, and if the world knows his story, then I did my job well"

Winner of numerous awards: six World Press Photo awards for photographs from Chechnya, Iraq and Beslan; Overseas Press Club Oliver Rebbot and Frontline Club awards for coverage of events in Iraq; ICP Infinity awards, Visa d'or News awards for his On Revolution Road project; awards "Trophee" and "Public Prize" for the project "Dispatch from Libya". Yuri Kozyrev - world famous military man photo reporter, highlighted all the major conflicts in the former Soviet Union, including the two Chechen wars, the fall of the Taliban, which considers it its duty to "be where the news is."

:"People pay for art when they have everything else."

Multiple winner of the "Everyday Life" nomination "World Press Photo", winner of the awards "Russia Press Photo", "Golden Pen" of the St. Petersburg Union of Journalists, "Photographer of the Year" magazine "Ogonyok". Collaborates with the German agency "Focus", publications "Time", "Newsweek", "Liberation", "Washington Post", "The Wall Street Jornal", "Buisness Week", "Izvestia", "Itogi", "Rossiyskaya Gazeta" ...

:“Every virtue has its flaw. And vice versa"

Winner of awards "World Press Photo", "Bourse de la Ville de Paris" (France), "Society of News Design Award of Excellence" (USA). His works are published by well-known world publications: "Geo", "Actuel", "New York Times". Admitted to the world's oldest photo agency "Magnum". His book "Sightwalk", devoted to the study of specific types of light, is widely known.

:"The most intimate property of photography is in the documentary"

Repeated winner of World Press Photo and PressPhoto of Russia, holder of the authoritative photography grant from Eugene Smith “The W. Eugene Smith Memorial Fund”. His projects "Behind the Monastery Wall", "Holy Springs", "Abandoned Villages, Forgotten People" are famous all over the world.

:"I will never agree to work" paparazzi ""

Laureate of "World Press Photo", "PHOTOVISA", "Press Photo of Russia", winner of the "Silver Helmet" award, for reporting on the work of the Emergencies Ministry rescuers, winner of the sports photography competition "Discover the World of Sports". Collaborated with world famous publications such as Newsweek, Usa Today, Men’s Health, SportWeek, Foto & Video, BusinessWeek. Now he prefers the genre of monochrome photography and sports photography.

Police detain Grigory Dukor, editor-in-chief of the Reuters photo service in Russia and the CIS, during a public gathering on Manezhnaya Square in support of Alexei Navalny
Photo: Anton Novoderezhkin / ITAR-TASS

On October 3, the Murmansk court officially filed charges of piracy against photographer Denis Sinyakov, who covered the Greenpeace rally at the Prirazlomnaya oil platform. Sinyakov's arrest sparked outrage among journalists protesting against the authorities' violation of the media law, which protects correspondents from harassment when they execute professional responsibilities... Despite the fact that Sinyakov worked on the editorial assignment of "Lenta.ru" and even managed to make a photo report with "Prirazlomnaya", he found himself in a vulnerable position precisely because of his status as a freelance photographer who is not on the staff of any media.

Although the law on the media equates full-time journalists with freelance journalists if they are on an editorial assignment, in practice, the rights of the latter are often violated in Russia. Lenta.ru talked with freelance photographers, winners of international awards, and heads of photo services of major agencies about the specifics of stringers' work, the difficulties that their independent position entails, and how to help a reporter in trouble.

Dmitry Kostyukov, photojournalist

Laureate of the Foundation for the Development of Photojournalism, The Best of Photojournalism and Sport Russia Award; collaborates with The New York Times, Liberation, Russian Reporter, GEO, GQ, Around the World

Previously, I worked all the time in the state, first at Kommersant, then at Agence France-Presse. But the state always limits your freedom, and you do what the editorial office needs, and not what interests you. In addition, most magazines do not have a staff of photographers, and you can work with them only as a freelancer. Magazines, on the other hand, are always creative growth, because there you publish not one photo, but a story. The difference is approximately the same as in the texts between a news note and an article.

Of course, freelancing puts the photographer in a more vulnerable position. We must often fight for the rights: for some reason, Russian magazines always want exclusive rights to shoot. This is impossible, because in this case your archive will not belong to you, and the archive is the most valuable thing a photographer has. Then, if you are a freelancer, you yourself bear all the costs of equipment, downtime, insurance. And when something happens to you, you don't know who will intercede for you, because you work with five different publications. Everything here is based on human relationships: some editors start fighting for you right away, others pretend that they are seeing you for the first time in their lives.

A month and a half ago, I had the same situation as Denis: I was beaten when I was making a report about the members of the Femen movement. They took our phones, arrested us, took us to jail and completely ignored the fact that I was a journalist. Fortunately for me, the Russian Reporter and The New York Times stood up for me: they called the embassy and the Internal Affairs Directorate where I was, wrote letters. All the media started talking about my arrest, and there was a lot of noise. I do not know, to some extent, and which of this helped, but if everyone was silent, then it is not known how it would have ended. A lawyer in Ukraine, like ours, cannot always help, because the judge is told one thing, he nods his head, and makes a decision as if he had not heard anything.

When you work with Western media, you feel much more support - you know the amount that your relatives will receive if you are killed. In the Russian media, when you raise this issue, they say to you: “Oh, let's not talk about it”? When you try as a freelancer to include this clause in your contract, it causes a lot of problems. This should be decided at the level of the publisher, and the photo editor, who is not in the strongest position in the editorial office, is simply afraid to come to the publisher and say: “We need to conclude an agreement with a person, because we are responsible for him.”

It upsets me that in our country there is practically no official document confirming that you are a journalist. All press cards are internal documents issued by the editors; from the point of view of the law, one can simply not give a damn about them. The career of journalists, including photographers, often develops like this: you start as a freelancer, then work as a full-time employee, and then again become a freelancer, only there is a huge difference between the first type of freelancing and the second. And that's why I understand people who say they don't understand: is a freelancer a professional correspondent or a non-professional one? It's another matter when you have a document confirming that you are a journalist.

Photo: Valentin Ogirenko / Reuters

When photojournalists are detained, they are often pressured to leak information. Many years ago, Denis and I witnessed an action during the elections, they detained us and said: "We will now make you accomplices, if you don’t give us the flash drives, so that we can use your photos as proof of guilt." But the journalist has a legal right not to disclose information. Attempts to neglect it are the norm only for totalitarian regimes, which has been preserved in our country, apparently, by inertia. And they often say: "If you knew that this would happen, why didn't you warn us?" Why should we warn? We are completely neutral, although this is often not believed. We know the information, but we do not give it to anyone - neither one nor the other.

I am still very interested in the moment, why no one says that Denis filmed for Gazprom, went to Yamal from them? For some reason, this does not bother anyone. A freelancer may have commercial footage, or purely journalistic trips. Some people say: don't go with activists, stay on the sidelines. But then we will get a picture that was under the Soviet regime: officialdom, filming of speeches of persons on the podium and milkmaids.

You can't make a Greenpeace report without talking to these people. It seems to many that when a journalist enters a certain community, he kind of changes his profession. But this is not the case. The photographer may have his own position, but this does not mean that he is not a journalist. When Denis takes photographs of Prirazlomnaya, he does not write that these are photographs taken for Gazprom, he writes Denis Sinyakov / Greenpeace. And you, as a reader, have the right to draw your own conclusions.

What is happening now with Denis, with Rob Hornstroy, who was not given a visa to Russia, are links in the same fucking chain. At events, photographers and cameramen are usually hit first, because it is noticeable that they are journalists. But we feel less pressure on a psychological level than writing journalists. Now it has come down to us. And this is very bad, since we are the last link. With television, this happened a long time ago, with writing journalists, it happens in last years, and now we have reached the photojournalists.

Sergey Ponomarev, photojournalist

Winner of the International Photography Awards; collaborates with The New York Times, International Herald Tribune, Liberacion, Le Monde, The Washington Post, Lenta.ru

I became a freelancer after eight years at the Moscow office of the Associated Press - less than a year later. There are more and more freelancers now, because people believe in themselves more than customers, and besides work time you can plan more efficiently. In addition, work can now be arranged so that everything depends only on you - from booking a hotel to choosing clients. Publications, for their part, are trying to get rid of the burden of in-house photographers, because the amount of useful time they are paid for is minimal.

Freelancers receive money either in the form of grants or fill orders for magazines and newspapers, which are becoming increasingly scarce. They can also sell their images through agencies or participate in contests. The freelancer's work goes on non-stop - you shoot, in your free time, process images, send them to customers, follow all competitions and grants. You have to do everything yourself to stay afloat.

The problem is that in Russia the status of a freelancer is not legalized in any way ( formally, Article 52 of the Law on Mass Media says that the professional status of a journalist extends to freelance authors when they fulfill the instructions of the editorial board). I am registered as individual entrepreneur, but, accordingly, I am not protected by the law on the media. We believe that a journalist must work somewhere and he must have a work book. This goes against all the notions of journalism in the world. Only in our country is the journalist's certificate issued by the editorial board - all over the world it is issued by the trade union of journalists. In the face of the union, you have the protection, support or condemnation of colleagues and, in fact, the legitimization of the journalistic status.

Only in Russia they require you to specifically prove with pieces of paper and stamps that you are a journalist - everywhere in the world there are enough oral explanations. In addition, freelancers are not allowed here everywhere - for example, I was never able to officially get into any of the raids on Moscow markets. I called the GUVD, said that I was a freelance photographer, and they offered me to find some kind of publication that would vouch for me. But I didn’t want to be accredited - then the publication could apply for my pictures. So I could show only part of the story, and the story with migrants is very complex, it should be covered from all sides.

The case of Denis Sinyakov is a dangerous precedent. I know that he loves the topic of activists, but I would feel his personal interest if he tried to embellish them, make them heroes. But in this case, his pictures, on the contrary, even defame them. Sinyakov absolutely objectively showed that there are people who live like this. And when he was detained and he declared that he was a journalist, no one paid attention to his words. This is not a wake-up call, this is a bell: no one listens to our words.

I think many journalists are now wondering what to do next in conditions when they can take away any reporter who covers an action that is dubious from the point of view of the law. I hope that the pro-Kremlin reporters also understand that at some point they may fall under the distribution, and you will not get off with the telephone law here. We all need to create a legitimate body that would protect the rights of journalists. Now we are not protected by anything.

Rob Hornstra, documentary photographer

Together with journalist Arnold van Bruggen he made the Sochi Project; laureate of World Press Photo

I work as a freelancer because I like to choose the topics that interest me myself - I love long projects and deep stories that I can present however I want. At the same time, I do not consider myself a journalist, since I am not so much dependent on the news agenda. I am more of a documentary filmmaker.

Of course, I collaborate with some publications. In Russia, for example, we worked on a journalist visa from the Dutch magazine Vrij Nederland. We sometimes publish photo stories there, and in return they give us the opportunity to work in Russia. Now we also tried to get to Russia with their accreditation. When we were denied a journalistic visa, some people, even officials, suggested that we apply for a cultural or tourist visa. But we want to keep working and do not accept a temporary solution to the problem.

We try to do everything very clearly and openly - this is the only way to work in the North Caucasus. To prevent possible problems, we always ask permission to do something and try not to break the law. We warn the government of each North Caucasian republic before entering, we inform who we are and for what purpose we arrived. If we are forbidden to go somewhere, we do not go there. We work in the open, so we are not afraid of detention - we have nothing to hide.

We were detained several times in the North Caucasus, and if we did not have all the official papers confirming our right to work there as journalists, we would be immediately sent home. Foreign journalists who want to travel to North Caucasus Everything should be perfect with papers: journalist visa, accreditation of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

We never turned to Vrij Nederland for help if we were detained. In such cases, we always immediately write to social networks- so the whole world will immediately know that we are arrested. I think this is one of better ways for freelancers to protect themselves. We only had to turn to the embassy's help once - when the last time we were arrested in North Ossetia and put on trial, and we needed legal support.

Journalists who shoot where prohibited or cover illegal actions are doing an important job. I sincerely admire them, but I couldn't work that way. At the same time, it is always dangerous to cover illegal actions, and journalists must assess the possible consequences. And the government, on the other hand, needs to understand that free journalism is part of democracy. If you constantly detain journalists on minor occasions, you cannot call yourself a democrat.

The Netherlands has a strong trade union to protect the rights of journalists. Our government does not always like what journalists are doing, and sometimes reporters even have to break the law in order to convey some information to the public. Therefore, our press photographers are often arrested and demanded to remove all pictures. And then the media union stands up for them, which begins to put pressure on the government. This is absolutely not the case in Russia. Here, perhaps, they are trying to organize a journalistic lobby, but the government is still stronger, so for now it can do whatever it wants.

Yuri Kozyrev, photojournalist, one of the founders of the Noor photo agency

Previously collaborated with Los Angeles Times, Time magazine; Visa Pour News Award Winner, World Press Photo Jury

I have publications that I work with, but more often than not, I am led by some kind of story or event. As soon as I heard about Libya, I decided that I would go there. Driving a thousand kilometers to the border, crossing it illegally, entering a city that was captured by the rebels is, from the point of view of a sane person, terrible. But for a photographer to be a witness of the events taking place is his job. My colleagues and I understood that we were breaking serious laws, but here normal professional curiosity won out. Whether or not they will subscribe to this edition is the second question, most often now they do not want to, because it is unpredictable and too dangerous. And whether you go or not - everyone decides for himself. But for me this is not an argument, if they don’t send me, I will go anyway.

We trust our intuition, sometimes we take risks. When I was in Baghdad and it became known that he was going to be bombed, the Time editorial office I worked with said: "Get out." At the same time, the Russian embassy tried to put pressure on me through my mother. But I decided that I would stay because it was a matter of principle - to be with the Iraqis when they start bombing. And then the publication changed its mind. But there are also sad stories: Remi Oshlik, a photographer who was in Syria, left there at the request of the editors, but came back the next day and died three days later. Here the editorial board could no longer bear any responsibility, because it was his choice - to go back.

Now fewer and fewer freelancers are sent to hot spots, because this is too much responsibility, insurance. When was the second Chechen War I couldn't get a decent filming order. But I left for Chechnya knowing that the guys from the Associated Press were sitting there. They gave me the opportunity to live with them and work through them, and I gave them some of the photographs - it was solidarity. And then, through their tape, you suddenly have some unexpected customer and a job that you dreamed of. That is, even if at first the editorial office does not give orders and refuses to send you, then your photos will still be used.

People who love photography always take pictures - it doesn't matter if they have an editorial assignment or not. And going beyond the editorial assignment speaks only about the professionalism of the photographer, about his desire to shoot more. I never make a secret that I am a journalist. I have the right to film what is happening. But in some places it is silly to wave a journalist's ID or assignment, because there is shooting. In addition, a journalist's ID is virtually irrelevant in many countries. In the Middle East, journalists are fundamentally badly treated, due to the fact that for a long time these countries were closed and there simply did not know that there was such a profession - a journalist. Nowadays it’s worse to be an American journalist than a spy. Therefore, if you get caught, it is better to joke and relieve tension, calmly expecting what will happen, and not shouting that you are a reporter.

Photo: Sergey Pyatakov / RIA Novosti

We somehow flew to Bahrain from Libya and knew for sure that we would get into trouble, because Bahrain does not accept journalists. The border guards asked us to leave all our cameras at the border, but then my colleague and I immediately bought small cameras and started filming them. From the point of view of some media, it would be normal to leave and not take risks. But there are publications for which it is important to get exclusive materials, and they share the inner desire of photographers to get a picture at any cost. At the same time, no one will ever send a person forcibly to film a war. Every photographer who went to war is a volunteer, and he is looking for publications that share his interests.

Photo editors are ready for any surprises and they trust photographers. The worst thing is when a photo editor says to a military journalist: "Why didn't you sit here, didn't move away, and the sun's ray didn't hit so beautifully?" A good and correct photo editor will always stand up for you in a difficult situation. He does not sleep at night and thinks about how you are getting there on a donkey from Tajikistan to Afghanistan. If you are in trouble, then the first thing you do not call your wife, but him, because he shares the responsibility and begins to connect all his contacts and knowledge to help you.

Alexander Zemlyanichenko, head of photography, Associated Press Moscow bureau

Twice Pulitzer Prize winner for photographs of the 1991 Moscow putsch and the dancing Boris Yeltsin, winner of the World Press Photo

We rarely work with freelance photographers, and most often they are photographers who do not work in Moscow or other capital cities - we have in-house photographers there. Sometimes you have to search for authors through social networks and purchase ready-made material from them.

Russian law obliges us to conclude an agreement with free photographers, but this is the financial side of the matter. Obtaining a press card is a complex procedure, and, as a rule, it is possible only for in-house photographers, as it requires an appropriate official registration. If necessary, we write letters with a request to accredit a photographer for shooting a particular event. But we never send free photographers to dangerous places because we cannot ensure their safety.

The scope of the assignment for photojournalists cannot be rigid, and it would be strange to assume that. Every creative photographer tries to make his material as interesting as possible - it is easy to understand, but it can be difficult to do. A good photo editor will always support and will be very happy with a fresh look from the photographer. In a photographer, honesty is obligatory, and it consists in not taking pictures, but being at the right moment at the right point and, with the understanding of an experienced photojournalist, reflecting the event without interfering in its course.

Photo: Valery Matytsin / ITAR-TASS

Fortunately, in my practice, there have been no cases when a photographer broke the law in order to get a picture, and I hope that it will not. If he wants to cover a deliberately illegal action, you must first understand how necessary the filming of this action is. If you really have to shoot, you just need to do it wisely, without running into communication with law enforcement agencies. Of course, it happened to me to help photographers, and this is not an easy task, in which case the whole agency turns on, you cannot cope with it alone. For example, when one of the photographers who worked with us turned out to be a suspect in espionage.

Anna Shpakova, photo director of RIA Novosti

Previously worked as the head of the photography service "Ogonyok", producer special projects Snob magazine, art director of Leica Akademie in Moscow

We work a lot with stringers, because we simply do not have time to do the volume of work that we do with the hands of in-house photojournalists. Or, if we are technically unable to send a person on a business trip far away, we find a person who is closer to the situation.

Photo: Ilya Vydrevich / RIA Novosti

Naturally, we have contractual obligations with all authors, but they rather stipulate issues of copyright, copyrights and royalties. We do not take any separate measures to ensure the safety of stringers. Of course, we understand that the correspondent can get into some kind of unpleasant situation. But we also do not send stringers to hot spots, only staff correspondents. And so each photographer decides for himself, he goes to cover this or that potential dangerous event or event.

As a rule, we do not issue press cards to stringers. But if we are constantly working with freelance photographers, we provide press cards for individual editorial tasks. In case of defense, stringers have an editorial assignment, which is issued in writing, because this is the only way it has legal force... If a photographer worked on our editorial assignment and found himself in a situation that turned out in an unpredictable way, we first contact the authorities that detained him and explain to them that he was fulfilling our assignment. We find out what happened and make a decision - if the photographer did not violate any of our internal rules, we speak with him before the prosecutor and divide 50 by 50 our responsibility. If the photographer violated the editorial rules, responsibility passes to him.

As far as I know, in the foreign market, publications work with stringers in the same way. It is clear that stringers have fewer rights than regular journalists, but each publication decides for itself how to act in which case. In my memory - and I have been working at RIA for over a year - there have been no accidents with stringers. True, over the past year we have defended our staff photographer in court, although the lawsuit was related to his activities before working on the staff of our agency.

Elizaveta Surganova

Petersburg photojournalist Pavel Mikhailovich Markin, honored worker of culture of the Russian Federation, dean of the faculty of photojournalists named after Y.A. Galperin, chairman of the photojournalist section at St. ).

I am a 100% photojournalist. And he was his entire conscious working life, having worked for a quarter of a century in the newspaper "Smena", 10 years - in the weekly "Leningradsky Rabochy", three years - in the publishing house "Kaleidoscope". And today I continue to work as a special photojournalist for the newspaper "Russia". Although the search for the main profession in life, frankly, was long. I managed to work as a tailor, cutter, loader, artist, teacher in a pioneer camp, a drawing and drawing teacher at school, a caretaker and even a cook. But he never parted with the camera. It seems to me that all these labor skills were not wasted. This expanded my knowledge in many areas of our life and indirectly helps in my daily work.

If the theater begins with a coat rack, then photojournalism, as strange as it may seem at first glance, from the wardrobe. This is a photo artist or a master of advertising photography in his studio or in the open air can wear whatever he wants. Or try a photojournalist for a government shoot in ripped jeans or a leather cowboy hat (like the one worn by the Guild of Advertising Photographers). I'm afraid that for someone who dares to take such a step, this will be the first and last shooting, say, in the Kremlin pool.

Imagine a similar scene in a theater. A photojournalist came to the shooting in an eye-catching costume and during the performance begins to defile along the stage in search of an interesting shot. The performance is doomed to failure ... All the viewer's attention will be riveted only to the reporter, if he is not kicked out at the same moment by the administrator, ushers or the audience themselves. The photojournalist must be invisible to others. And at the same time, constantly be at the epicenter of the event. No bright or catchy clothing details. Black or gray tones are best suited for this.

For a long time here you can talk about clothes for work in the rain, snow, in severe frost or heat. Moreover, each option also applies to photographic equipment. Let me give you the simplest example: it is unthinkable to work, say, in Cote d'Ivoire with photographic equipment purchased in Moscow or Vladivostok. For these conditions, you need a camera only in a tropical version ... And at the cold pole, before getting into the heat, you have to leave the camera outside, and in the room you have to shoot with a second camera.

Now about the camera. This is sacred in the work of a reporter! This is the foundation successful work... Yes, you can learn the basics with "Change", and with "Sharp", and with "Kiev" (but not with a "soap box"). But a professional camera must be reliable and trouble-free. In no case should there be a failure. The most experienced colleagues always take two cameras for the most important shooting. Especially when it comes to extreme types of shooting or fleeting events, when there is even no time to change the lens.

Today, the work of a photojournalist is already unthinkable without knowledge foreign language, or even two or three. A photojournalist should be familiar with both a computer and various digital technologies. A photojournalist today is a universal soldier for whom there are no impossible tasks. A photojournalist must have a colossal stock of knowledge in a wide variety of areas: politics, economics, industry, agriculture, sports, various types of art ... A photojournalist has to work in many genres: portrait, still life, landscape, reproduction, macro photography, not to mention reportage. In addition, a photojournalist is capable of artistic photography (as an example, recall the work of Associated Press photographer Dmitry Lovetsky - the angel of the Pillar of Alexandria against the background of the moon), and advertising photography (for example, photographs for various companies of EPA photojournalist Anatoly Maltsev). But for an advertising photographer or master artistic photography on the instructions of the editorial office, I was able to make a regular reportage of three frames from a rally or from a factory site - I don’t remember that ...

Photojournalism is not a caste. Any person can become a photojournalist if he has a desire and a spark of talent. It is important to consider and develop it. But this is unthinkable without colossal efficiency, which, unfortunately, I see less and less among today's youth. “Not a day without a frame” is not just a catch phrase, but one more axiom in the work of a photojournalist. One of my teachers constantly told me: “Pavel, when you go to bed, put your camera under your pillow. Suddenly you will dream of something interesting, but there is no camera nearby ... "

One has only to leave the house without a camera, and immediately you see: here it is, your failed “shot of the century”. And you can't go on reportage shooting with a spouse, with a friend. At the right moment, he will definitely fit into the frame. And no amount of training will help here ... And it is contraindicated for the photographer to walk with a string bag - hands should always be free to work with the camera.

Another super task is to press the shutter button at the right moment. This is the most mysterious and culminating stage in the creation of any reportage photography. You can press the trigger several thousand times during a football match or tennis tournament and not a single shot will contain the ball or the necessary emotions. The most important thing for a photojournalist is to capture that unique moment. It is very important to learn how to pull the trigger at the right moment. And no automation will help here - neither autofocus, nor burst photography. I call it "holiday presentiment." That's when somewhere under the solar plexus the feeling rolls - "Push!" - and you carry out an internal command, you are on a horse!

It is also necessary to pay attention to the uniqueness, relevance and novelty of the captured event. The most successful option on the set is when you alone witness an event. And none of your colleagues breathes in the back of your head and does not beg: "Let me take it off, move a little to the side ..." The author's position and the level of influence in the perception of this or that photograph are also important. It is very important if the photo reporter managed to create some kind of understatement in the frame. When the viewer or reader needs to decide for themselves: what happened next, after the creation of the frame. And, finally, "does the photo affect the living."

A photojournalist is a master of his craft, that he can fulfill any task of the editorial office. A portrait of a politician, businessman, academic or ordinary worker, popular actor, pensioner will only become a masterpiece when the reporter was able to find a common language with his hero. And only when the person being portrayed becomes a co-author of your work. This is a very difficult task. Young people today have perfectly learned to communicate with a computer, and in conversation, even among themselves, alas, they use a minimal vocabulary: "like", "shorter", "damn", "lucky" ...

A photojournalist, even the most talented one, disrupts the usual course of events on any shooting. With its appearance, everything planned by the Almighty begins to proceed according to other laws, and the task of the photojournalist is to make sure that this damage is minimal. Here, clothes should be "camouflage", and behavior inconspicuous, and the shutter operation of the device is practically inaudible, and add here a dozen more nuances that should be taken into account.

No, I do not neglect the compositional and rhythmic solutions of the frame, the ability to use depth of field (and this is the most important "paint in the palette" of any photographer) and work with color and light. Only after you have taken a shot in the right place and at the right moment, you can talk about visual centers, about dominants and technical "bells and whistles" (extra-long or very short shutter speed, shooting with wiring, zooming at long exposure, synchronization by the first or second curtain ...). It's taken for granted, soaked with mother's milk. All this is developed in the course of daily work and in discussions of their photographs with a wide variety of viewers.

Of course, we must not forget about the shooting point - top, bottom, from eye level ... Especially when we evaluate a photo reportage or a photo story. But in the latter version, it is also important to use an "arsenal" of lenses with different focal lengths. And the aspect ratio also plays a role here. And on which film (or file) did you shoot the central frame of your photo story - black and white or color.

The most important achievement of today is the arrival digital technologies... Today, they allow not only to instantly control the quality of the picture, but in a matter of seconds to transfer photographic material to the other end of the world. The "digit" is advancing by leaps and bounds. 10 years ago I was the first photojournalist in St. Petersburg who started working with a digital camera. Then my colleagues laughed at me and claimed that they would never change the film.

But the film, in my opinion, will remain forever. Especially black and white. Not a single specialist today with a 100% guarantee can say how much files will be stored on a particular digital carrier. Some disks begin to “peel off” after 10-12 years, all kinds of drives suddenly start to malfunction. Even color films and prints fade in just 15 to 20 years. Here I always remember the photojournalist of the Ogonyok magazine Nikolai Ananyev. Back in the early 1950s, he was one of the first on the banks of the Neva to begin to master the secrets of working with color photographs. By the end of his life, he did not have a single negative, not a single print: everything created in half a century disappeared without a trace ... Black and white materials, if they are correctly processed, have been stored in archives, museums and galleries for over 150 years.

Photography is a powerful drug. If someone "got hooked" on him, then it already becomes a diagnosis. On-site specialists of the Ministry of Medium and higher education I would introduce the subject of "light painting" as a compulsory one, from the first grade, if not from kindergarten... Photography, if put right, captivates and becomes a passion to the last breath. How much could in this version be distracted from the addictions of our sons and daughters ...

But this is also the hardest bread. Very strong rears are needed here. Not every spouse will like it when you work from dawn to dusk, when there are no days off, and often vacation. And not everyone understands when you once again go to the shooting of a unique concert or performance and at the same time “do not hear” what is happening in the hall or on the stage. All your attention is there - in the viewfinder, in search of the next shot. And only when you look at the finished prints or evaluate the shooting on a laptop screen, you begin to feel and experience what you see.

And one more very important point, to which young people for some reason do not pay attention. The photojournalist must constantly be creatively recharged. It should become a habit to visit not only new photo exhibitions, but also a variety of museums and vernissages. Everywhere, in any work of art, even the most avant-garde or futuristic, you can find an impetus for something new in your work. No, I am not encouraging anyone to imitate. Therefore, I constantly repeat to my students the perspicacious quatrain of Vladimir Mayakovsky:

Dear Moscow poets,

I declare to you in love,

Do not do under Mayakovsky,

And do it for yourself.

The highest assessment for me personally is when one of my colleagues recognizes my work, "disguised" by a literary pseudonym. Yes, at the beginning of your studies, you can give several tasks to create photographs in imitation of the great photographers. But nothing more. Everyday studying the work of the greatest photographers of the whole world (today it has become much easier with the help of the Internet) is one thing, and finding your own visual language is already a super task in the educational process.

Today, interest in the profession of photojournalist has increased. This is especially noticeable in recent years (after all, I have been working as the dean of the photographic faculty for almost a quarter of a century). Every year we admit 150 applicants for the first year. And the strangest thing in this story is that most of those who wish today are girls. So far, I cannot find an explanation for this phenomenon. Quite recently, only one name was heard in our professional workshop - Maya Skurikhina. And now there are hundreds, if not thousands of representatives of the beautiful half of humanity. And very talented. Suffice it to name a few of our graduates: Alexandra Demenkova ("The Best Photojournalist of 2006"), Anya Maisyuk, Tatiana Kotova, Elena Blednykh, Olga Mirkina (multiple winners of various photo contests), Madina Astakhova (winner of the 1st Karl Bulla International Photo Contest), advertising photographer Svetlana Petrova, the New York Times editor-in-chief Lyudmila Kudinova. And what kind of teachers we have: Anna Fedotova, the editor-in-chief of the newspaper "Delovoy Peterburg", the permanent curator and organizer of all kinds of photo projects, Solmaz Guseinova!

Of course, you will immediately ask why, for example, St. Petersburg has so many photojournalists every year. But the point is that by the end of the first year of study, at best, half of our students “survive”, and even less by the end of the faculty. After all, only five to ten graduates enter big photojournalism (Sergei Maksimishin, Anatoly Maltsev, Zamir Usmanov, Dmitry Sokolov, Alexander Nikolaev, Evgeny Asmolov, Sergei Kulikov, Elena Palm). Most remain excellent photographers (Evgeny Raskopov, Dmitry Konradt, Marianna Melnikova, Dmitry Goryachev) or advertising photographers (Svetlana Petrova, Igor Smolnikov). Others go to television journalism (Dmitry Zapolsky, Igor Lenkin), while others find themselves as chief editors (Nikolai Donskov, Yuri Suntsov). Although the faculty does not yet have a department of build editors, our graduates fill this niche as well.

First of all, the "talkers" - encyclopedic specialists who know everything and everything, but when it comes to a specific assignment or express shooting, they immediately find thousands of reasons not to complete the educational task - cannot stand it. People who are not obligatory, punctual and greedy leave. These three qualities are unacceptable in photojournalism. Try a photojournalist to be late, say, for the launch of a new ship. What can he film? How will he justify himself in the editorial office? Once you have not completed the task, two times, and you will immediately be parted.

And what does greed have to do with it, you ask? This is a special kind of greed. A young photojournalist came to the premiere of the play, did a good job, and the next day he returns to the troupe and begins ... selling his photographs to artists. I can say with full responsibility that he will hardly be invited to the next premiere, no matter how brilliant his photographs may be. A lot in the work of a reporter means connections that have been developed over decades.

Communication between students also plays a very important role in the educational process. This is a community of interests. People get to know each other, exchange experience and knowledge, become colleagues, friends (and even spouses). After graduating from the faculty, they can no longer exist without this aura, and again and again they come to practical classes, to tests, lectures, master classes, to photo exhibitions, photo contests, and even to express shooting in order to compete again and again in mastery with younger colleagues.

At the end of the master class, I would like to wish future photojournalists, and especially young ones, only one thing: not a day without filming! And the most important thing is that each of you has his own creative style, so that your photographs are recognizable and each specialist can say: it was the great Ivanov, Smirnov or Sidorov who shot it.

It can be argued that photojournalism is the most versatile form of mass communication. Written and spoken language requires knowledge of a certain language, and the image in most cases can be understood by everyone. Facial expressions, emotions, body movement and position, as well as composition, light and shadow can tell a story as well as any words.

This tutorial is not meant to be a rush to convert you to a photojournalist, but hopefully it will give you a better understanding of the craft. It can help you understand the professionals who practice in this field, find out what it costs to create the pictures you see on the news, or make an informed decision about introducing photojournalism into your photographic life.

Definition of photojournalism

Let's first define what photojournalism is. Simply put, she tells stories through photographs. But in addition, the stories created must follow the rules of journalism. They must be truthful, and the journalist must try to convey the story in the most fair, balanced and unbiased way possible.

Photojournalists are different, but they are usually found in newspapers, magazines, news stations and websites, and an increasing number of them now work in other, traditionally non-visual news media, such as radio stations that have expanded their reach on the Internet.

Work in photojournalism

A staff photographer is someone who works for a particular publication, shooting for this publication is full or part time. A freelance photographer, or freelancer, shoots for a variety of publications. A number of different organizations may turn to freelance services for a specific assignment or for a limited period of time. Freelancers usually have a list of clients they work for.

The third most common employer for photojournalists is news outlets such as the Associated Press or Reuters. Newspapers and other news media receive information from these agencies by subscription. They provide news coverage for such media outlets, as they often cannot afford to send their own reporters to remote regions.

The photo below is a typical assignment. My editor said that there is a great teacher at the local school who has integrated the principles of "character building" such as honesty, wisdom, kindness and honor into my gym class, and I had to make an image that fit the story.

Photo assignments

The life of a photojournalist can be exciting. You can be sent anywhere to meet anyone. More than photography and journalism in isolation, this versatility and diversity of experience is perhaps the most valuable part of the profession. General news assignments are just that, ordinary. General news is all that is planned. Dinner parties, fundraising, protests, press conferences, awards ceremonies, tree planting are all kinds of general news appointments.

The key to covering these events (as with most others) is to try to tell a full story through images. For example, the photo below accompanies a report on a science class that helped nurture a sick thrush chick. My assignment was to visit the class and see what they were doing. The photo shows all the elements of the story: the class, the teacher, the blackbird and how they helped him.

Sports activities

Sports photography is a specialized version of general news. It's about fast-paced action and the photographer must have a great sense of timing. In sports shots, you need to show conflict and emotion. This usually means fixing the players of both teams and the thing for which they are fighting (usually the ball) in the frame. Emotions can be shown through the faces of the players. It can be tough with waving hands or helmets, but the best sports photos convey not just action, but emotion.

Breaking news

Breaking news is, in a sense, the opposite of general news. They represent unplanned events such as a car accident or fire. During the execution of these tasks, the most important thing is information. You need information to stay safe and take the shot that best tells the story.

You need reporting skills to get information about who is involved and what really happened. In such situations, it is often required to have experience dealing with law enforcement and emergency services. You can see this kind of photo later in this tutorial.

Portraits

Photojournalists also take portraits. While they usually never take staged shots, portraits are an exception. Journalist portraits usually show a person in his environment: a judge in his office, an artist in a workshop. The subject usually looks directly into the camera so that viewers know it is a portrait. Usually, a person does nothing at the same time, again so that the viewer does not fall into a misunderstanding about whether this photo is a staged portrait or a real, documentary part of journalism.

Photostory

The last type of assignment is a photo story, or long-term documentary project. To complete this type of work, the photographer needs to spend a long period time to document the actions of the subject. Photo stories usually include several photographs put together. Examples include following a refugee family or documenting the life of a family whose member is sick.

Great

Photojournalism has never been a profession for fame seekers. But when it comes to industry fame, there are hundreds of amazing photographers out there. I'm going to focus on my three favorites. I chose them because they cover most of the history of photojournalism.

Before I continue, let me say that I am American, so I am more familiar with American photographers. There were other great photojournalists not listed here, such as Henri Cartier-Bresson of France, Robert Capa of Europe, Shisei Kuwabara in Japan, and Sebastiao Salgado) from Brazil. The three photographers I have chosen are men. But there are also many outstanding women in the profession, such as Annie Leibovitz, Margaret Bourke-White and Susan Meiselas.

William Eugene Smith

William Eugene Smith was born in 1918 and died in 1978. Smith's specialty was history photography, at a time when magazines like Life filled their pages with documentary work. He covered the events of the Second World War in the Pacific Ocean, but became famous thanks to his later work. My favorite Smith series is The Country Doctor, published in 1948. It is often referred to as the first modern “photo essay”.

Eddie Adams

Eddie Adams was born in 1933 and died in 2004. He has covered 13 wars. He is best known for his photograph of General Nguyen Ngoc Loan executing a Vietcong prisoner in Saigon. His sense of timing, or luck, led to the fact that he was able to capture a frame showing the exact moment when the bullet enters the captive's head. For this he received the Pulitzer Prize. Eddie Adams also opened a photojournalism workshop. Places in his workshop are perhaps the most sought after by students in the United States, and the standards for admission are very high.

James Nachtwey

James Nachtwey was born in 1948 and is still shooting. In 2007, he received a TED Award that guarantees the winner $ 100,000 and the opportunity to make a "wish that will change the world." He was, first of all, a war photographer, and the documentary filmed about him is called “War Photographer”. In the film, a small video camera is attached to his camera, allowing you to see the action through the eyes of James Nachtwey. Some of my favorite works by Nachtwey are his photographs of people suffering from AIDS in Africa and his current TED Award is focused on the fight against drug-resistant tuberculosis.

Skills

Photojournalism is a highly competitive field. Having the right skills is essential to build successful career... First, communication skills are very important. A photojournalist must be able to quickly gain people's trust and do his job in a way that does not destroy that trust.

Good journalism skills go hand in hand with this factor. Knowing how to identify the most significant moments in a story and how to communicate them to the public is critical. This means that most photojournalists are also proficient in other areas of journalism, including writing articles and conducting interviews.

Photographic skills

A person applying for the position of a photojournalist must also have an impeccable portfolio. The portfolio should contain many images from the above types of assignments, and these photos should demonstrate the ability to work in difficult situations. Many aspiring photojournalists fail in low-light situations.

The photo below was taken at night without flash. The shutter speed is about 1/8 of a second. I practiced stabilizing my own body and knew how to use a motorized camera to reduce shake, I got a sharp image from just the candlelight.

The three elements of a great shot are light, composition and moment. It's important to understand when to use flash and when to use dramatic natural light. Also, knowing the basics of composition such as the rule of thirds, leading lines and repetition of forms will do you well. But the most essential thing is finding the perfect moment. Look for the peak of your emotions.

Technological skills

The modern photojournalist must be able to shoot and transmit images in digital form as well as being well versed in online tools such as blogs and social media. The trend is now to increase the number of videos on the Internet. Photojournalists now often carry video equipment with them to use when they need it. This also implies the need to have basic knowledge in the field of software for video editing.

Ethics

The main thing that distinguishes photojournalism from other forms of photography is trust. Viewers must trust that the image they are looking at will allow them to get a true picture of what happened. It boils down to two main issues: intervention and manipulation.

A photojournalist should never interfere with a situation. He / she can never direct or ask people to pose in the frame, except in situations where a portrait is required, in which case they follow the rules mentioned above in the section on photo assignments. Portraits are also marked as such in the description, using phrases like "Mr. Smith posing" and the like.

It can be argued that the mere presence of a photographer can already make a difference. While this is sometimes true, interference can be minimized with patience and practice. People usually get used to the presence of a photographer, and in the best case, they all forget about him. A photojournalist must be good at explaining their goals so that the people being filmed understand whether they should pose or change their behavior.

Post-processing ethics

Photo manipulation is strictly prohibited. This is especially true for post-processing. Nothing in (or on) the photo should be edited. Post-processing can only deal with correcting color distortion, problems with exposure and width of the photographic material, and slight imperfections in sharpness. Cameras are still not as good at reproducing images as the eye, so sometimes we have to compensate for that.

Cropping is also allowed. But we leave wrinkles, leave bags under the eyes, leave spots on shirts. The photojournalist cannot move the basketball in the frame, remove or insert it. Adding dramatic effects like vignetting, artistic filters and the like is also against the rules.

Ethical approach and attitude

Another side of ethics is how a photojournalist takes pictures and portrays people. This requires compassion and genuine interest in the participants in the events and the topic being covered. This part of ethics is more difficult to talk about, so I would like to describe a situation that I once found myself in, which happens all the time in the world of journalism.

I was called to the scene, so this falls into the breaking news category. The little girl was hit by a car. It was an accident, the driver was not drunk and did not intentionally injure the girl. When I arrived, the driver was still there, as were many of the victim's family. Both sides knew each other and we mourned together. I took the photo below. It is quite descriptive because of the blood on the driver's T-shirt.

The image is obviously convincing, but what's the point? Is this news? Often, you cannot make this decision while on the scene. Upon returning to the office, the reporter discovered that the apartment complex where the accident occurred had recently sent a letter to all residents asking them to be very careful while driving for the safety of children and pedestrians. This is how we released the photo.

The girl died in the hospital later, but the point of the news was not to exploit her death, but to draw attention to the problem. This is a fine line, you need to think and discuss a lot before making a final decision.

Access

Without empathy and trust, you will never get access. By access, I mean convincing people to let you document their lives, to get into their history. The best stories do not come from press conferences or news reports, they come up when you go out and look for interesting people... Asking these people to let you follow them, at times for months, can be difficult. There are several points to consider here.

Risk / benefit analysis

First, the photojournalist must determine how the subject's story will help the community. Secondly, you need to understand how this reportage will affect the people being filmed. Will it help them achieve something or, on the contrary, damage their reputation and make their life harder?

Each story has its own unique factors, but the photojournalist must present this balance between public good and personal harm or benefit to those he wants to photograph in a way that they understand. After that, the decision is theirs. However, when the journalist is allowed inside the situation, it depends on them whether they will behave in such a way that he was provided with constant access. In theory, they shouldn't be kicked out ... well, at least not for good.

"Vaughn"

But it is, nevertheless, very good idea- provide people with the opportunity to kick you out for a while. Let me explain, many photojournalists allow their models to say "get out." They tell them that if they feel uncomfortable and want to be left for a while, that's okay.

It is important to give people the opportunity to temporarily hide from the public eye, but usually just knowing that they have the power to drive you away without getting upset is enough. It is often more important to have the opportunity than to use it.

Devotion and compassion

Finally, people need to know that the journalist is committed to their story. It helps a lot that you will spend a lot of time with them, and this goes hand in hand with trust and compassion. The photo below is part of a report I did about a mother raising her little daughter with cerebral palsy. The daughter, Lyanna, was about 5 years old, and there was little she could do on her own.

The mother had to feed her, bathe her, wear her, raise her and interpret the signals from her eyes in order to understand what she was trying to explain because she could not speak. Because I spent a lot of time with this family, her mother gave me access to everything, even bathing, to show the extent to which Lyanna relies on her mother.

Storytelling

As I mentioned earlier, photojournalism is storytelling through photographs. Most newspaper and magazine reports only allow one accompanying shot, so the more you can tell through it, the better. There are many ways to do this, but I will focus on two of the most powerful tools in the photojournalist's stock.

Layers

Layers are often used to bring context to a photograph. A photo of an enthusiastic musician playing can be taken anywhere, but the same musician captured with a crowd of people in the background is history. Maybe the crowd is huge, and the musician feeds on their energy, or, on the contrary, the crowd is small, and the musician gives them everything he has. In any case, the "layering" of the content adds a lot to the story. Layers do not have to be as large as in this example, small elements and details will also create context that enriches the content.

Emotions

Another important aspect in history, these are emotions. A photojournalist must be an expert in reading and, more importantly, at predicting facial expressions. Tears, a thoughtful look, a wide joyful smile - all this shows how the people in the photo relate to what they are doing. From childhood, we learn to recognize the faces of people who are near us, using this skill in photography can be a very powerful tool.

Pictured below is a WWII veteran. He fought in the Pacific and was awarded a medal for his service by the local Foreign War Veterans Association. The medal and other people's badges in the frame create layers, and I'm sure his face expresses appreciation, hopefully that is easy for viewers to read. I also hope this tutorial has given you a deeper understanding of the world of photojournalism.