First of all, this is a great piece. Secondly, and please forgive me for jumping right away into the money part of being a photographer, but in today’s world it is just a madness to be photographer, let alone being a photojournalist. The trade, the occupation has been virtually eliminated. Reduced. Replaced with an extra iPhone for the column writer to snap “the visual content”. There is very little room for visual story telling that could be coined decent photojournalism, let alone an in depth reportage. Enough crying over spilled milk. I said eliminated, reduced. What? But it’s thriving! Over two hundred press credentials for Majdan! That has to be the golden age of photography! The best time ever! Or is it?! A few years ago at one of the panel discussions I attended with VII it was pointed out that the future of photojournalism belongs to us (there were 100 photos in the audience, many with a sparks in the eyes, ready to take another sabbatical and tell a story about social injustice on the other side of the world…). This is true. With newspapers transformation from supply to demand, image content devaluated and summer break cowboy photojournalism (because, dude, it was too late to sign up for running of the bulls in Pamplona…), the viewers are maybe not confused but certainly unable to tell the difference between a good photo and a bad one, between photojournalism and image production.

I would love to sit and listen to a panel discussion between Donald Weber and Clay Shirk one day and if such a discussion had happened please share a video link to that, please!