Punching Through
A Journalist’s Diary
Dry spells, i.e., periods when imagination and motivation run low, times when the forces of life pull one away from one’s goals instead of pushing one toward them, are never enjoyable.
We all have them. There’s no denying it.
But they can be educational. Handled with the right mindset, as difficult as that may be, one can emerge stronger, more resilient, more focused, and more creative. Instead of giving in to misery and defeat, one can focus on tomorrow and the things yet to come, the things that can be.
For me, it’s all about finding short sparks of inspiration to punch my way through those periods (to borrow one of my favorite Star Trek quotes).
My punching through includes several activities — from actively practicing photography and writing to reading, spending time with work I admire, and utilizing the generosity of people willing to share their approach to storytelling and life.
When I began punching through again recently, I expected to find inspiration, a stimulus to generate ideas, and growth. I think I’ve made happy progress on those fronts.
But this journey also reminded me of the excitement encapsulated in the storytelling life.
Despite all the difficulties attached to creative lives, giving in to one’s curiosity and pairing it with creativity leads to the most sane, satisfying, and exciting way of life I can imagine — the pursuit of true stories.
In today’s post, I’ll write about learnings from recent weeks. Keywords are access, passports, passion, caring, and future beginnings.
Of access & passports
Journalism, like any storytelling, begins with a curious mind.
Curiosity leads to questions. Those lead to research and reporting. That leads to answers (and new questions that need answering). Eventually, it leads to human interactions and new relationships. And the people one connects with gift journalism with the stories that need telling.
Curiosity is the spark that ignites the reporting and keeps the storytelling process fresh along the way. Without it, there’s neither a promising start nor worthwhile progress along the storytelling path.
Curiosity, however, is a challenge.
Anything worth doing has its level of difficulty. That’s a lesson of life I remember from a photography panel discussion I shared in February. Storytelling requires a certain openness to acquire the permission to access life. For some, that’s the easiest part of the work. For others, it’s the hardest part.
In that same discussion, I also overheard a comment I heard in many other places: the camera represents a passport, one’s ticket to witness life, like I wrote in February.
Those who reside more on the introverted end of the personality spectrum may value the camera for an additional reason. Photographer Jim Graham described it as a “buffer.”
I thoroughly enjoy the idea of the camera as a protective shield that I can rely on to help me manage challenging situations.
But maybe the challenges one faces in the pursuit of an endeavor are what makes it all worthwhile.
I also remind myself of a few additional reasons to embrace those challenges.
Whether it’s writing or photography, it’s how I communicate. I’d call that a pretty good reason to struggle. It’s a point you’ll also hear about in that panel discussion.
Finally, curiosity is a universal phenomenon. If I’m curious about something, the chances are pretty high that other people on this blue ball share that curiosity. Establishing that connection between people is maybe the most important reason why it’s worth taking on the challenges of storytelling.
Of passion & caring
Journalism is a way of self-expression as much as a carrier of information. It requires a deep passion for telling true stories and the people that live them.
Whether those people and their work are known to many or few doesn’t matter. I learned that ordinary people matter in journalism and that everyone has great stories to tell when I found the works of The New Yorker’s Joseph Mitchell, the masterful chronicler of the mid-twentieth century New York, many years ago at university.
The power of journalism stems from its focus on the human element. Good journalism engages with people in the field to make the rest of the world care.
As much as journalism cares passionately for people and real life, its storytelling nature makes it inherently creative.
Objectivity is an important journalistic element (a discussion for another day), but journalism is also personal. It’s my take on the world and life. For every story told, there are countless stories not told. Selecting, on more levels than the story itself, is one half of the creativity puzzle.
The other half is the execution. The way I write or photograph is unique. It leads to a package that represents what I have to offer, how I believe the story is most effective, and how its impact is the strongest.
If all journalism follows the same recipe and we all were to make the same decisions, engaging the public would be even harder than it already is.
Sports journalism offered me a timely reminder of the value of creativity in creating exciting stories. The Washington Post’s Winter in Belgium: Fries, beer … and elite cyclists racing in the mud had been waiting on my reading list for a while. But when I finally opened the digital pages, I couldn’t stop smiling through the 10-minute read. How’s that for engaging?
My time with it reminded me of a piece I wrote about my first contact with U.S. High School basketball. I’d classify those as personal experience stories, in which the writer reacts to the unknown around them. The result highlights the little details, which will fascinate the uninitiated as much as the veteran expert.
In this case, you’ll find wonderfully creative photography of a sport that’s as raucous as lighthearted. The writing beams with the energy I felt when I watched cyclo-cross cycling for the first time this winter (TV only, I’m afraid). And it’s the same rush of emotions I felt at that U.S. high school. The writer puts you right there, cheering on the riders in the Belgian winter cold, longing to fetch a serving of those tasty fries.
I felt similarly excited when I heard Chloe Ramirez explain her photographic goal to make “people look cool” — a motto resulting in powerful couple portraits. Check in at about the 8-minute mark for the image of a couple in front of a window. The two face each other. The man on the left is silhouetted, the woman on the right “properly” exposed. A striking solution to not only balance but utilize difficult light.
A fascinating photo editing video reminded me that creativity and a personal touch permeate the image selection process. It’s a task that requires “feel” to make the right decisions. You could also call the required quality intuition.
That video, by the way, also featured a valuable reminder that being curious and excited about storytelling means you sometimes have to spend time with boring moments/scenes. But I direct you to the video for details.
Future beginnings
Many more examples helped me back to storytelling optimism. And there will be many more in the future. It’s an ongoing process that’ll always stay right by my side. But respecting your time (and mine), I’ll leave it at that and close with a few lines on the intriguing unknown out there.
I care about the human side. Just as I found it in this wonderful story about a street school project in Naples, Italy. It’s a story that demonstrates everything I’ve tried to summarize today.
Migration and immigration have long been of high interest to me. The work of John Moore is only one of many examples here (take his book Undocumented, for example).
I’m always fascinated (and terrified) when I hear people like Don McCullin, Lynsey Addario, or Ron Haviv, to name just three, talk about their dedication to telling the stories from the unfriendly parts of life, to put the reality of conflict mildly, especially if they take us to the quieter moments the headlines often ignore.
My time in Prague made me deeply curious about Burma and Roma. The world of science and the climate are topics worthy of every journalist’s attention. A fabulous photography project and personal observations in recent years made me interested in aging and the stories that can entail.
Listening to sports photographer Rod Mar highlight the human side of sports journalism was an eye-opening moment.
Where all that will lead, only time will tell.
But when I arranged picture frames at home the other day, I realized I’m ready to end the dry spell and finally start hunting for new pictures (to borrow the title of Dave LaBelle’s fantastic photography book) and start telling new stories. I’ll follow a simple equation: curiosity + creativity = exciting journalism. All I hope for are — a good time, satisfaction in good work, and that the results will be valued by some.
There’s more to come. But before then, I’ll share new photography and hopefully a Ghana update (if I unearth something worth writing about) next week.
