Janet Worne - Thoughtful Photography

JAWS

 I recently joined an organization called JAWS, which stands for Journalism & Women Symposium. The declaration on their website states:  "JAWS supports the professional empowerment and personal growth of women in journalism and works toward a more accurate portrayal of the whole society."

The first local get-together I attended was great. (I call it a get-together because that's precisely what it was, rather than a formal meeting) I found mostly writers--in fact I think I was the only photographer. That's okay, though, because I consider myself a writer as well as photographer. It was wonderful to gather with a group of women in my field and compare notes. Even though the number of female reporters, editors and photographers is growing steadily, we are still not well represented in management. We still face the unique issues that men don't seem to worry about as much, such as juggling childcare with the crazy hours of a journalist, and being taken as seriously as our male counterparts by our bosses and the public. It is refreshing to have a group to talk to frankly about those issues and have them actually UNDERSTAND what I'm talking about.

I am on their mailing list and the latest topic was a call for quotes by female journalists. Here are a couple of my favorites:

“When I stand before God at the end of my life, I would hope that I would not have a single bit of talent left, and could say, "I used everything you gave me.”
            --Erma Bombeck

"Networking is a primary way women discover that we are not crazy, the system is."
             -– Gloria Steinem

"Women are in a double bind. If we talk like women we are not respected. If we talk like men, we are not liked."
             -– Deborah Tannen

"Information is power and without it we can ‘t make the changes that we need in order to balance our work and family lives."
             -– Judy Mann

“In journalism, there has always been a tension between getting it first and getting it right”
                --Ellen Goodman

A Year's Worth of Musings

A little over a year ago I started this blog. I knew I had plenty to say and I knew I had the tenacity to keep it up, but I wasn't sure if I wanted to go another year. Here it is, decision time. I went back and read my first post, which I have included below, and it reminded me of why I wanted to do this in the first place. So now here I am, back to where I was last March. The same motivations that dogged me then are driving me to continue this blog. My hope is that others will enjoy it, but if not that's okay, because the act of doing it is helpful to me.

Inner Musings of a Thoughtful Photographer

I think too much. I don’t know if it’s a female thing, a personal thing or both. Probably both. I have thoughts and opinions about many things. I love thoughtful quotes. I love thinking about why people do the things they do and say the things they say. I love analyzing my own photography and looking for clues in them that may explain my motivations.

On the down side, thinking too much can drive me crazy. I can’t always control my thoughts. I sometimes wish I had an off switch to my brain. Maybe that’s why I like fairly mindless movies—mostly comedic—because I don’t have to think too much and it distracts me.

Sometimes thinking too much is a good thing. It gives me something to say. I’m almost never bored. I probably understand my work and myself a little more because of it. And I’ve always believed that what elevates photography to art is not the latest and greatest camera equipment, but simply the thought that goes behind the creation of a photograph.

So I know that sometimes I seem to be in my own little world and hard to reach. I probably am. But here, with this blog, I can express some of these thoughts as they relate to photography. Maybe by moving those thoughts onto the computer screen, I can clear my own mind. After twenty-seven years of working as a photojournalist I feel as if my head is overflowing. Maybe by writing some of it down and sharing some images, I can connect and help other thoughtful photographers make sense of their own work.
        ______________________________________

When I look at this picture I think of my own childhood.
It sums up how I felt living and working in a world full of boys.
Always in my own little world, always dreaming, and always a little out of step.

Deeper Sense of Wonder

Remember when you first started out in photography? Maybe you’re there now. Everything is brand new. Exciting. You’re like a child seeing the world for the first time. And now, with a camera in your hand, you can capture that excitement in a way no one else can and hold it frozen forever in the magic of your photographs.

Fast-forward 27 years. You’ve been fortunate enough to have made your living out of that love of photography. It has been a wonderful, exciting time yet you realize that all those years of trying to please editors and molding your vision to someone else’s story has changed your perspective. Reading the Minor White quote in yesterday’s post you concede that maybe you’ve lost some of that youthful “innocence of eye”. Perhaps you dig through some of your work from your carefree early days. You see that you lacked the experience and skills you now possess but there is a playfulness and freshness that is currently missing from your work. What happened?

This is where I find myself now. As an adult, my viewpoint is not as fresh as that of a child because my eye is tainted by the lens of experience. I often wonder, can I recapture the magic and still retain what I have gained from experience and maturity? The real trick may be to let go of the voices in my head telling me to shoot what they (the editors) want and to rediscover what makes me happy. I think what most editors want is that freshness and sense of wonder anyway.

Perhaps now, with a renewed self-awareness about my work, I can come full circle and find within myself an even deeper sense of wonder.

Photographic Vision

Take another look at the previous post. The László Moholy-Nagy quote. Those words were first uttered in 1947 and yet they still seem relevant today.

Photography has, indeed, had an unbelievable impact on our culture throughout its relatively brief history. But the best part of that quote for me is the prophetic part that says photography has not yet achieved its full potential. The optimist in me believes that is still true today. There may be great upheaval and concern for the future of our art and livelihood, but out of pain and uncertainty comes change and new direction.

We just need to be ready for it.

The Dawning of a New Year

It begins with a gentle lightening of the horizon. No more than a hint of what is to come. So subtle and gradual is the beginning that it is not always recognized for what it is. It could be the lights of a nearby town or the harsh beacons of a highway. It couldn’t be the dawn. Could it?

There is something magical about the moment when night changes to day. That precise moment is calculated and published in newspapers. The longest and shortest days are celebrated as solstices. Even birds become silent in reverence for that moment. 

Then it pounces. Minute by minute the sky evolves and suddenly a new day is born. Each one begins in a different way. Sometimes it’s a symphony of light and shadow blending brush strokes of crimson and pink over a dark, dusky blue. Always changing, never waiting until the camera is in the right place, never hesitating for “just one more picture”.

And sometimes the dawning is cold and dreary. Black drains from the sky to reveal a gray, monochromatic world, as if it were veiled to the eye. Trees float into focus as the minutes silently pass.

When enough of the new light filters through, the day begins in earnest. The wind picks up, birds begin to sing, and people move about. Suddenly, it’s another day.

The dawning of the New Year has always been a time of hope, a new beginning. There is the feeling that no matter how dark and dismal the past has been this day is the first day of the rest of your life. It is a chance to start fresh. Past mistakes don’t count.

But why this day? Why do we not celebrate it on the first day of spring? Or on the day of the first new moon? The fact that different countries and religions celebrate it on different days tells us that it’s not the particular day that is important. It’s the feelings we associate with it. So wouldn’t it be nice if we made a fresh start every morning as the sun slips past the horizon to banish the dark corners of our lives?

Happy New Year. Happy new day.

Coming Together

Continuing on my recent theme of “Skin Deep” and “Looking beneath the Surface”, I would like to address the subject of race for a moment. This is a hot topic now thanks to Barack Obama’s candidacy for president.

Years ago I worked on a race relations project in Lexington, Kentucky. Two photographers and at least four reporters worked on this for six months or more. We spent time in a variety of neighborhoods—poor black, poor white, middleclass black, middleclass white and integrated. We were there to find out what people think and why they live where they live. It was an eye-opening experience. What I noticed was that where people had little contact with the other race, fear and misconception was heightened. Where different races lived and connected with one another, tolerance and “color-blindness” was heightened. This was not a scientific study, merely my own observations.

Now my big question where Obama is concerned is this: If he is half black and half white, why is he considered black? Why not white? He is, after all, equally both.

Maybe someday our population will be so mixed that we will no longer be black or white—merely American.

Looking Beneath the Surface

The more time I spend in my backyard, the more I see that fascinates me. We have a pond that I have photographed before but only for what was on the surface. This week I discovered another world beneath the lily pads. Nothing new, I realize. What photographer hasn't already discovered the magic of the underwater universe? Saturated colors, crooked perspectives, rippled shadows--all contribute to beautiful imagery.

But today I thought about how those images can be a metaphor for the best way to approach people photography. Most photographers, at least initially, make surface photos of people. The best photographers dive beneath the surface to discover the real person below.

Hare Krishna

Continuing with rummaging through my archive of negatives…

This picture was part of a story I did in 1982 on the Hare Krishna movement in the United States. This event was a Festival of Chariots on the mall in Washington DC. Thousands of their devotees crowded the area, dancing and chanting, including their children, shown here.

I am a firm believer in freedom of religion and that there is no one right way to live your life. The only objection I had with this group is that they tended to populate college and university towns and preyed on the vulnerable. Students and other people who were at crossroads in their lives and unsure of their place in the world.

Otherwise, I really enjoyed the music, the color and the passion of the Hare Krishna. Their chant is a mantra, designed to be a “vibration of sound that cleanses the mind”:

Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare
Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare

I think their influence has waned in this country. I never see them on street corners or chanting in airports anymore.

Sam Abell Quote

"Photography, alone of the arts, seems perfected to serve the desire humans have for a moment - this very moment - to stay."
                                    Sam Abell

Pain and Pleasure in the Media

I’ve been going back through my older negatives and slowly scanning them into the computer. It has been a nostalgic journey through history—my own and society’s.

In 1987, the Ku Klux Klan was active in rural Maryland. This photo was taken at a rally on a farm somewhere near Frederick. I recall we went through much discussion on whether the media should cover such events. There were two schools of thought; either that covering those hate groups would encourage more of that activity, or that covering it would educate people that they are out there and ultimately do more good by inspiring people to work against it.

My thoughts lean toward the latter, although there is a fine line and you can overdo it. Coverage needs to be given to the opposite camps as well. In my experience, this kind of story generates a storm of emotion from readers. This is good. If their emotions can be aroused then maybe they will be motivated to do something about it.

That’s why I think it’s important for the media to cover tragedies such as accidents and fires. The photos don’t need to be gruesome or intrusive, but we can all learn from these events. I recall covering a head-on accident where one driver, who was wearing a seatbelt, walked away, and the other driver, who was not wearing a seat belt, had to be cut out of the wreckage. I went home that night and gave my kids another talk on the importance of wearing seat belts.

Events like that make me think. They inspire me to look at situations and events in my own life and make smarter choices. On the flip side, the positive stories are inspiring in other, important ways. We need both.

I do believe that if you were to examine all the stories in many newspapers and tally the number of negative stories against the positive ones, the positives would win out. It’s just that people remember the negatives more. After all, research has shown that by nature, people will do more to avoid pain than to gain pleasure.