News...
I NEVER DID a lot of straight news work. By that I mean I never chased ambulances, rarely showed up at crime scenes or scanned daily papers for images that would work with whatever was the highlight event of the day.
Instead, I worked every day on either feature news material, stock photography or commercial work. Being in Washington DC helped out a lot in all of those areas, of course, but the competition was fierce and it was often hard to rise above the rest of the journeyman photographers, most of whom had a sinecure deal with publications in town that would publish their work.
But, every now and again I would photographs events in and around Washington, and I would come away with good photographs in an emerging style that most often never got published. The means of production then (using color transparency film that had to be processed by special labs that often could not provide rush service except for a gigantic add-on fee), and my fledgling status as a newcomer without the street connections with police, fire, emergency or local political connections that usually come after years of working a new beat both contributed to my obscurity as a news photographer.
And neither Paris-based Gamma Liaison nor a local agency like Uniphoto were not much interested in street work. So, I made many images based strictly on my need to practice the art of taking fast-paced photos in demanding situations. A lot of this is lost to the ages. In some cases, the Ektachrome film we used then (that could be E-6 processed faster than Kodachrome) did not hold up over the past 30-40 years and the images have turned a putrid greenish-blue and are horrible. Angry once, I threw a lot of them away. In other cases, the work was black and white and some of that was lost as the emulsions have melted from the film backing, or they are buried so deeply in shoe boxes now that it is tough to find them (but, I will from time to time put them here when they are found).
RPW
Instead, I worked every day on either feature news material, stock photography or commercial work. Being in Washington DC helped out a lot in all of those areas, of course, but the competition was fierce and it was often hard to rise above the rest of the journeyman photographers, most of whom had a sinecure deal with publications in town that would publish their work.
But, every now and again I would photographs events in and around Washington, and I would come away with good photographs in an emerging style that most often never got published. The means of production then (using color transparency film that had to be processed by special labs that often could not provide rush service except for a gigantic add-on fee), and my fledgling status as a newcomer without the street connections with police, fire, emergency or local political connections that usually come after years of working a new beat both contributed to my obscurity as a news photographer.
And neither Paris-based Gamma Liaison nor a local agency like Uniphoto were not much interested in street work. So, I made many images based strictly on my need to practice the art of taking fast-paced photos in demanding situations. A lot of this is lost to the ages. In some cases, the Ektachrome film we used then (that could be E-6 processed faster than Kodachrome) did not hold up over the past 30-40 years and the images have turned a putrid greenish-blue and are horrible. Angry once, I threw a lot of them away. In other cases, the work was black and white and some of that was lost as the emulsions have melted from the film backing, or they are buried so deeply in shoe boxes now that it is tough to find them (but, I will from time to time put them here when they are found).
RPW