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Anonymous
You must see a million of these...

I know what I want to do, am going to set out to become a photojournalist, or more exactly, a war photographer...

I know its not going to come easy, or quickly, and I know there is a good chance I wont make it, end up in a dead end 9 to 5 to pay the bills and keep up my dream and hobby... I plan to enroll on a stranded commercial photography course, the plan is to use there access to knowledge and equipment to get my technical background sound! Wait untill the end of the course, when I've learn t all i can about photography from lessons, then start out in low risk areas open to the public, poverty struck areas, build up a portfolio, then take it to who ever i can find... get a freelance job in areas effected by war.

I could list of the reasons of why i want to do this, and try to explain that its not for the "cool job", its not for the fame.. i honestly want people to know what happens, to see what happens... But am sure after so many of these topics that will fall of deff ears...

Is this plan even remotely feasible? How dose one get into this industry, am assuming you cant just walk into a war zone without major help and backing....

I wont give up till I make it, I just need to know if I need to try another way...


Thanks for any help in advance /p/

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>> Macheath !8b4g0BkNZg
connections connections connections

get some connections

you need connections

find some connections

did i mention connections?
>> Anonymous
>>242477

Thats one of the first thigns that came to my head, but i have no idea how to go about doing it...

How do i get in touch with the people who could help, could put in a word? Surly they are bombarded with millions of like wise calls adn letters everyday?
>> Anonymous
>>242480

go to a good school for photography/photojournalism.. photogotraphy teachers at good schools are almost always connected in the photography world.
>> Anonymous
>>242487

oh.. and dont forget to make it obvious that you want them to be your mentor.. do really well in class and talk to them after class and let them know your goals.. at least one will want to help
>> Anonymous
>>242487
>>242489

What would you recommend in the UK?

I dont have a shot at getting in now.. but after my planned course, maybe.... I can spend the time doing all i can to create the best portfilio i can produce to give to them
>> else !L6xabslN96
>>242492
start with street photography? not fashion and shit, like go to the really slummy areas and take some shots. tell a story. do a few more stories. get feedback from your teachers, go to exhibitions, talk to photographers there.

dont get stabbed or die.
>> Anonymous
>>242492

no idea, but do some research and youre bound to find something that will fit your needs.
>> Anonymous
>>242496

Fiar enough..

Thanks alot anon and tripfag!

Was expecting a shitstorm
>> Anonymous
>>242495

>dont get stabbed or die.

this is great advice for anyone who wants to be a war photographer.. it's a big transferable skill they'll be looking for.
>> Anonymous
OP, don't go into a program for photography, you can learn outside of it. Three biggest war photographers ever:

Robert Capa- I don't even know that there was formal training for photographers then.
Philip Jones Griffiths- Went to school for pharmacy, no formal photographic training I know of.
James Nachtwey- Doublemajored in Political Science and Art History. Learned journalism working as the news editor at a local TV station, though don't ask me how he got the job without journalism experience or a journalism degree. Taught himself photography while working there, as a truck driver, and as a Merchant Marine, and worked as a shooter at a paper. Then when he felt ready, went and got himself foreign assignments.

You can teach yourself technical photography with Wikipedia, composition by looking at art in general (hell, Nachtwey did it for four years and it obviously, obviously sunk into his compositions), and practice it all with any camera with manual controls and a normal or moderate wide lens. That's all you need for photography.

Otherwise your plan sounds good, find some long-term story you can do, work at it. Good luck, the world needs people like you.

>>242506
I lol'ed so hard.
>> Anonymous
>>242538

Thanks :)

>>242506

Made my day lol
>> Anonymous
>>242538

sure he can teach himself photography, but everyone who is smart knows that school is more about making connections to professionals in the field you want to be in than learning.
>> Anonymous
>>242853
Yeah, because taking a course for wannabe Annie Leibovitzes who are just going to end up doing product photos for specialty clothing catalogs is going to offer so many connections for a wannabe Jim Nachtwey.

A journalism degree would be useful for that. One course on commercial photography won't.
>> ac !!VPzQAxYPAMA
Another option is to join the army and bring a camera along. Like that guy in Iraq with the M8.
>> Anonymous
>>243001

If at all passable id rather avoid this option, I was to record and document what happens, I dont want to be the one putting bullets in peoples heads
>> Anonymous
Well our army here has a special op unit that specializes in recon using fuck long lenses to identify targets. So you may wanna get into that.

Anyway back on topic, yeah I wanted to be a war time photog when I grow up, but I ended up in a 9 to 5 job. Good luck to you though.
>> sage sage
sage
>> Anonymous
     File :-(, x)
>>243013

I know the USMC and Army allow embedded journalists. I don't see why you couldn't sign up to be one. You'd have to sign a bunch of waiver forms, because your chances of dying would be pretty high.
>> NatureGuy !se3A3TwzdY
>>243121
More so than in the past. The durka durkas like killing the journalists, and a fair number got shot or shot at in Georgia so Russia likes shooting at em too apparently.
>> Rad !!IpQSryGvPPO
>>243121

wat

any more info on this?
>> Anonymous
>>243121

I'll look into it, thanks :)

>>243129

Didnt know the ruskies were at it aswell, all fun and games till somone loses a head though eh?

Can't wait, IF this all works out and i get a chance to do it, the reaction of my family ect... should be fun
>> Anonymous
did u check MAGNUM's webpage? they were looking for interns
>> Anonymous
>>243172

Although that would be the best chance ever, I dont think i have a shot at getting into the best independent agency ever :P
>> Anonymous
>>243172

>Positions Available at Magnum New York ONLY:

Am a britfag, wich sucks lol
>> BurtGummer !!RRMHFHglFsy
>>243180

GTFO of my island
>> Anonymous
>>243210

You mean your proud of this place??

Where do you live?

As when I go out, am surrounded by fucking polish people, and the only other brits out on the street are dressed in track suits, drinking cider and pushing a pushchair with there latest addition to this place, who will be, in a few years, in track suits, smoking and drinking.

Fuck this place :P
>> BurtGummer !!RRMHFHglFsy
>>243214

Hmm, yes cultures gone pretty fucking gay here recently, but its a beautiful place, with great history and some really nice people. We get the best of both America and Europe where we are. All we need to do is shut the fucking ports and we would be so much better off.

its worse than the mexicans invading the states, at least they work.

I digress, if you wont support the last surviving brits defend this place from fuckwits i suggest you leave now, because its only gonna get rougher. I reckon we have civil unrest here within five years, which means ragheads versus whites versus the government. I'll be taking photos in my 18 hole hobnails.
>> Anonymous
>>243226

I have no problem defending this place from the current swarms of retardation and immigration.

My problem is it will never happen, the people with the power to change things will never so much as approach the subject, (and deff not while we have a scot in number 10)..

You may enjoy this: http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00d7p6r/b00d7p6h/

Covers the subject quite nicely
>> BurtGummer !!RRMHFHglFsy
>>243230

Dude, we dont celebrate being British because we're too busy working our asses off. Also theres SO much bullshit about the Union jack representing Neo fascism, racism and imperialism. But seriously who cares. You should be proud of where you live, i love my country and i love the way we do stuff, and the way we interact.

We work hard, we'll fight anyone and we teach the world. OOH Youre getting me all PATRIOTIC NOW YOU BASTARD.
>> Anonymous
>>243214

where are you in the uk. im in the middlelands and its the same here. the thing thats shitted me up in the last few months it the fact that the polish guys are starting to get violent. it never used to be that way. its just started up. more petty criminals are coming across and using the fact that they dont exist in the system to get away with fucking everything.

whatever, they are completely fucking up their own economy. im all for integration but they dont integrate.
>> Anonymous
>>243235

thanks man. i work like a fucking cunt 6 days a weeks and i feel like im getting nothing out of it at the end of the month.
>> BurtGummer !!RRMHFHglFsy
>>243241

Seriously, im not bothered about "Multi culturalism", im all for it. but we need to keep Brits in the MAJOR MAJORITY. We're getting swamped! And we are too stuck up to SAY SOMETHING!
>> Anonymous
>>243247
i didnt know the kkk had a British branch
>> BurtGummer !!RRMHFHglFsy
>>243248

This isnt racism, its simple. Would arabs like it if hundreds of brits moved into their village? no, they wouldnt, they would fight with them, and disagree with their culture and religion.
>> Anonymous
>>243250
That doesn't mean it's right. First, there's nothing wrong with multiple cultures or communities sharing the same geographic space. Second, cultures evolve, change, spread, pass away, whatever. Anglo-saxon culture has no exclusive, sacrosanct right to exist in the British Isles. A hundred years from now, it'll have evolved, if it evolves in an Arab direction, whatever. One day all of it- British culture, Arab culture, whatever, will seem as ancient and monumental and laughable as Babylonian culture, or even as mysterious and indecipherable as the Indus River Valley culture.

History works like that, no culture stands as its master even when it rules the politics of the whole world. Long view, even a few generations, trying to hold on to some abstract you call "British culture" (or any culture) is futile and elicits some sort of a smirk from whatever higher power there is.
>> Anonymous
>>243121
Embeds aren't something to be aiming for, IMO. You're trading independence for access. While that might be a good deal in the case of individual reporters and stories, it's not at all something to make a goal in and of itself.

>>243129
>The durka durkas like killing the journalists

Not really. Islamist militants like killing people who don't subscribe to their views, journalists just make nice hostages for a variety of reasons. "Durka durkas" aren't any more prone to killing journalists than any other population.

As far as journo deaths in the recent Caucasian war, there's three: two are Alexander Klimchuk, a very talented and promising young local photojournalist, and Giga Chikhladz, a print journalist I don't know anything about except that he was with the Russian-language Newsweek.They were working together, and got killed how many deaths in warzones happen: they did something that scared the shit out of some soldiers with very frayed nerves. More specifically, Klimchuk yelled in Georgian to greet a group of what turned out to be Ossetian soldiers in the middle of the night (to dark to tell), and got shot on reflex. The soldiers rushed them to the hospital, but they couldn't be saved.
>> Anonymous
[con't from>>243255]

Another guy, a Dutch cameraman, got caught in the middle of what was either a bombing run or a mortar attack.

There was another case in the West Bank recently where a Palestinian cameraman for Reuters got shot by an Israeli tank crew mistook the big video camera he was lifting up onto his shoulder for an anti-tank weapon.

Cases of Western journalists getting intentionally killed, like Trent Keegan recently, are rare. It's usually they just get caught in the crossfire or the understandably scared shitless reflexes of some conscript. Most of the cases of intentional or apparently intentionally killing logged by the Commitee to Protect Journalists (http://www.cpj.org/deadly/) are locals who piss someone off with their coverage of politics or crime. Surprisingly, photographers seem to be the safest reporters- only producers, publishers, and technicians die less. Print journalists have it the worst.

In 2008 so far, twenty-three journalists of all types have been confirmed as killed because of their work or in the line of duty, eighteen are suspected (most of them pretty strongly so). But compared to the number of journalists around the world, those tragic numbers do not read like a death sentence at all.
>> Anonymous
>where are you in the uk

Grimsby, its in Linconshire... the armpit of the UK

>And we are too stuck up to SAY SOMETHING!

That i will agree with, but look at the state of the culture... when anyone dose speek out, its branded as racism
>> BurtGummer !!RRMHFHglFsy
>>243254

Listen, its simple. cultures can not expected to instantly combine and relate. It doesnt work that quickly. Eastern European and asian religions and customs are totally different to British and Western European ones.

The current influx of Immigrants into this country is causing massive tension between cultures. British people are very accepting, and have allowed this to happen as a gesture of goodwill. We wish to be diverse and see the cultures have communities here. But i believe in Britain for the Brits, France for the French and Pakistan for the pakistanis!
>> Anonymous
>>243261
You're right, it doesn't, but it doesn't have to happen with animosity or a sense of cultural land ownership, either. This sort of ethnic nationalism has started enough wars, in the twentieth century mostly acquisitive or irredentist, in the twenty-first it's mostly going to be divisive, like the movement in Ossetia now, although Russia's trying to pull some of that old fashioned shit. Don't encourage it in your own country, where the populations are heavily mixed. It can only end badly, and as a side point, exclusion and division only encourages and recruits for the militant shits who would blow up Buckingham Palace and rape the Queen's corpse if they could.
>> Anonymous
>>243261
YOU NIGRAS GET BACK TO AFRICA
>> BurtGummer !!RRMHFHglFsy
>>243267

Like i said, i dont believe in segregation AT ALL. I think we have a great mix of people, but ALL countries want to keep their identity and culture. Britain certainly needs to cut down immigration before the majority starts getting REALLY pissed off with the minorities.
>> Anonymous
>>243276
GET OUTTA HER YOU MEXICANTS!