Should a photojournalist get close to their subject?

To capture the true story of the year, you need to get really close to your subjects. I mean

Up in their Face (with respect)

So, you are standing there, camera in your hand, wondering how to make this photo assignment into something extraordinary. The scene seems pretty boring: a club meeting where everybody is making welcome gifts for the freshmen. How do you find a memorable photo in this seeming lame-ness?

Photo by: Lucy Edmunds. St. Teresa's Academy

Or, you are standing there, camera in your hand, and the scene is electric: a pep rally where the Spirit Club president is making the principal laugh so hard that milk is coming out her nose. How do you make this photo more than simple visual reporting?

The answer to both is simple. The answer to both is the same. Get closer.

Sure, most of us have heard somebody recite the Robert Capa quote, “If your picture isn’t good enough, you’re not close enough.” But when you are standing there, it’s sometimes hard to convince yourself to indeed get . . . well, closer.

Here’s another way to look at it: in most situations you are ultimately more respectful by getting close enough to make great photos. Your subjects are already giving you their trust by allowing you to be there with a camera. Perhaps they have even invited you into their home or personal lives. In a strange way, you owe it to them to get close and make wonderful images.

Sure, you could stand on the edge of the club’s meeting, snap some mindless photos and have enough pixels to fill a clubs spread. Or, you could pull out the telephoto lens at the pep rally. When
you are standing there, at the club meeting and the pep rally, getting in other people’s personal space can be counter intuitive. You think, “If get close, I will make them uncomfortable. I will make myself look foolish.”

But the reality is the opposite. Your subjects will most likely look joyous, inspired, intense and focused, but never boring. And that is what your subjects deserve: an energetic, bold and trustworthy photographer who gets close.

Because in the life of a photojournalist, being “in-their-face” is seldom foolish, and never boring.

Contributed by  Eric Thomas, yearbook adviser
St. Teresa’s Academy, Kansas City, MO