I’m culling the heard of negatives (and positives) from a fifty-plus years career as a photojournalist and I came across some rare color positives I made as a student.
I was a senior at San Jose State and stayed that extra year to get a degree in photojournalism. I was also serving an internship at The Associated Press in San Francisco. It was a Friday to Monday morning gig. I had a cot set up in the darkroom so I did not have to go back and forth from San Jose to The City.
I came up to San Francisco a day early and was at Fisherman’s Wharf when I saw this moment. I shot this on Ektachrome 100 because I was taking a color photography class as an elective and we processed our own slide film (E-6).
This moment grabbed me because of the restaurant owner in his white apron and the white fire hydrant. I framed up and waited for THE moment between the guitar player and the facial expression of the mime in the middle of the group of mimes. I just love this image.
When I turned it in for critique in the color photography class I received a grade of “C”… “Because I photographed people and this is a fine art class,” the instructor instructed. Not my first time dealing with that sort of prejudice, if I may be so brave to call it what it is. I also faced, and was told, in all the newsrooms I worked, that “photojournalists are reporters with their brains beaten out. Because if our brains were not beaten out (wait for it…), we would be reporters.
As a shooter I was not a “fine artist” nor good enough as a reporter. In related news, in grad school a Ph.D. told me, “Photojournalism is not art. And besides, I don’t see any of you in this photograph.” Best compliment I have ever received as a photojournalist!!!
My Homies… the fine art of photojournalism is the captured critical moment that illuminates the human condition. Photojournalism is not what you see every day on page one of The New York Times, and many papers in America. I digress…
I have stepped down off my high horse and leave you with “The Mime Concert.”
The Mime Concert. Photo by Kenn Bisio.
