Christine Chang Photography

…and other questions too.  This will help you get to know me and what I desire and aspire to be by being a photojournalist.  All of the following below is written by Mark Hancock on his blog (http://markhancock.blogspot.com/) and in reading it I agree with many of his principles and he has stated it with much conciseness and eloquence.

1) What does it take to be a great journalist?

A great journalist cares about people and an ideal world. A great journalist can approach a topic as vast as the universe and make it simple and interesting to both Einstein and the new immigrant, who is trying desperately to learn the language.

A great journalist cares about people and an ideal world. A great journalist can approach a topic as vast as the universe and make it simple and interesting to both Einstein and the new immigrant, who is trying desperately to learn the language.The written word has power. With skill, reporters can expose the evil of the world and bring it into the light. However, journalism is limited to non-apathetic, monolinguistic people with some time to kill and a few neurons still firing.

Enter photojournalism. It destroys almost all barriers. Justice can draw its sword in the time it takes an eye to scan an image. An image has no age, language or intelligence limits.
2)What is a photojournalist?

A journalist tells stories. A photographer takes pictures of nouns (people, places and things). A photojournalist takes the best of both and locks it into the most powerful medium available–a single frozen image.

A journalist tells stories. A photographer takes pictures of nouns (people, places and things). A photojournalist takes the best of both and locks it into the most powerful medium available–a single frozen image.Although photojournalists can take properly exposed and well composed photographs all day long, they hunt verbs. They hunt them, shoot them, and show them to their readers. Then, they hunt more.

To tell a story, a sentence needs a subject, a verb and a direct object. News photos need the same construction. Photojournalists tell stories with their images. Also, words are always used in conjunction with photojournalist’s images.

To be a photojournalist, you must understand the relationship between the image and these basic elements of language (all languages–worldwide).

     The girl (must) hit (or miss) the ball. There are no other options.

The girl is easy to photograph. The ball is easy to photograph. The verb is the hard part.

As a servant of the citizens, it is the photojournalist’s OBLIGATION to capture the entire sentence involved in EVERY event. There are no excuses. It is hit or missed. Some photographers don’t care. They have a picture of the bat. “Hey, that’s what tried to hit the ball.” They just don’t get it.

3) More on the photojournalist

A photojournalist is a visual reporter of facts. The public places trust in its reporters to tell the truth. The same trust is extended to photojournalists as visual reporters.

A photojournalist is a visual reporter of facts. The public places trust in its reporters to tell the truth. The same trust is extended to photojournalists as visual reporters.This responsibility is paramount to a photojournalist. At all times, he has many thousands of people seeing through his eyes and expecting to see the truth. This truth, unlike written words, has no language, age or intellectual boundaries. Most people immediately understand an image.

In today’s world of grocery store tabloids and digital manipulation of images, the photojournalist must still tell the truth. The photojournalist constantly hunts for the images (or verbs), which tell of the day-to-day struggles and accomplishments of his community. These occurrences happen naturally. There is no need to “set up” reality. There is no need to lie to a community that has bestowed its trust. In a nutshell: If a photojournalist is not going to fake a fire or a street stabbing scene, why would he set up “person A” giving “person B” an object (award, check, trophy etc. …).

The photojournalist simply wants to hang around, be forgotten and wait for the right moment. Then, the hunt begins anew.

Like the police officer or firefighter, the photojournalist’s concern is his community even if that means sacrificing comfort or life. Many photojournalists die every year in the process of collecting visual information, which lets the public know of atrocities, dangers and the mundane.
4) Personal views on the job

This is not a “glam” job. A photojournalist is a servant (like a waitress or a sanitation worker). They are expected to be on the job around the clock to serve the public.

This is not a “glam” job. A photojournalist is a servant (like a waitress or a sanitation worker). They are expected to be on the job around the clock to serve the public.News never stops. Again, NEWS NEVER STOPS. You sleep when you can. You eat when you’re done. You are never really off the clock.

Photojournalists are role models. They don’t want to be, but they are.

At a mid-sized or small newspaper, a photojournalist cannot have a night on the town and neglect his or her city. Everyone from the little tykes to the senior citizens, from the street people to the debutantes, knows the photojournalist. The photojournalist is the visible portion of the newspaper. Reporters can handle everything by phone. Editors can stay in their office and never talk to a soul. Pressmen (generic) and graphic artists can go strait to the bar after work if they choose. However, the photojournalist must crawl through barnyard dung for one shoot and arrive at the annual celebrity gala an hour later.

I grew up here. I love this city and the people who make it the wonderful place it is. For the most part: houses do not catch fire, everyone looks out for each other, nobody goes to bed hungry, kids go to college and become CEOs (or photojournalists–that’s a long, bizarre story), the arts flourish, the city leaders are respected, and red-light running is the biggest crime.

I love my job.