Stirring Giant

I just spent the better part of an hour getting inspired. I paid a visit to the College Photographer of the Year site to look at winning images in the 63rd annual competition. I left feeling really insignificant, but nonetheless inspired at the power of photojournalism. The inevitable demise of newspapers as we've known them will undoubtedly change the landscape for pictures. But, honestly, it's refreshing to note that the visual craftsmanship and compassion that has long sustained newspaper photographers is still very much thriving in a new generation of shooters. Almost all of them will likely find themselves needing to translate the power of a still image to the uncertain, and essentially unproven, power of new media approaches.

That's scary. It's also liberating. The door is wide open for journalists, writers and photographers alike, to take a cue from Jenn Ackerman's haunting documentary on the mentally ill in the prison system.

As for what any of this means to me, I'm not entirely sure. I've done some transitioning in the past year and a half, some of which has been chronicled on this blog and most of which has gone publicly unrecorded. I know one thing, I miss making pictures everyday. I unequivocally know that I could still be making daily pictures, but simply have neglected to stay true to that part of me. It's unfortunate, really. But. It's going to change. The photojournalist in me is stirring. I don't know what the sleeping giant will produce, but I do know that he's hungry and ready to dine anew. Where to begin?