News25 Aug 2004


Dunaway's Athenian Column - Day Six

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Kelly Holmes poses for photographers (© Getty Images)

Jim Dunaway who has attended every Olympic Games since Melbourne in 1956 brings his own weathered eye on what’s been happening in and around the Athletics events at the Games of the XXVIII Olympiad.

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Watching a couple of photographer friends who are working their butts off covering the Games here made me realise that they are the real heroes of sports journalism.

Yet they get less respect than Rodney Daingerfield.

I mean, all a writer has to bring to the stadium these days is a laptop computer. But the poor photogs have to carry around 20, or 30, or 40 kg of equipment “camera bodies, lenses, stuff like that“ and when they’re fully loaded they look like pack mules, or maybe Sherpas on Mount Everest.

And that’ just the beginning. Writers get to sit and watch the action on the track. But a photographer has to keep moving “usually running - from the finish of the 100 metres, to the shot put, to the pole vault,  back to the finish line, carrying most, or all, of his equipment. And when he gets to each new location, he has to jockey and jostle to get the best spot for the shot they he has in mind“and of course, 20 or 30 other guys (make that two or three hundred at the Olympics) have exactly the same idea, and the shoving can get pretty unfriendly. Sometimes there are fist fights.

Writers get bylines, in bold type, right under the headline at the top of their stories. Photographers get a tiny photo credit, and not only is the type small, but it usually runs either sideways up the side of the picture or at the bottom of the page. Nobody reads the photo credits except the photographer’s family.

Reporters, at least the talented ones, have a chance to end up on television, making big money and becoming famous. The only photographers most people have heard of are dead ones, like Henri Cartier-Bresson and Ansel Adams. I’ll bet you know the names of three or four sportswriters on the newspaper you read,  and I KNOW you don’t know the name of any photographers, not even if they’ve won a Pulitzer Prize.

A lot of editors treat photographers like dirt. If a guy gets into position to take a real good finish-line shot, the editor is likely to say, “you come up with something different?” And of course if the photographer does try something different, the editor is sure to say, “where’s the damn shot of the finish?”

The worst thing, though, is not just that they have to do a lot of running while heavy loaded down, but that they have to learn to do it RUNNING BACKWARDS. Next time you’re watching an Olympic champion take a victory lap on TV, take a moment to watch the poor photogs, two or three cameras slung around their necks or over their shoulders, running backwards to stay ahead of the athlete.

The amazing thing is “these guys, weighed down with equipment, shooting from the hip, being pushed and shoved while they work“ manage week after week to take the great pictures we take for granted when we pick up a newspaper or a magazine.

Guys, take a bow.

Jim

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