Chapter nine- What Motivates Photojournalists
Motivation to me means what keeps me going during difficult times. What encourages me when I believe I am too weak to continue the challenges that life throws be it education or work. To sum it up it is why I do what I do. Without various things to keep you motivated, it will become easier to give up which could also lead to loss of identity because an individual would feel stray and off-course. As a college student, I have felt the need to give up numerous time however my source of motivation be it people or things, kept me going. Above is my motivation map which consists of the major things that keep me on track. From God to my family, life long friendships made my passion, my future, my happiness, my race and finally my background. Each of these keeps me going in various situations. Some more than others, some individually and sometimes all together depending on what I’m facing against. An example of a photojournalist with a similar motivation as me is Lynn Johnson who shared it in the video Lynn Johnson women in photojournalism explained to her interviewer that her motivation "is being a female in a predominantly male occupation" which is photojournalism. This is similar to passion being my source of motivation. As I continue to grow, the map might get bigger or smaller, regardless, I believe it will continue to assist me in achieving every goal that I hope to achieve in life.
Image of David Burnett
Image by:- David Burnett
Year:- 1976
The first photojournalists that I researched on are David Burnett. David who was born in the state of Utah in the year 1946 is known to be one of the most well known and successful photojournalists of this generation. This is proven from his numerous amount of awards won. While being in the field of photojournalism for almost 50 years, he had the opportunity to work on various projects such as having photographed a total of 11 American presidents between the years 1963 to 2017. David is currently the co-founder of a well-known photojournalism agency in New York. In an interview with Manfrotto School of Excellence Photojournalist David Burnett explained his source of motivation comes from trying to find: something that can have a little bit of a different look to it. It is more motivation, technically speaking I don’t do so many things that are different or amazing or all together differentiated from what other people do. I am just someone who gets a great kick out of trying to capture the elements of the world around me.” This means that to him, it is important to be different compared to other photojournalists. David Burnett reminded me of photojournalist Gordon Park who according to The Gordon parks foundation bio, "quickly developed a style that would make him one of the most celebrated photographers of his age"
Image of Daniel Berehulak
Another photojournalist I researched is Daniel Berehulak who was born and raised in a town close to Sydney, Australia and had grown up on a farm with his family where they had lived for all his life before moving, going to college and finding his passion for photography. Compared to photojournalist Burnett, David Berehulak had a much different experience. He explained in an interview with Sam Edmonds titled Daniel Berehulak - Australia's most awarded photojournalist that the true motivation to pursue his dream was after he had “learned that his sister was terminally ill. “She had lupus and passed away quite suddenly, so at that point, I was like, ‘Fuck this. Life is too short and I’m going to stop doing what I’ve been doing’....I don’t know how I’m going to get into photography, but I know that I am going to do it.’
Image of Alixandra Fazzina
Alixandra Fazzina who was born in the year 1974 in the UK is a well-known war photojournalist in England. Although she did not grow up with photography in mind, she eventually grew to like it after graduating from college. During an interview with Melissa Fleming from the UN Refugee Agency, Alixandra Fazzina talked about her goals with her images and how having these goals keep her motivated. She had said “I think that photography can draw people in. It’s a very singular moment in time… when you turn the page of a newspaper or a book and see a photo, it really draws you into the story. I hope my photography gives someone else a moment to stand still, take the time to look, look properly, and engage in a slightly different way with the world. If you want to change attitudes, for me the best way to do it is to tell someone’s story and to show what they have actually gone through and hope the response is empathy. That people look at my work and say “ooh, gosh, what’s going on there,” and they read into it, and they understand something they never knew about before, or see things they’ve never taken the time to look at or think about.” This interview gave an insight into what motivates Alixandra to keep doing photojournalism regardless of its struggles. Her motivation is what led to her taking war photography and to inform people about the struggles that people face. After researching all three photojournalists, I noticed that there are similarities amongst our motivations. With Daniel Berehulak, his family motivated him, Alixandra Fazzinna had her passion for photography as a source of motivation and for David Burnett his wanting to stand out and be different motivated him. While researching on photojournalists, I realized that while some might consider their motivation to be very different, it is indeed pretty similar. Photojournalist Gilles Peress shared his motivation in his bibilography by Magnum photos. where he explained "I don't care so much anymore about 'good photography'; I am gathering evidence for history ” this is also similar to David Burnett.
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