A spontaneous blog brought on by the current weather conditions. HOT AND HUMID brought back memories of this one, an “oldie” from my days at the Macomb Daily Journal, my first newspaper job out of college. Low pay, long hours, six days a week, but a great learning ground and launching pad to another level. I was there from August of 1983 until June of 1987.
The staple of most small town papers is “local art” for the front page. Sometimes by an assignment, most times it was found by driving around until something presented its self. “Wild art,” as it’s called in the business.
Out on the wild art mission one hot day, I spotted something that caught my eye as it was happening it Chandler Park in downtown Macomb. It screamed “hey, that’s a feature picture” all over it. A small group of people getting a drink from the park fountain, the youngest one determined to do it on his own, no help wanted.
I was a total purist in those days in that I followed the strict ethics of photojournalism. Two of the top rules were to never stage or set up anything, and don’t manipulate what is in front of you. If you miss the moment you miss the moment. Every photographer has their own moral compass, mine didn’t waiver much, though I did wonder how photographers I admired always seemed to be at the right place at the right time.
With all of that running through my head, I knew this would be a very quick moment and I still had to park the car and sprint towards the group. When I got to them the moment was over, the kid had his drink and climbed off the fountain.
There must have been a strong magnetic storm in the park because my moral compass began malfunctioning. This was way too good of an opportunity to miss. The kids were still there, still taking turns getting drinks. What I don’t remember for sure is whether the kid took his second turn or whether I encouraged him to, but he did.
I got my photo and I justified it by telling myself that I had not set the photo up (and I had not, they really were doing this), but that it took a second time to get it. The photo ran on the front page the next day, two and a half columns or so, a beautiful deep vertical. The background is clean and it does show the determined kid.
What you see here is a copy shot of the mounted print, this was once part of my portfolio.
There will be future blogs involving ethical situations but this was an early “gray area” for me. I don’t regret it a bit.
