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Hardly an award-winning pic, is it?
When I attended the “Marvel: From NOW! to Infinity” panel at C2E2 last April, I arrived late from another panel and found myself in the back row. I thought covering the panel from an amateur perspective might be a fun lark for one segment of the MCC readership. Unfortunately I back-burnered that part of my C2E2 experience because (a) pro comics-news sites had the panel’s announcements posted online days before I would’ve gotten around to them; and (b) my photos were rubbish.
I’d rather not imagine a world in which I might’ve had a chance of selling this reject for real American money. I enjoy seeing the work of skillful eyes and hands that justly shame me in this area. I doubt few dream of a world in which our news sites and newspapers drop several degrees in visual competence and settle for publishing any available photos to accompany their articles regardless of quality, offering whatever they can scrounge up from overworked reporters or untrained bystanders.
The Powers That Be at the Chicago Sun-Times believe so deeply in this alternate future that they’ve decided to push our timeline forward in that direction. Last week numerous sources reported the venerable institution dismissed all 28 of its staff photographers (including one Pulitzer winner) as a cost-cutting measure and announced plans to offer smartphone photography lessons to its staff reporters, who clearly had too much time on their hands and needed extra busywork to keep them from turning into total goof-offs.
Savvy TV viewers may recall season five of The Wire, in which the Sun-Times endured an unflattering portrayed as the sales-mongering owners of the Baltimore Sun, pink-slipping Sun employees left and right, chasing after awards by any means necessary, and challenging their remaining skeleton crew to “do more with less.” Anyone who thought that season stretched credulity owes a Hallmark “Sorry I nitpicked your show” card to David Simon.
Outsourcing photography to the man on the street isn’t a revolutionary idea at this point. I know the Indianapolis Star has accepted reader submissions for years. When it comes to keeping that responsibility in-house, I can only imagine the reactions of all those longtime reporters who’ve spent their careers preoccupied enough with merely gathering facts, interviewing, taking notes, brainstorming more probing questions on the fly, researching, copywriting on the go, proofreading, rewriting, and Lord knows how many other daily tasks. Now they’ll be asked to serve the dual function of interviewing and note-taking with a phone in one hand while trying to adjust picture settings and snap hasty, shaky shots with a phone in the other hand. This double-duty approach could be workable if all their subjects agree to pose politely in ideal lighting without moving a muscle every single time.
Meanwhile, a couple dozen dedicated artists with photography-based college degrees or equivalent field experience are forced to flood the Chicago Tribune with their applications, or perhaps hold out hope that the foodie photo-blogging field could use twenty-eight new participants.
I suppose the situation could be even more dire. The Sun-Times could also fire all their reporters and begin assembling their paper and site entirely from reblogs without permission or paychecks. If they truly advocate multitasking as the way of the future, expect them to send copies of The Reuters Handbook of Journalism to all the guys down at the printing plant just in case. Some smartphone manuals might not hurt, either, assuming they’re paid well enough to own smartphones.
* * * * *
Optional postscript for comics fans who care:
Left to right in my glaucoma-vision pic are editors Lauren Sankovitch and Ellie Pyle; intergalactic comics sensation Kieron Gillen; Tom Brevoort, Senior VP of Publishing; editor Jordan White; and writers Rick Remender, Charles Soule, and Nick Spencer. Also present but offscreen is Arune Singh, Director of Communications.
In terms of news, all I personally gleaned from this panel is:
1. Marvel will be having crossovers in titles I mostly don’t buy.
2. Thanos will begin showing up in a lot of comics until everyone on Earth knows who he is.
3. Writer Charles Soule will be taking over Thunderbolts later this summer. (I’m intrigued by this tidbit, though I have no use for the current cast.)
4. Kid Loki’s agenda in Young Avengers would be revealed in #5 (and so it was).
5. At least one hero died like a chump in Age of Ultron.
And if you think that photo’s an eyesore, I have one more shot even worse that I never bothered to delete. Fifty bucks or best offer. Any takers?
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
Image may be NSFW.Clik here to view.
Image may be NSFW.Clik here to view.
Image may be NSFW.Clik here to view.
Image may be NSFW.Clik here to view.
Image may be NSFW.Clik here to view.
Image may be NSFW.Clik here to view.
Image may be NSFW.Clik here to view.
