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Lately, I seem to be the queen of features
and the environmental portrait. This is
not necessarily a bad thing. I have no problem illustrating a story with
an environmental portrait. And while I'm not complaining that some of
my feature pictures have made it onto the front page week after week in
the local newspaper to the exclusion of news pictures, A look at some
recent assignments have me wondering where the journalism is in photojournalism.
This isn't exactly unique to the local newspaper.
A couple of weeks ago, I was asked to do a portrait of a man and his wife
for a story for the New York Times in Westchester County on senior health
care and medical coverage. wasn't even assigned to most of the
stories. The lead front page images that ran were nice (they were mine!)
and I'm a happy camper to see my work run big, in color. But a look at
the stories we ran on the front page suggested to me that some more thought
could go into illustrating them, instead of relying on stand alone art.
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Philomena and Allen Martin are both 71
years old and retired. Though you would not know it to look at him,
Mr. Martin's health has deteriorated over the past year and a half,
with sudden onset of kidney failure, requiring dialysis three times
a week. The Martins are having a hard time covering their insurance
costs and making ends meet because their HMO recently dropped them.
Both have to work. And Mrs. Martin has been working with local politicians
for more legislation to help seniors lobby for better medical coverage.
Rather than simply do an environmental portrait in their living
room, which is what the assignment requested, I asked Mr. Martin
whether he would mind being photographed during his dialysis treatment,
which was to take place the following day. Visually a photograph
of Mr. Martin during his medical treatment seemed to better illustrate
the story as I understood it. I called the assignment editor and
pitched this idea to him and
he told me to do both.
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71 year old Philomena and Allen Martin both
work in retirement to make ends meet. They were recently dropped by
their HMO.©1999 Susan B. Markisz for the New York Times |
I learned that Mr. Martin drives a van, picking up senior citizens, some
younger than
himself, and takes them to and from an adult day care facility five days
a week, and
sometimes six. He maintains a rigorous schedule while being treated for
a serious health
condition.
Mr. and Mrs. Martin arise every morning at 5:45 am. Mrs. Martin is
an excellent cook and she keeps a close watch on her husband's diet.
A healthy slice of her homemade apple pie the night before, made it
difficult for me to turn down an invitation for breakfast at 6:15
am the following morning at their home.
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At 7:30 am, Allen Martin picks up "Marge" from
home and brings her to the senior day care center which she attends
daily. ©1999 Susan B. Markisz for the New York Times |
I met Mr. Martin at 7 am outside his home, and
together we picked up the van in
nearby Elmsford, where he then begins his route through several Westchester
towns,
picking up seniors for the adult day program. Around 10 am he finishes
the pickup
portion of his day, and then goes three times a week, to a kidney dialysis
center, where
he has his blood cleansed during a 3 1/2 hour dialysis treatment.
| I've sometimes had to wait
for 3 days for permission to take pictures in a hospital, even with
the patient's consent, so conscious are medical personnel of the prospect
of litigation and privacy issues. But I had called the kidney dialysis
center, during Mr. Martin's route, to ask permission to photograph
him undergoing dialysis and I was granted permission in under five
minutes. |
"Paul" is the second person on Mr. Martin's
route. Around 8 am he buckles his seatbelt and gets him settled in
the van which will take him to a place called "Just Like Home" for
the day. ©1999 Susan B. Markisz for the New York Times |
Thinking I'd be squeamish, the charge nurse
was initally reluctant to allow me to
photograph while Mr. Martin was being hooked up and poked with needles.
She doesn't
know I've had chemotherapy and while stuff like this typically sends a
shiver of panic
through me, I knew that while shooting, the panic would not engulf me
the way it does
when I'm the patient. Assured that I wouldn't have a problem, she allowed
me to
photograph Mr. Martin as he was prepped and monitored and stuck with the
needles
which begin the process of cleansing his blood.
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.After his treatment, which
ends around 3pm, Mr. Martin goes back to the adult facility to pick
up his passengers and return them to their homes. By the time he gets
home, around 6 or 7, he's exhausted and is in bed by 8 or 9pm.
"What's the alternative?" he asked. Having been through
cancer and chemotherapy treatments myself, I know there is none. |
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I spent from 6:30 am until approximately
4:30 pm on the assignment by the time I got home after dropping
off my film, not counting the previous day's environmental
portrait. I shot the story as I saw it: a story on medical care
and senior citizens, the story of a guy who's doing what he has
to do to stay alive. I suspect the paper will use more than one
picture. I haven't had any feedback thus far, but I envisioned the
editor saying "Hey Markisz can really shoot a story..."
but who's probably thinking, "why did
she go to all the trouble?"
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All three images ©1999 Susan B. Markisz for
the New York Times
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Did I spend too much time on it? Probably. Does it matter?
What's happened to visual storytelling in the newspapers? It's a rare
thing these days.
Here, in this forum, I've discovered, is the journal in journalism, not
in the newspapers.
Addendum:
The photo editor complimented me several weeks after the assignment, on
a nice job.
On February 28, three photographs accompanied the article, one of Mr.
Martin
undergoing dialysis, about 12 inches across the top of the fold, the only
picture top of
the fold, and two inside, one of a local legislator, and the environmental
portrait.
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