|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|||||||||
|
|
|
||||||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|||||||||
|
Susan B. Markisz The Photojournalism Rollercoaster: Of Extremes and Insecurities Last week I was worried about the lack of freelance news work and the incorporation of more public relations work into my portfolio. With the benefit of a week's time and a little insight, I now see how I unwittingly managed to sabotage myself. A couple of months ago a colleague recommended me for a job shooting head shots of the deans of a major university's graduate business school. Based on that experience, they hired me last Thursday to cover their semi annual board meeting at Bloomberg's offices downtown. I had virtually unlimited access and even met media guru Mike Bloomberg himself. I discovered I might actually enjoy doing this kind of work! The client had also asked me to shoot a half day job on Saturday afternoon, which I turned down because of the annual New York Press Association Pictures of the Year Awards, which I had committed to attend in Albany. On the way home from the PR assignment, I called a newspaper editor to thank him for sending me a tearsheet of a recent assignment and to touch base regarding assignments. "Hey Susan," he said, "I paged you yesterday at 2:30 and didn't hear from you." Gulp. Big gulp. Quick look at pager---nothing in storage--- nothing current. Pager on audio. Battery ok. I call pager company to complain. "Don't worry," they say, "we'll just reprogram it." "Did you say REPROGRAM?" The only pages I've been getting the last few days have been from my kids, who like to add 911 at the end of every page. "Where are you NOW mom? Nothing urgent, just wanted to check in with you mom. When will you be HOME, mom?" OK, so now, having turned down one corporate assignment and missed another because of pager perplexities, I'm suddenly acutely aware that I'm ambivalent about going to Albany. All this time I've been struggling to get more work...it's now a reality, and I'm going AWAY! What am I going to win, anyway? And does it matter? This sudden awareness causes me to leave very late for Albany, hoping for a last minute newspaper assignment. As I arrive, I've missed lunch, the governor, and my first award. As if that's not bad enough, as I check into the hotel, there's a message from my husband saying that an editor at the Times has been trying to page me (apparently as I was driving through the Catskills, out of range) and calls me at home to find me GONE FOR THE WEEKEND! Much of Friday is spent flagellating myself for making wrong decisions and Saturday, worrying about whether I would win any of the "big" awards. In reality, I was in good company. Several friends of mine, who have since gone on to daily newspapers, magazines and bigger gigs were there who convinced me to take some deep breaths and "let it go." I had a good time. Even won a couple of awards. Arrived home this evening still laughing out loud from photojournalism silliness, sleep deprived and suffering from the excesses of a little celebratory champagne. More importantly, I learned the following lessons: Test your pager now and then; take the corporate gig and let someone else "bring home the wood" with your name on it... and tell your kids the story about the boy who cried wolf. Susan B. Markisz April 5, 1998
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Susan
Markisz
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Contributor
since 1998
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Behind
the Viewfinder - A Year in the Life of Photojournalism |