February 1, 1998

Last night, I had a dream.

I had lost my job and was about to start over with another Florida newspaper.

I was driving in the city where I was born, trying to negotiate a maze of side streets that lead to the office. Once inside the building I encountered a puzzle of hallways.

I never found my way to the photo department. I never knew why I was fired from my job in Orlando. And I don’t think I ever found the film I needed for my camera.

The anxiety dream came because in the last two months, I’ve known a photographer and a photo editor who were suddenly out of work. I had worked with them in the past, and now their current publications had let them go. They are both very qualified - one of them exceptionally so - but they still didn’t have job security.

Things like this make photojournalists, on the whole, a rather insecure group of people. I’ve never decided if this business attracts insecure people or if the business creates insecure people. Either way, it’s a reality.

It’s hard to blame us for this personality flaw. Photojournalism is a very competitive field to get started in and only a small percentage of those who want jobs actually make it. We work to be better than the next photographer. Then once we do get a job, every day we are trying to prove ourselves all over again and seeking reassurance that we are, in fact, pretty good at our jobs. Past success isn’t as reassuring as it should be. After all, today’s newspaper is in the recycling bin tomorrow.

For example, although I usually cover feature stories, on New Year’s Day I was one of four photographers covering the Citrus Bowl bartball game for our paper. The University of Florida was playing Penn State so the game was a bigger story than usual for us. I was lucky that all of the scoring happened in the end zone I covered. A finger-tip touchdown catch gave me a photo that lead the sports front the next day. The photo editor later told me how great it was to see the picture. He added that it was a pleasant surprise that the features photographer made the photo rather than one of the regular sports shooters.

I appreciated the compliment, but I also knew this editor had forgotten the 6 or 7 years I spent shooting sports for the Sentinel when I first joined the staff. Shooting good bartball wasn’t really outside my abilities. But it was outside the realm of recent memory. I had to prove myself, again.

click to see full size image
Jacquez Green of the University of Florida pulls in the first touchdown against Penn State in the 1998 Citrus Bowl. UF won the game 21-6. photo by Tom Burton. copyright The Orlando Sentinel.

 

Tom Burton

 

February 1, 1998

earlier journal home later journal
Tom Burton
< twburton@aol.com >
Senior Staff Photographer
The Orlando (FL.) Sentinel
Other journals by Tom Burton
347 February 18, 2000 Love
341 January 6, 2000

Baby, Baby Baby
333 Is Photojournalism Dead? Tom Burton My comments today will reflect both my love for photojournalism and my respect for its basic tenets.
327 November 8, 1999 Roller Coaster
319 September 19, 1999 The headline on Tuesday’s newspaper was direct. PREPARE YOURSELF
301 July 15, 1999 Burton Rosevear
280 May 10, 1999 I am a certified platypus. It's time to confess.
262 April 16, 1999 "Thank Mr. Burton"
258 March 30, 1999

A "Typical" Day?

 
238 February 27, 1999 Time
227 February 14, 1999 And by the way; the subject - Zora Neal Hurston - has been dead for almost 40 years.
209 January 29, 1999 Ok, I’ll answer the most-asked questions first:
200 January 9, 1999 Could there be a photo-columnist?
186 December 12, 1998 The Nutcracker
167 October 29, 1998 The launch of Discovery and STS-95
166 October 28, 1998 Huber is one of a handful of photographers who has been setting remotes since the very first shuttle launch in 1981.
156 October 9, 1998 The waiting is the hardest part
147 September 15, 1998 When we edited the film, this last photo kept jumping up at us. It was far less planned than any cover we’ve done - in fact, it was probably the least calculated photo of the entire shoot - but it had that certain "ooomph" we wanted.
139 August 28, 1998 A firefighter returns
128 August 4, 1998 How to be a Model - or Just Look Like One!
124 July 30, 1998 I recently did something I’ve never done before. I went to a press conference without my cameras.
123 July 29, 1998 Some of the newest members of our staff were surprised at the persistence of the British press. They just won’t stop and they want everything. It is quite the clash in cultures when this kind of story goes global.
108 July 6, 1998 For more than a month, it hasn't rained much more than a spit in Central Florida
106 June 30, 1998 Yesterday I was part of the pack, looking for the celebrity of the moment and facing Armageddon.
105 June 27, 1998 At my newspaper, we run photography-based illustrations to illustrate stories that don't lend themselves to documentary styled photojournalism.
94 June 14, 1998 "I'm on vacation..."
81 May 29, 1998 When I decided to shoot a figure drawing class, I knew that I’d be up against some newspaper taboos.
75 May 22, 1998 An open letter to Joe Jaszewski
69 April 30, 1998 The Last Word
61 April 16, 1998 Femme Fatale
55 April 5, 1998 Finding "life" in photojournalism
38 March 15, 1998

Spring Fashion - The Printed Page

March 6 , 1998 Spring Fashion - a final editWhich photo do you think would make the best cover?

February 27, 1998 Spring Fashion - the fifth day As a photographer, I try to

anticipate anything that can go wrong. February 26, 1998 Spring Fashion - the fourth day The shoot went very well and there may be one or two more contenders for the cover

February 25, 1998Spring Fashion - the third day...the most debated, discussed and sometimes over-thought decision is which photo will be on the cover.

February 24, 1998Spring Fashion - the second dayBut during a fashion shoot like today, I shoot Polaroids proofs on everything

February 23, 1998Spring Fashion - the first dayThe phone rang at 6:30 a.m...The obvious question was, "what's going on?"
20 February 19, 1998 While photojournalists seek to document the reality of their world, fashion photographers conspire with beautiful models and clever stylists to create a fantasy.
10 February 1, 1998 Last night, I had a dream
8 January 28, 1998 I’ve found that my best work happens when I surprise myself
 
Contributor since 1998
  
   


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