Some fresh air helps! Today I have come across:

1. Fabrice G. Frere’s foreword to “City, a photography retrospective”. Excerpt:

“Ultimately, the incredible diversity of the photography that ended up within the pages of the first 50 issues or so of CITY was the result of working with both established photographers and emerging shutterbugs. The new talent, in particular, always brought a fresh eye that didn’t know it could fail, which was always something special.

I remember on several occasions a stylist coming into my office and pitching me an idea that he or she wanted to do with a photographer friend who had never actually shot a fashion story before. After a follow-up meeting with the aspiring lensman – not to mention a long, deep breath and a few words of wisdom – the story was usually a go, something that is rarely if ever the case at other publications.

The rationale was that without a little risk thrown into the formula, it would be impossible to discover new talent.

We’re proud to say that we’ve launched quite a few careers at CITY, and it was perhaps most rewarding when one of those young guns came back to us several years later, tired of more bland assignments elsewhere and eager to play in the CITY sandbox again.”

2. Interview to David Griffin, National Geographic’s Director of Photography, by Rob Haggart. Excerpt:

“Then the story goes into layout and work begins on any special web features. The photographer is very much a part of that process. From our viewpoint it would be both financially and journalistically foolish to not involve directly the person who we invested our resources into for the story. The person who best knows which images capture the truth of the story is the one that was there. It may seem like a luxury, but we feel it is a part of our process that makes a tangible difference in the accuracy of the final published stories”.

In my humble opinion this is how our work should be.

There still is someone with brains out there.