Blame it on Blow Up

Abstract

The veteran journalist and author recalls the highs and lows of working with newspaper photographers in the past, and concludes: "The staff photographers of today don't sing or joke much. They are an endangered species in a world teeming with civilians wielding digital cameras and celebrity-chasing amateurs looking for a big score. Breaking news pictures are increasingly the work of passers-by while the reduced staff teams are edged off the prime pages. There's a growing tendency to print the by-lines of those who do get their pictures published vertically, which I daresay is all right if you're Japanese. It's sad. I fear the parade's gone by and the only ones left cheering are the bean counters who grubstaked all those years of riotous assembly."