Robin Comley

Robin, who was involved in a World Press Photo workshop in Nairobi and has twice been a judge for the World Press Photo competition says: “As newspapers face growing threats from electronic media and pressure on news/advertising ratios increases, we face less space for ‘luxuries’ like features.

But our savior will be multimedia. Most newspapers have moved in this direction and establishing a sophisticated photo gallery for each photographer’s work will ensure the survival of features.

Slick software is the key here – don’t ask your reader/viewer to struggle through a cumbersome gallery, spend agonizing minutes buffering, only to show them low or medium-resolution images. If your newspaper can’t offer this, set up your own site with a link to the paper.

The biggest challenge I believe is to freelancers, particularly in newspapers but in magazines too, which are now more often sourcing features from stock. Getty and Corbis are so wide-ranging in what they can offer that this is a serious threat.

In talking to South African documentary photographers like freelancer Jodi Bieber, format is also sometimes a problem. A reluctance to move to digital is a deciding factor for some editors who are discouraged not only by the time factor, but medium format obviously pushes up the cost of the assignment.

On The Times newspaper in South Africa we have a daily double spread of ten pictures from around the world – it’s a non-negotiable space and can be used for a feature if we need it. We also have a visionary editor who responds to readers’ need for the visual.

I also give photographers week-long breaks to shoot features – the only criterion is whether they motivate passionately for it. It doesn’t have to be news-related because if the editor does not want it in print, it will get a full display online.

So the bottom line is: we need to stop thinking of newspapers as only the printed object and focus more on creating in cyberspace."

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