Internship roulette

Over the last few days I've become really angry about internships, which is funny since I'm not likely to apply for an internship at any point, hopefully, in the next 50 years. It started when my good friend and former assistant Travis learned that he had lost out on an summer opportunity at a small but very strong photo paper last week. Then a couple of days later I saw a post on Lightstalkers for an unpaid internship opportunity with a well known "documentary" photographer who in my opinion could, and should, afford to either pay her employees a real wage, or live without another fucking assistant. These two events stirred up a lot of college-era resentment about the whole world of internships and the role they play in photography... and all in all, I'm now pissed. It's been a while since I wrote an "I'm pissed" blog post, so lets get started.

Travis is a very talented young photographer, and more than that, he's a very good person. Now, those of you who know me know that just being a good person really isn't good enough for me when it comes to photography, but when it comes to newspaper internships, especially at small newspapers with tight-knit staffs, it's really important. In this case I know that it was very important to the photo editor doing the hiring because he told me so on the phone when he called me a couple of weeks ago as one of Travis' references. And why it's very important goes beyond this particular editor's preferences, and shines a little light on the way that internships are killing photography. (I'm going to stick with talking about newspaper and editorial photography here... I don't know enough about fashion/art/advertising internship practices to really comment, and if I did I think my head would have probably already exploded).

This newspaper that Travis hoped to work for, like dozens of other newspapers around the country who have cut back their staffs over the last dozen years, has created their internship position in such a way as to count on that candidate to not only learn their craft and be influenced by the other talented staff members, but to basically become a full staff member of the organization. Because there is no slack in the staff, the intern can't be an intern, but has to mesh with those around them and immediately begin to produce, often at a 5 assignment a day rate. Travis would have been expected to carry a full load, work his ass off, and be rewarded with a pat on the back, a pathetic pay check, and zero benefits. That is stupid. Sure, there is great experience in that, one which I took part in on 4 occasions, and I believe that he would have come out the other side as a more mature and smarter journalist. But the very idea that the newspaper industry has raped their internship slots for an economic crutch is pretty disgusting. At other newspapers they have fired staff photographers, making decent money with benefit packages, and replaced them with more internship positions. Why?! Because it's a fuck load cheaper, the culture of journalism with its bust your ass and don't complain work ethics taught in our journalism schools rewards the paper with applicants who are willing to suffer for some hopeful future, and because ultimately the bean counters have decided that quality photojournalism doesn't matter much to them anymore. The bigger question is why not!

This has been going on for a long time, and if you didn't connect the dots before today then I don't know what to tell you. However, that's not the only reason why I was upset that Travis didn't get the internship position -- because I actually wanted him to get it, despite hating the system itself. What really made me upset was that he lost out, as a finalist among 3 other college photographers, to a fellow OU photographer who had an insane amount more experience. This person had already worked as a staff photographer at another newspaper for years. WTF?! Why are the photo schools in this country allowing its grad students with a SHIT TON of photo experience to dominate internship positions at newspapers? They don't need the experience. This photo editor at this newspaper talked a lot to me about how he really wanted someone who had potential... and yet, he hired someone who was many years into their career. The simple reason is that he was getting a great fucking deal - a probably talented photographer, who was willing to work for total shit and bust their ass, who already had a lot of real experience. So what if this photo editor is basically a dick, he now has another full staff photographer instead of a green intern, and a little bit easier life potentially.

The buck doesn't stop there for well experienced photo grad students... they should be totally disqualified from entering student competitions, period. Attention Rita Reed: stop fucking allowing extremely over-qualified grad students from OU or Mizzou or Texas, etc., from entering CPOY. Are you crazy?! When I was in school at Mizzou, before your time, I remember losing in a category to a OU shooter who had worked at the Boston Globe for something like 12 years before heading back to school to get her masters. And it keeps happening, because each year I'll look through the winner's list to some college competition and see a name from some guy who I recognize from their 6 years of professional work at a daily newspaper. That isn't helping this industry in any way.

OK... I'm pretty worked up, so lets tackle the work for free internship world. I don't begrudge Magnum for allowing all of the ICP kids who fight for the opportunity to clean their floors for free as a 6-month intern. Fine. I guess that's how it is. But if you are a successful editorial photographer out there and think it would be cool to have an internship program, you better fucking expect to pay them, especially if they end up acting like 2nd or 3rd assistants on photo shoots. Maybe this is just me, but if I allow a young photographer to come with me on a shoot, or help me in my office, I also assume the moral and professional obligation to pay them for their hard work. Working for a top tier photographer seems like it can be a valuable experience, and you certainly may get the opportunity to make contacts that it is very, very difficult to make the hard way, but respect yourself and your career enough to demand to be paid.

I made a big allegation above about how newspapers working their interns as staffers is killing this industry -- and I'd like to follow that up so that it's not just hanging out there like a giant piece of rotting meat. Cutting staff jobs and swapping them for internship positions is slimy, low-down, bullshit. If you can't afford to pay for a photographer, then you don't get a photographer. The sum effect of all of the people working for free or peanuts within photography, of which newspapers and editorial is just a small part, is that it devalues the industry at large. It just works its way right up the food chain, and some other bean counter looks and wonders, "shit, if that beautiful bastard can get away with not paying his people and still have people begging to work there, then I'm an idiot not to try it. Why don't I cut our digital fee? Or maybe add a work for hire clause to our new contract?"

Photography is already undervalued enough, and being a freelance photographer is pretty damn tough as it is, believe me or just look at the trend of newspaper photographers paying a lot of money to go back to school for a master's to try and move to the next level (not a hopeful sign). As an industry, lets not continue to allow this to happen.

To the photo editor at this newspaper, who because you are also a nice person I will not mention your name or company, I think that you had an opportunity to really invest in someone who had a ton of potential (and was a helluva nice guy as well), or to choose yet another female candidate who was old enough to make your life easier. There were certainly other factors and I'm completely biased, but I think you know what I'm talking about. The next time my name is on your reference list, don't even pick up the fucking phone unless you have decided to make a better choice and help develop potential in an effort to push photography at large forwards.

( note: please read the follow-up post )

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