Beyond the obvious

Portrait of best selling author Harlan Coben. I am working on a project photographing the creative people I admire. The question is: how to fund it? New ways to fund photojournalists, documentary photographers and writers are emerging. The Internet has changed the way we can communicate. It's given us a direct link – a platform and a way of interacting with audiences. It also means we can look at new ways to make money from our creative endevours. The mainstream market and fees continues to shrink. The days of self-funding a documentary or photojournalism project, and knowing that if it was good you stood a reasonable chance of selling your work, are gone. The way people consume information has also changed. People don't passively just read and view stories. They want to comment, to get involved with the story and to find out more if they are interested. There's a huge appetite for information and the growth of new channels (mobile and pad), make it ever easi...

Mr Hewitt, a traveler, rests his horses on the way to a fair in Yorkshire. These images are from a series I recently shot with a group of travelers encountered on one of our road trips. We were made to feel very welcome and it was easy to come away with a series of interesting portraits. Jimbo. Looking after the horses. The Hewitts. Young Hewitt with his tattoos. Resting in the bow top. More can be seen on my Flickr account . Till soon... Paul www.indigo2photography.co.uk

'Tomo' BBC Middle East editor Jeremy Bowen has written an insightful article describing how war reporters deal with danger as a routine part of their job. I can relate to the things he says having been shot at while doing my job. Few things though are as scary as being chased by a blood thirsty mob that take exception to your presence. Mostly soldiers, and police are under orders not to harm journalists. But of course you never know. And as Jeremy says about his lucky escape, all it takes is to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. That's what happened to my friend Tomo. He was in the SAS so he was very much in harms way. He was extremely fit and had received the best training in the world but he got caught in an indiscriminate explosion. The irony is he had taken the place of someone else on that patrol. So much comes down to chance. Tomo was near the end of his tour of duty and making plans for holidays. He wanted to get his diving certificate. Nobody gets up in the mo...

Every year the Whit Friday Brass Band competition brings brass bands together in a wonderfully traditional event held in villages in the Saddleworth area near Manchester, UK. This year I photographed the evening competition in a small English village called Delph. The atmosphere was terrific. Enjoy. As always, comments are welcome. Cheers, Paul

A man lies collapsed in the street, attended by a policeman who put him in the recovery position and stood by him waiting for the paramedics. Click on the images to see a larger version. This week I came across the event above and took two different images. The first is a clear no frills photo journalistic image. The second image uses photographic language and aesthetics to create an emotion. A friend said of the second image, "I would not qualify it as photo-journalistic as it is too artsy (in the right way) to be published in a newspaper. But man, it does have a strong impact!" I found that interesting. Thinking of the beautifully lit images that W. Eugene Smith made. Would they be considered too artsy for a newspaper these days. Which brings me to the recent debate about the beautifully lit image of the Thai prostitute discussed in Adam Broomberg and Oliver Chanarin's hotly debated article "Unconcerned but not indifferent" , which goes behind the scenes at ...

There's a perception that photojournalists are emotionally detached, fly on the wall observers, taking their pictures, high on the adrenaline of the moment. All they care about is getting the image at any cost. OK you can't heap everyone together in the same pile and yes there are photojournalists that seem detached, that would do virtually anything to get the shot. Paradoxically they're never really good in my experience. The photographers that rise above the rest, that produce images which define our perception of a historical event, the really great photojournalists are people that care passionately about life, justice and human rights. They are not detached but they do know how to deal with their emotions in the heat of the moment so that they can continue photographing. Over riding almost everything else is the need to tell the important stories around the world. The photojournalist holds a mirror up to our collective conscious and says with his/her images - this is...

Today I was interviewed by a group of student journalists. All respect to them. They asked tough questions on difficult social issues. It is often journalists who raise awareness and help set the social and political agenda. They are in a privileged and powerful position because they can turn the spotlight on important issues. Journalists can play the role of social conscious. However all too often the media is a fickle beast, refusing to cover important stories. Unfortunately commercial pressure from advertisers who do not want to see their brand on display next to a grim picture and story dictate that magazines and papers stay away from the harsh realities that used to be covered in magazines like Life. Now the pages are more often filled with celebrities and gossip. I hope these young journalists realise the importance of what they are doing and the role that they can play in helping to shape our social conscious. What I've said here is not new but it is important. Journalists...

Young lady in the city. The above image has done rather well on a website where photographers share their images for critiques and points. Obviously I like it or I would not have uploaded the image. The thing that makes it stand out is the digital manipulation that I applied to the image. It literally took five minutes to do. The thing that bothers me though is that while I'm grateful for the recognition from other photographers I have produced far more meaningful images that have received virtually no attention. It seems that for the audience on this website the key point of interest is not the story a picture tells or the emotion it evokes but rather that a technique has been used. Any artist or creative is happy and flattered when their work gets attention but I think it is rather sad that so many images in the world by photographers who genuinely capture emotion or communicate something important are ignored by the photographic community. Their praise then rings rather hollow a...

M waiting to see the doctor. Sitting there watching the minutes tick by wondering about the diagnosis, hoping for answers. Her look says it all. Photojournalists witness all sorts of emotional and physical struggles. It's never easy but when your loved ones are affected it is very hard indeed. We all have to find our own way to deal with things. This time I reached for my camera. M didn't mind being photographed. She understands my drive to photograph life in all its facets. Shortly before I took this image she had taken a poignant picture of the waiting room with it's array of well read magazines on the glass table. We waited together for over an hour. I don't think I know of anyone who enjoys sitting in a doctor or dentist's waiting room. I hope that in a way this image captures a sense of the feeling we all share, whether we are there for something minor or a serious illness. And I hope my image tells the story and touches your emotions. I hope it gives other peo...