Cowboys and Photojournalists

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martin s

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I hope it wasn't posted before, it's not exactly new either

http://lens.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/08/25/essay-7/

Great essay, more on Kenneth Jarecke's website (79 pictures). Particularly great the comment he pointed out on his blog

Ken (full disclosure– a colleague at Contact) gets it totally right. So lets check for commonality between cowboys and photojournalists: work for damn near nothing; severely under appreciated by the bulk of the population; in a simple ten minute stroll sees hundreds of things which everyone else misses; can figure out sunset times by looking at the length of a shadow; ...
Click to expand...
the rest here

martin
 
A very interesting and very good covered topic. I really like those state fairs (although never have been to the states yet🙁 ). Recently there was a documentary film about the guys who travel from rodeo to rodeo to make some very little money to bring through their families and get a bit extra besides the farm "profits".

Above all this is a fine example of how color can be used and still look good, not distracting from the topic.
 
Florian1234 said:
A very interesting and very good covered topic. I really like those state fairs (although never have been to the states yet🙁 ). Recently there was a documentary film about the guys who travel from rodeo to rodeo to make some very little money to bring through their families and get a bit extra besides the farm "profits".

Above all this is a fine example of how color can be used and still look good, not distracting from the topic.
Click to expand...

I absolutely agree. The color works so well in this essay, one of those moments where I reconsider my film choice. I used to live in San Diego when I was younger, we visited plenty of Rodeos, and I always loved them except for the cruelty involved in some parts of it.

martin
 
If the base of the comparison is the fact that they are both underpaid, overworked, potentially dangerous, and that the profession peaked awhile ago then you can make the same comparison to many different jobs.

It gets a bit old hearing almost every profession/person get compared to being a "cowboy". I know that cowboys are one of those romantic American images that people want to connect with (when my grandfather came over from Germany in the 30's he thought that he would be walking into the wild west 🙂), but unless you care for, move, and process cattle for a living (ideally performing most of it on top of a horse) you are not a cowboy. I make a living off of cattle, work with them every day, and have even been chased by a bull or two, and don't compare myself to cowboys 🙄
 
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but the author picked "cowboys" for the point of reference. indeed he could have said "commercial great lakes fishermen" or "canadian pacific track crews" but he picked cowboys with a point in mind. it might even have something to do with that "romantic american image".

the last few lines pretty much sums it up for me and i find the comparison very astute.
 
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