In a digital world, the oyster is no longer a delicacy

A visual journalist will be far more knowledgeable about photography as an art form, than any of his predecessors

It’s a strange feeling when you bump into long-lost friends while on assignment and they ask you what you do for a living. My stock reply is that I’m a photographer working at a newspaper. The word ‘photographer’ in itself has morphed over the past decade into the ever-so-slightly presumptuous ‘photojournalist’. Now, as we approach the end of the first decade of the third millennium, the latter term is changing.

The tweens will be dominated by the ‘visual journalist’ or the ‘visual reporter’, and these sound a tad more apt with imagery taking the Indian newspaper industry in its stranglehold.

A visual journalist will be far more knowledgeable about photography as an art form, than any of his predecessors. He will be equipped with tools that will enable to carry out his duties with speed, accuracy a digital élan; he will move beyond the static and into a dynamic world where images break into molecules, each telling a story.

Digital technology has levelled the professional photography playing field. Photographers are no longer bound by newsroom hierarchies. The internet and sites like Flickr and Facebook means that they can get their pictures to the public without battling a interpersonal minefield.

The future photography department will have professionals in specific areas in the field, like sports, conceptual, entertainment, and portraiture, to name a few. While the numbers of photographers increase exponentially with advancements in technology, the rush to fill slots in newspapers will become a crush. And for photo editors, the so-called gatekeepers of a newspaper’s visual element, the job will take on an intensity heretofore only bragged about.

As with any field, a quantitative rise does not necessarily translate into a qualitative one. Photo editors will have to sift through the imagery looking out for those diamonds in the rough, and believe me the rough will be overwhelming, but the gems will shine so much brighter for it.

Journalism, however, will remain at the roots of photography, but the imagery will be broken down into pixels. The primary colours will serve to highlight the graphic lure of each composition, just as writers use each letter to manifest a phrase that conjures thought.

The visual journalist of the future will also be equipped with additional knowledge of the computerised pagination processes, web design, and digital workflow systems thus ensuring that the newsy, stylistic and aesthetic perspective will have never looked better.