Artist Lecture: P. Kevin Morley

This was one of my favorite lectures of the semester. P. Kevin Morly is a photojournalist for the Richmond Times Dispatch. When I first became interested in being a photographer, being a photojournalist was my dream job. It still is, I am just more realistic about the chances of it actually being possible. Newspapers are dying, so are the jobs in the industry, which is unfortunate because I am personally someone who needs to know they have a steady paycheck. I think that a lot of "fine art" photographers look at photojournalism in a negative light, which by no means does it deserve. They are conceptualizing in an instant -- on a deadline. Just as Morley said in his lecture, "The art aspect doesn't get lost" in journalism. If anything, the differences are fewer than most think.

Morley got into photojournalism for many reasons, one being he enjoyed the combination of art, science and "winging it." He also spoke mainly about his job at the Times Dispatch but showed us hundreds of images of his own work, with many anecdotes associated with the photos. He spoke about how a photojournalist is expected to work on time and for it to be good. When shooting, he says "I don't care as much about the event as I do the reaction to the event."

I am sure 99% of my teachers and classmates would agree but I think a majority of people are moved more by photojournalism than they are conceptual art. Journalism reaches more people, its a story in a photograph that doesn't require a wealth of knowledge and speaks about events, trauma's that effect us all. For instance, Morley took a photograph of a child pointing to his father, a military soldier's casket. The photograph influenced a motorcyclist in another state so much he organized an benefit event.

Morely's craft is risky. In many of his images, he says he has to be sensitive to the fact that "[the people in the images] are bearing their souls" and that "a photojournalists dream is to be invisible."

I was interested in asking how he communicates with the writer, in a sense, his partner, about stories. His answer was what I sort of figured. It really depends on the story how the photographer and the writer work. Sometimes they work separately, sometimes the articles already written and then other times, they are working on the story at the same time. In my journalistic experience, I sometimes find it hard to communicate exactly what the writers want with images. But in the end, Morley says he uses his best judgement, in the end, you're the photographer!