Isms: Views on Life in Rural America

For the past month, I’ve been sorting through photographs taken by our staff. I had an idea for a newspaper Page, but it simply didn’t come together. I’ll save the idea - along with the photographs - for another time.

What was I looking for? The truth, which can be seen in all snapshots.

Photographer Lisette Model was a 1940s street photographer, best known for work defining human character. She was a pro at using reflection and levels to show and contrast a parallel universe at street level. She proclaimed “...because of all photographic images, (the snapshot) comes closest to the truth ... the snapshooter’s pictures have an apparent disorder and imperfection which is exactly their appeal and their style.”

Our photographers are great at capturing the truth, a split second of time capturing raw emotions. They’re good at showing the imperfections, because life (and photographs) aren’t always picture perfect.

Sometimes, we’ll shoot more than a thousand photos of an event and narrow our scope to a few hundred. Those get uploaded into an album on our Zenfolio site and, from there, I sift through each image, trying to find a picture that speaks to me, that shows the story behind the photo, explains in a single frown or smile all the intricate layers of emotion and backstory and hard work that make the moment click.

Sometimes, the best option is an action shot. I can think of three picture-perfect examples in this edition alone. The premise is the same. There’s a story behind the photo, a single moment of action, intricate layers of emotion and backstory.

Several years ago, an award-winning photographer from the “Cleveland Plain-Dealer” critiqued a few of my photographs in a national contest. While he praised the composition of my entries, he didn’t like that I’d cropped in to focus on the epicenter of action. “We should see the entire picture,” he wrote on my second-place judging sheet.

Should we? I asked a photographer friend with more than 30 years of newspaper photojournalism experience for his opinion. His response, “Every picture tells a story. There’s always subtle action.” I get it.

Staged photos tell an editorialized story. Tilt your head this way. Lift your chin. Smile and say cheese. They’re scripted moments, not real life. It’s like adding a filter in Photoshop or Lightroom when natural light produces the best balance and contrast. It’s aesthetics.

Sometimes, some of the best snapshots look awkward. I have a great photo one of our camera men or women took from the rodeo that tells a great story about bulldogging. The problem: From the eyebrows up, the cowboy’s head isn’t in frame. The rest of the photo: perfection. His facial expression shows pure determination. Dirt flying high from his heels. The steer fighting the take down. It’s a real, heartpounding moment, even if part of his head is cut off.

I want to send a shout-out to our photographers who, except for photo credit, don’t always get recognized for their work. Thank you to Jody, Amy, Courtney, Mike, Don, Elizabeth, Melissa and Amy for making my job of selecting just one photo for an event a tough decision. Job well done.