Internships in Photography

Whatever one’s chosen educational path, in the end photographers and visual storytellers have to be able to show they can produce work of sufficient quality to attract the attention of editors and hiring managers. That often comes down to a portfolio or video “reel” of one’s best work. Students often put this together in school. However it happens, this is the key element those who hire want to see.

Often editors are looking for the most talented potential intern they can find. On some occasions, that does not mean it will be the most polished photographer.

Besides class assignments and self-assigned projects, the entry-level photographer or video documentarian sometimes gets a chance to prove him or herself through internships or assistantships with professionals. Work with individual photographers or filmmakers is often like the age old apprenticeship experience where one turns oneself over to a master and learns by first watching, then doing. Magazine interns often work in the office and soon learn the culture of the modern magazine world. Initial work doing low-level tasks can evolve over time to taking on greater responsibility throughout the internship and eventually becoming an integral part of the publication’s workflow.

Students who want to shoot pictures or video and who want to see their work in front of an audience will seek internships where these opportunities exist. Newspapers often give student interns the same assignment and deadline responsibilities as staff photographers.

Though he now shoots for Sports Illustrated and Major League Baseball, Mangin started in newspapers and still believes that gives new photographers great training. “It has always been my opinion that magazine editors who hire freelancers to shoot sports want to hire journalists who know how to tell stories with their photographs. This is why I always stress to get a start in newspapers where you can learn to become a complete journalist and prepare yourself for more opportunities in your future.”

Videographers at small televisions stations might learn the ropes in the newsroom or by editing. Before the end of the internship they can be shooting stories for broadcast if their skills are in place.

While it takes a basic portfolio or reel to get hired, the aim is to add significant new material to the portfolio over the course of the internship.

What are the steps to an internship?

To get an internship photographers often find it helps to mount a campaign. For students, this is like taking on one extra self-designed course called, “Getting my first (or next) internship.”

This means assembling a portfolio of excellent work and figuring out where you would like to intern, or where it would be most appropriate for you to intern based on your experience. In addition applicants will need a resume and a cover letter that introduces them and makes their case to be selected as an intern.

Among the beginner errors are misspelling the name of the hiring editor. Worse yet is to get their gender wrong.

If a candidate is fortunate to get an interview with the boss, “Dress correctly for the interview”. “No jeans, T-shirts, gum or bottled water. Wear a nice clean shirt or blouse and slacks.”

How can I maximize the job interview opportunity?

Job candidates know they will be asked questions during an interview. Think about what you will be asked—and what you want to ask—during the interview.

In the first instance, candidates should be able to speak about why they want to intern for this particular organization. Also, what can the intern candidate bring to this organization as an aspiring journalist or storyteller?

Having questions for the organization’s interviewer is also smart. What is the daily routine of the job? Is it office bound or can interns get into the field? Is the work of interns published in print, on the Web or broadcast on the air? What were the duties of the previous intern?

How important is video and multimedia

This is the third in a series of articles to assist you in making a career out of photojournalism.  Here are links to article one and article two if you missed them.  Wherever one gets it, entry-level photographers can no longer just think of themselves as “just” still photographers. Still photographs are part of the content package that includes slide shows with music, recorded audio of the story’s subjects, narrated audio, and eventually, video story telling. Once can begin with still and audio slide shows while in school. This will help carry a photographer into the video world.

How can yo display your work?

This is the key element that allows the visual storyteller—whether still photographer, multimedia storyteller, documentary video filmmaker—to show at what level they are capable of working.

Still photographers should start building a collection of solid stand-alone single pictures. They should be technically proficient, display excellent color correction skills on the part of the photographer and have complete caption information. Eventually these photographers will want to move beyond single pictures and take on longer stories and projects as their skills advance.

Documentary video filmmakers should begin with short storytelling projects, perhaps in the 5-10 minute range. After honing their skills with projects of this length, they should expand their storytelling over time to projects in the 20-30 minute range. Here solid skills of shooting, gathering audio and editing must be shown. For a portfolio on a DVD, students should have a 1-2 minute “trailer” for any longer project. Editors will look at a summary such as this, which may get them interested in the longer piece. They probably will not commit themselves to a 20-minute film unless they already know your work or you have won an award of some significance.

Multimedia storytellers can start with simple slide shows of still pictures set to music. As one’s skills grow, learning to gather audio in the field is a necessity.  This insures the audience can hear the voices of the subjects in the story. It also opens the door to more sophisticated and complex story telling on the part of the photographer.  In our next article we will talk about internships.  (Info courtesy of NPPA)

Formal Education for photographic careers

The debate about whether or not a photographer needs a formal education goes back as far as the invention of photography. The best suggestion is for students to look at all the options and then choose the path that works for them.

• Self-taught: Throughout the history of art, students have learned their craft by taking on a strict regimen of work by themselves. They become artists or photographers by doing art and photography. For some, this is an effective method. The key is probably the term “strict regimen of work.” The combination of technique plus artistic vision has to come from somewhere.

  Professional sports photographer Brad Mangin notes, “Hard work and paying your dues is still a good way to separate yourself from the pack and get on everyone’s radar as a good person to hire for a given job or freelance assignment.” Says Mangin, “Being the son of an old-school basketball coach I was brought up with a philosophy that hard work and respect for the veterans were traits that would be rewarded in my future.”

  With the Internet, on-line courses, software manuals and a vast array of professional workshops, being self taught may be more accessible that ever before. For those who learn best on their own, this might be the most effective method.

• College training in photojournalism: Many state universities and art institutes offer formal college degrees with photojournalism majors. The advantage here is a set of progressively challenging courses over time; instructors who act as coaches and mentors to take students to the next level; and an array of like-minded students who share a vision in which students can compare work and ideas. For students who like a focused, structured environment, a two to four year immersion in a formal program might be the best solution.
• College training in other subjects: There is a thread in journalism that suggests one need not train in journalism or photojournalism per se. Using college to learn about the world through the study of other subjects is the recommended path. These voices insist photography and journalism can be learned later. In the beginning, they say study government, politics, international relations, sociology, anthropology, psychology, economics, English, foreign languages or any number of other subjects that will prepare one to work out in the world. The theory here is, if you can think and if you can write, you can probably find work if you’re good.

Whatever the approach, the key will be to assemble the necessary skills to be an effective storyteller with the kind of camera or current digital tools one aspires to use to tell the stories one wants to tell. (Reprint from NPPA)