Fraction J - Issue 3 - February 2011
Beyond The Assignment
"Most of us got into photography because we like making photographs and there are things we feel we need to photograph. For some of us it's become our native language and, when we find things we care about, we want to be heard. As we move through our careers, we're lucky when work and making a living can overlap with our own personal interests, but that doesn't always happen. And especially for journalists, it's too often the case that we find ourselves having to tell stories for other people at the expense of what really matters to us.
For this issue of Fraction J we were looking for projects with several specific traits. The work, first had to be journalistic, at least in the sense that it was a reaction made in real time to real events and a subject's story truthfully told. But the more important distinction was that the photographer stuck with the work, not from any attempt to create something sellable for some specific market, but because it meant something to them—and where. The photography also has to be a functional element of the concerned involvement, but not the reason for it. In the end it was very difficult to draw these lines and find that balance, especially when it came to the personal documentary projects, many of which were reflecting on external situations. But in the end, the portfolios we ended up with span an appropriately broad and inspiring range of responses.
Lastly, knowing that we cannot truly do justice to these developed, long-form projects in a short-form presentation with limited context, we chose to run samples from each project. The five or ten images selected are representative and serve as an introduction in support of the broader thesis. I encourage you to follow up, visit the photographers' websites, and go deeper with any of these projects you'd like to know more about. I did. And that connection is ultimately what work like this is all about."
- Jason Houston
co-editor, Fraction J
Jason Houston is a Great Barrington, MA based artist and picture editor at Orion Magazine.
To view more of Jason's work, please visit his website.
The Photographers:
