Read the article Woman’s work: The twisted reality of an Italian freelancer in Syria by Francesca Borri in Columbia Journalism Review for a view of what it is really is working in Syria.*
Making a living as a freelance is pretty tough anywhere, but in Syria people like Francesca Borri are risking their lives and getting virtually no support from the people who use their pictures, and the same kind of inadequate payments for pictures that photographers get working on our safe streets here.
As she says
But the dirty secret is that instead of being united, we are our own worst enemies; and the reason for the $70 per piece isn’t that there isn’t any money, because there is always money for a piece on Berlusconi’s girlfriends. The true reason is that you ask for $100 and somebody else is ready to do it for $70.
In February the Press Gazette reported that The Sunday Times refused to accept work made by British freelance Rick Findler, telling him that although “it looks like you have done some exceptional work” they “have a policy of not taking copy from Syria as we believe the dangers of operating there are too great“. And it soon became clear that other leading UK papers, including The Times, Guardian, Observer and Independent had similar policies.
Canadian broadcaster CBC’s ‘the Current’ set up a radio discussion on the subject with an interview with Findler and a panel discussion with freelance photographer Bruno Stevens, academic Romayne Smith Fullerton & former head of Al Jazeera English and CBC News Tony Burman, which has some interesting points. My own feeling is that papers should cover dangerous situations so far as possible by giving proper support and commissioning work, and in areas such as Syria should make greater use of local photographers, who will often be facing similar risks even if not taking pictures.
The paragraph from Borri I quoted above continues as follows:
It’s the fiercest competition. Like Beatriz, who today pointed me in the wrong direction so she would be the only one to cover the demonstration, and I found myself amid the snipers as a result of her deception. Just to cover a demonstration, like hundreds of others.
Even in safe London, those of us working on the streets often need to know they can rely on the help of others, and there is a great deal of support when covering some events, along with sharing of information. For example on Tuesday I met a photographer I’d bumped into a few times before covering an event, and told him that I was leaving in a few minutes to go to another demonstration – and he shared with me news of a meeting later in the day. We walked together the short distance to the second event. Later another photographer I knew came along – and I told him about the first event. Except for information we’ve been given in confidence, I think most of us share what we know at least most of the time.
A week or so earlier, I was standing with a photographer watching a protest when a third photographer arrived, and the guy I was standing with said to me “We’ve got competition.” At first I didn’t understand him, I don’t really think of other photographers as competition. I’ve thought of them as colleagues. If my work is any good it’s because I’ve managed to express my own personal view which will be different to that of other photographers, so it doesn’t matter if they are there or not. So long as they don’t keep getting in my way.
* you can also read another article (no pictures) Borri wrote about Allepo.