Visual Editors

The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill SND chapter hosted a portfolio review this past week, and we were fortunate to have dozens of representatives from a wide range of prestigious publications both local (The News & Observer, the Greensboro News & Record…) and national (National Geographic, USAToday…)

It meant a lot to the students who attended, as they could get their work evaluated by knowledgeable professionals other than their professors. So I just wanted to throw a huge thank you out to anyone who has ever spoken to a class or answered a student’s question or taken time out of their day to share knowledge with a beginner in the field. Each moment spent is completely worth it, and very much appreciated.

I checked out CNN.com and ran across two different “duped readers in uproar” stories (two too many, in my opinion.)

One was from a (non-presidential) political campaign where the candidate’s head was superimposed on a slimmer body in mailing propaganda.

The other was the recent cover of Golfweek magazine, which cost the editor his job.

There are no rules against photoshopping in politics apparently, but interestingly, the Golfweek cover was an image of a noose to echo remarks made earlier in the month by a Golf Channel anchor in reference to Tiger Woods. Woods had since issued a statement dismissing the remarks and the Golf Channel anchor had apologized for her “poor choice of words.”

It seems any editor of a golf magazine would be greatly amiss to not at least mention this in the next issue, and it is quite possibly cover-worthy. But the use of a noose angered and upset hundreds of readers. In the end, the only person who has lost a job (so far) is the Golfweek editor.

To me, this says a lot about the high value on the printed word, the impact of visuals and the incredible importance of readership. Are there some images that are just off limits? Does printing something mean more than saying it? If anything’s for certain, at the very least it seems readers are destined to speak up when they know the answer.

We’re all in this business, but probably only half of us planned it that way.

I’ve talked with professionals who have been in the field awhile about how they got into the design side of things and most were writers/copy editors or artists first. You kind of had to be - there wasn’t much of a design side to journalism.

But each year more and more students at the university level are pursuing visual journalism not after having written for their community newspaper or sketched their hand in art class, but after having scripted their own websites and computer games when they were still in elementary school. (Case in point: I recently met a student who was a computer science major but switched to journalism. Still can’t figure out why…) They probably knew what a keyboard was before a newspaper.

Thinking about these different mindsets (fine arts vs. computer engineering, if you will), I wonder how this will change the future of visual journalism. We’d like to think that we’re impartial, but the perspective of the performer inherently influences presentation. Perhaps a generation of natural-born programmers is going to take visual journalism to a radically new level? It should be interesting to find out.

I heard this great story once that’s particularly suited to share this time of year. I promise it has a point…

A mother was prepping a turkey for Thanksgiving. This year her daughter wanted to learn how it was done and was watching carefully. As the mother chopped off one side of the turkey before placing it in the pan, the daughter asked, “Why did you do that?”

“Well, I don’t know,” the mother said. “That’s just how my mother did it.”

But that got her to thinking - why DID her mother cut off one side of the turkey? Her mother was sitting in the next room, and she called her over.

“Mom,” she said, “Why did you always chop off one side of the turkey before baking it?”

Granny was quiet for a moment. “Well, I don’t know” she said. “That’s how MY mother did it.”

So they called up great-granny on the phone (poor old woman was in a nursing home or something), and after yelling it a couple of times so she could hear, she heard, “Why did you always chop off one side of the turkey?”

Granny laughed, saying, “We-ell, we didn’t have nothing in those days, not even a pot big enough to put the bird in, so I’d always just chop off a side to make it fit! Say, who’s picking me up for dinner?”

Moral of the story: always ask questions. Even visual journalists - quite possibly one of the most inquisitive and curious groups of people around - can get stuck doing things and presenting information the way they’ve always been done. It’s hard to avoid this 100% of the time, but asking questions is surely a preventative remedy.

(And have a great Thanksgiving!)

I was showing my portfolio to a graphics professional during an interview last year, and he asked me why I had chosen a black binder in which to present my work. I blubbered something about how it was easily portable and could show the work well. It was true, but secretly I was wondering if I had gotten the wrong memo.

Thing is, we never really talk about what should be in a portfolio, or even how to present it. We’re just supposed to put our best work in it - whatever “it” may be.

One step in the right direction came at the SND Boston conference, in which Sarah Eisenman and Terence Oliver held a workshop on making a rocking awesome portfolio. (You can check out their pdf on the SND Boston To Go page.)

Soo…maybe we can add to that dialogue. Seen some bad portfolios? Have an ingenious idea to present portfolio-worthy work? Post your stories and ideas, if you’ve got them.