Free NPPA Workshop For "Navigating The Downturn"
DURHAM, NC (April 29, 2009) – The National Press Photographers Association will host a free workshop, "Navigating The Downturn: A Photography Survival Discussion," on Saturday, May 9, 2009, in Seattle, WA.
This event is the first in a national initiative to help NPPA members who are feeling the impact of the economy to host similar workshops in their regions based on a planned program template, of which the Seattle program is the first.
The idea to find a way to respond to the situation photojournalists are facing in the current economic downturn by organizing grass-roots, community-based regional programs such as this came from NPPA's vice president Sean D. Elliot, the organization's long-time former national secretary who is a staff photographer at The Day in New London, CT.
"A photojournalist who is out of work feels pretty alone," Elliot said. "Without the camaraderie of the newsroom we are prone to feeling disconnected. The Internet, a message board, a Webinar, an eMail list, can only help so much. Getting together, 10 or 15 or 30 of us at a time, to hear some advice on building a business plan and to ask questions and to complain and moan if necessary, is a lot more helpful to the individual. The idea is to help build local, grassroots connections."
Based on Elliot's idea, the Seattle event has been organized by NPPA past president Tony Overman, It is panel discussion that includes veteran industry leaders will take place from 6 to 9:30 p.m. Pacific Time in the community room of the 2200 Westlake Complex on South Lake Union.
"With the near-collapse of the newspaper industry there is a glut of former newspaper photographers determined to keep doing what they do best," Overman said, "but they don't have the training and knowledge of business ownership, proper pricing, negotiating, handling contracts and taxes, and determining the true cost of doing business. An influx of ill-prepared photographers into the freelance market is in no one's best interest."
NPPA executive director Jim Straight says a request has been sent out to NPPA volunteers to organize similar programs in their own regions. NPPA president Bob Carey is endorsing the idea and planning additional events to follow.
Seattle, of course, has been a city in the journalism world's headlines of late since Hearst closed down the 146-year-old Seattle Post-Intelligencer on March 17 and put approximately 170 journalists out on the streets. For that reason, plus the close proximity of NPPA past president Overman in Olympia, WA, Seattle was picked as the first city for one of NPPA's new response efforts.
For the initial program coming up in Seattle the panel includes Craig Mitchelldyer, an editorial, portrait, and wedding photographer based in Portland, OR, who is a former newspaper staff photographer; Rod Mar, team photographer for the Seattle Seahawka dn Seattle Sounders, a former Seattle Times staff photographer to took a buy-out from the paper; Karl Maasdam, a portrait and wedding photographer who left his job as the chief photographer for the Corvallis Gazette-Times in 2004 to start his own business; and Rich Frishman, an editorial and annual report photographer from Seattle. Overman will moderate the panel.
"Over the next few months, NPPA will be rolling out programs, information, and services aimed at addressing the economic downturn facing our industry," Carey said today.
"One of the programs the NPPA is implementing is a grassroots program for photojournalists affected by the current downturn in the newspaper industry as well as the recession in the world economy; those who have been downsized, laid-off, or bought-out. NPPA's regional 'Navigating The Downturn' programs will feature a series of locally organized small-group forums that are focused on giving photographers some of the tools necessary to move forward as independent photographers," Carey told NPPA's board members this week.
For more information about the Seattle program contact Tony Overman at tonyoly@aol.com.
To reach NPPA president Bob Carey, or to volunteer to organize and lead a similar program in your area, write to president@nppa.org. To reach vice president Sean D. Elliot write to vicepresident@nppa.org.
Visual editor Charles Apple has written an excellent blog post about what to do if you've lost your job. It's online here.
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