What citizen photographs mean to professional photojournalism

Regarding the threat that citizen photos pose to professional photojournalism, Jenatsch said that while it is true that there are more and more citizen photographs, there is also a downside of it: the loss of distance. A professional photographer is, in contrast to a citizen photographer, able to detach emotionally from the story and to compromise the whole story of an event into an image. Grolimund added that citizen photographers do not possess the technical possibilities to meet the media's quality standards. He went on saying that citizen photographs are mostly used as first snapshots until professional photographers arrive at the scene, like in the tsunami catastrophe. Furthermore, citizen photographers do not have access to many political, cultural or sport events, where only accredited photographers are able to take pictures. He also noted that citizen photographers, in contrast to professional photo agencies, are not able to guarantee the authenticity of photos. Jenatsch also stated that with the increasing number of photo providers the role of the photo agency becomes ever more important, because it can canalize the flood of images and filter the important ones.

Asked about how the crisis in print media affects the photo agency, Grolimund stated that there was some decline in demand, but not in the area of news photography. In the moment, there seems to be a trend of regionalization. Jenatsch said that the agency has therefore to offer more regional pictures, concentrating on its strength which lies in photos from Switzerland.

Source: Persoenlich.com (in German)