© Michael Heller
PHOTOJOURNALISM: A PERSONAL PERSPECTIVE
In the 1940s, the U.S. Government had Navajo Indians mining for uranium in the mountains of Arizona and Utah. The government knew, but did not tell the miners, that the uranium dust in the mines was lethal. It took until 1993 for the government to admit this shameful fact. By then, most of the Indian miners, entire communities, had died of lung cancer. That was one of many stories I worked on during sixteen years stringing in the Southwest for the New York Times.
In that period I was also the Photography Editor for the Santa Fe New Mexican. That made working for the Times a bit easier. If you're not working for a paper it's hard to get in the "loop." The image of the photographer with the view camera was made at the church in Ranchos de Taos. The church is a famous one of Ansel Adams' images. He is still one of my favorite photographers. I tend to lean towards the traditional side of photojournalism, but I work in Photoshop on a daily basis.
I've been lucky enough to collect some awards. Luck is often a part of great images. I don't know if I have any gereat images but I have some lucky ones. In a daily paper, especially a small town daily shooting all-around assignments exposes you to a lot of situations at the decisive time. Some assignments genuinely make a difference in people's lives and others are dog-meat. You just never know, but arriving at the decisive time helps you be alert when the decisive moment presents itself. And there is your picture.
This Website is an attempt to share some of the images I have made and the things I have learned with aspiring photographers.
I hope you find it interesting.
