Tuesday 25 March 2008

I’m doing a photo project about healthcare workers for a UK magazine called Bad Idea and I’m looking to follow it up with further stories about the UK healthcare community.

I ring the communications officer of a brain injury charity who I’ve had some contact with. He tells me that the only projects that he would be interested in would be those that would get the charity national media coverage to his target audience.

I can see his point – that’s the economics of running a small media office for a national charity. It’s good to be immediately asked ‘What’s your target publication?’ ‘Who have you contacted so far?’ It’s a good way to identify what a weak or a strong project is. However, it does mean your juggling external interests right from the inception of a project - It needs to be sufficiently justifiable to both the news outlet and the charity on their differing criteria.

The problem is that the photo story is pretty much extinct in this kind of national context.

If I’m going to do a self-initiated project then it’s got to stay true to my trusty question : ‘How can I see this subject in a unique way?’ – ‘Why does this project belong to me?’ Keep to this and the strength of the pitch should see it’s way through any obstacles.

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