Why be a photojournalist

Reflecting on the reasons I became a photographer. I saw the picture working better than the word to get the story out. Avoiding having the reader create the image in their mind. (Something the reporters saw as supperior to the photo)

I wanted to call attentionand motivate readers to solve problems, appreciate successes and good times. I liked the challenge of getting a weather picture quickly and make the deadline.

It occurs how different I was as a photographer:

Paul Moseley wa a great photographer, but he liked simply being at important events. Always taking a selfy on the sidelines, or the photo shooting down of him and his wife on vacation standing at four corners,

David Burnet is having exhibits showing photos of famous people he photographed.

Eric Meola had a unique way to expose images with bold colors and graphic design. Making his photos of tornadoes stand out over all the snapshots published on Facebook.

I saw working for a newspaper as getting the news out, but the problem was that you never had time to really get deeply into the story. I felt to grow as a photojournalist I needed to have a "pet" project to work on in my spare time. So with lots of free time in San Francisco I started covering the native americans in the city. Contrast old culture with new culture.

In Philly I tried showing mass transportation versus the automobile and then started covering the local residents in South Philly protesting the Federal governments public housing. This protest had been going on for sixty years blocking a high rise apartment building. In that time the government realized it was a a bad idea but didn't want to give up. They had requisitioned the property and won court cases. Finally building separate townhouses for helping families get back on their feet.

My cases always need words to tell the whole story.

Working on the Postal Project it again is local to do along with other things. Started out thinking of only doing the Fort Worth Post Office, but it was actually the exception with under the table funding to make it stand out. Corruption? Not something to show off.

So I started searching out all the old post offices. Email versus postal, snail mail. Show how the government run postal system is important. Show how government tried to put on a good face in the community by building rugged (no wood) buildings to insure the mail got to the recipient. As times change these monuments have become "historic landmarks."

Some have historic works of art, murals, some are banks, some are visitor centers, libraries, restaurants or might have been taken over as Federal court houses as the Post Office Department evolved into the United States Postal Service (USPS). No longer in the center of down the new postoffices were in the industrial parks, handling mail via truck and airlines, smaller cookie cutter postoffices spread out around the city.

Is documenting the old main pre internet post office of any interest?