Chris Johns emailed me today that he would try to get on and answer your questions today or tomorrow…Chris is a very busy man, so I thank him in advance….

Sidney Atkins
January 6, 2012 at 12:50 pm Edit

This is a wonderful opportunity and many thanks to David and Chris Johns for this… anything they will tell emerging photographers about the story-building and picture editing process at Nat Geo will be valuable and helpful information.

My understanding is that Chris Johns grew up in Roseburg in the Rogue River Valley of Southern Oregon, an area that I have some familiarity with. I lived in Eugene in the early 70s and have passed through Roseburg many times since. The transition from there to Editor-in-Chief at NatGeo must have been an interesting road, filled with epiphanies about the larger world and the business and politics of communications.

The questions I would most like to ask Chris Johns about are not directly related to photography, please forgive me, but rather ones he might prefer not to talk about publicly in this forum, about the overall direction and balance of the magazine, and the political struggles over those things for the last 30 years or so… my impression is that the magazine was a bit more gritty and activist under the stewardships of first Bill Garrett and then later Bill Allen, both of whom were forced out by the board of directors. There seems to have often been a tension between hard-hitting social and environmental stories and more conservative backers (and possibly audience as well?). We have entered an era in which large segments of the political and industrial establishment have a vested interest in quashing science-based environmental policies and denying the mounting evidence of environmental deterioration across the planet. Some of these people are major advertisers in Nat Geo. So what I am really curious about is how as editor he balances the pressures that I know must be on him to “go easy” on certain topics, or avoid certain topics, or create a certain mix for the magazine that must try to maintain a mainstream agenda but must also be accurate, relevant, and aware.

While in general I am a big fan of Nat Geo, there is one thing in particular that has bothered me for decades. Many of the major advertisers are car companies, and their ads often show their cars displayed prominently in “adventurous” locations and situations… fragile environments where no responsible person would take a motor vehicle. Other ads by big energy or chemical companies are clearly “greenwash,” PR attempts to sanitize their impact on ecosystems. If one looks at the environmental stories in NG, and then looks at the ads, there is a very mixed message being sent out.

Over the last 20 years or so, the strictly “geographic” focus of the magazine, its original mission, has broadened to include many other kinds of stories, some with little geographic content or focus. Many of the science, technology, medicine, and health stories are great… but in a country where there has always been a serious deficit of knowledge about geography among the public, I really regret that one of the very few significant outlets for that kind of information has scaled back its coverage.

Sorry for the rant, but I am a former geography teacher! Many thanks again for the interview!

“Emotion or feeling is really the only thing about pictures I find interesting. Beyond that it is just a trick.”
Chistopher ANDERSON

The photographer is filled with doubt. Nothing will soothe him.”
Raymond DEPARDON

Enjoy the rest of the Sunday
P.

i am ready to work with you to this end..we just need that skype call to get things rolling..perhaps while i am in new york starting late next week to work with rio on the wall would be a good time..stay on my case….

good question for Chris…he may come on this weekend to answer…i too completely messed up my fast edit for my pictures shot on 9/11….thinking originally that only the work at immediate ground zero was important , i left out a lot of really interesting things happening a few blocks away..

Check out the story of Thomas Hoepker’s 911 B-roll slides in “Magnum Contact Sheets”; his self-editing was a huge mistake, luckily rectified over time.

Mike.

I went on to do that one NG shoot only, and to create some pretty good photojournalistic publications in Alaska covering vast, very sparsely populated regions with tiny distribution numbers (3000) but very popular among my readers. Now I turn to you for inspiration, and to see if I can find a way, not back to NG or any other publication, but to bring my work to a larger audience under my own terms, and to survive, too.

Mr. Johns:

David often asks that emerging photographers submitting essays here at BURN send him a soft edit, so that he may recommend a different approach to image selection and storyline. I noticed his edit for your Magazine’s Rio story was fairly tight, given what we saw being produced during his last trio to Brazil. I don’t know if Sarah Leen was involved at that stage, or if it was edited just by David, but it left out all of his signature “tilt” shots.

David has said that NGM is rare air, and we get the drift that you are challenging the norms of photography all the time at the magazine. My question is whether the Magazine’s editors want a soft or hard edit from the field; does it make a difference if the photographer is staff or freelance; does it change for the photographer who works with other writers, or who writes the story as well?

It’s not that I have any issue with David holding back images for a future book, or images that have no editorial connection to the Magazine’s Rio essay. David has admitted that your readers and his book buyers are two different audiences. Back in the days of film the NGM photographer would have mailed in rolls for in-house processing, I think. Today electronic transfer allows for the first-stage cut on location and as well, self-censorship of content and technique. I wonder if this sort of holding back is today within the norm of the editing process, or if it handicaps your role in pushing the trends and boundaries of photojournalism.

Gilka’s quote at 3:30-ish.

are you totally forgetting my first letter from NatGeo after i did a test shoot at age 23? now, pretty famous rejection letter

“DEAR DAVID…YOU ARE YOUNG AND STRONG, FOR WHAT I HAVE TO TELL YOU WILL MAKE YOU FEEL SICK AND OLD” signed Robert E. Gilka, Director of Photography

Thank you.. as David writes here, down to the end: ‘Authors of your own destiny.’

http://www.burnmagazine.org/about/

I did not have much money, but I took what I had, bought a plane ticket, put the remainder in my wallet and pocket and flew from Phoenix to DC in the morning, with the return reservation in the evening. When I got to DC, I climbed into a cab, gave the driver all the bills from my wallet and the coins from my pocket and told him to get me as close to National Geographic as that money would allow. He dropped me off four blocks away.

I had no more money for a pay phone, so I walked to the NG building and asked the receptionist to call Mr. Jordon, let him know I was in town and see what time he could see me. Instead, she told him I was here right now, ready to see him. He told her to send me up.

The instant I walked through his door, he started to scold me harshly. Did I not know he was busy? You can’t just barge in on my like this! I told you to call first. Then, I accidently knocked a coffee can full of pencils that were red on one end and blue on the other off his desk. So I had to pick those up off the floor. After that, he calmed down and we talked. I had his attention now, so I told him what I wanted to do. He told me to go home and write a one-page query letter and if he liked it, he would present it to the larger group of decision makers for consideration – for the written part only.

He stated that National Geographic photographers were the best in the world and he doubted I could make the grade. I knew better, but you must go from where you are at. Pennyless, I worked my way back to the airport, returned home and wrote the query letter. It survived the first hurdles and I was given a modest advance to write a story. That story was accepted.

National Geographic still did not want to believe that I could do the photography, so they sent David Hiser. He came to my house, sat down and looked through my collection of Fort Apache Scouts – the tribal paper. He then called Robert Gilka and told him that he should not be there and that I could shoot my story myself.

That’s how it happened. I got my spread. Both good and bad followed.