Ed Kashi Photographer

One hears this a lot; “photojournalism is changing and even dying.”

A few catalysts for this might be camera phones and “citizen journalists,” video and audio technology, and the worldwide web. More information is being presented to us in more ways, more often then ever before. How does one generate stories that can stick – stop the user — amidst this monstrous flow of data, words, images and sound?

Oftentimes, bloggers ask the Ed Kashi blog about how to get exposure and how to get funding. With so much free content being aired, where is the revenue stream?

In 1995, Ed and filmmaker and wife, Julie Winokur, embarked on a personal, passion project that would eventually take them all over America, over a span of 8 years, documenting the lives of seniors. What began as a leap of faith blossomed into a career game-changer.  The work produced in Aging achieved funding through magazine publications worldwide, grants and contests, was shown in galleries and museums, and most importantly, attracted other unexpected opportunities that continue to fulfill the original mission of increasing the visibility around aging issues.

The most recent example of this, nearly a decade after the completion of Aging in America, came this year when Ed accepted his first major corporate job as a Media Spokesperson for a new treatment for the rare blood cancer myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS). Ed was hired to showcase the victims of MDS while they are on the new treatment to promote awareness for others about how to manage and be proactive with this condition. You can read more about his role, as spokesperson and photographer and about MDS in The Bankok Post.

It used be that as pedestrians with cell phones and other devices one looked for “hot spots.” The latest trends indicate that instead we will be seeking out dead zones, places where our signals are intentionally repressed, so that we can stop the mania and…

…focus.

So when bloggers ask us here how to get exposure and how to get funding the answer is still just that; focus on the story you want to tell and the rest will fall into place.