The site Raw Take published an interview with Sydney Morning Herald sports photojournalist Tim Clayton today. Clayton excels at his craft, and is known as one of the best. This interview is so good, so healthy. He says a lot of important things that everyone should hear (photographers, editors, reporters, readers, etc.)

Some of my favorite quotes:

We are like most newspapers, run by word people for word people. Generally they want pictures for ten-year-olds and have little or no understanding of photojournalism at the top level. The paper has no space for story telling through photo essays.

He said it, not me.

What has actually happened is many photographers have evolved beyond the wants and needs of the newspaper. We are shooting stories that don’t get published and shooting personal projects to keep our brains stimulated. The ‘cat sat on the mat’ images pay the bills. In many ways it is a sad reflection of photojournalism today, there are so few places where top end photojournalism can be seen.

This is a great statement. I know photographers who have so much to contribute but they’ve given up. They see a lack of support and devote their energy and passion to personal projects away from their newspaper, shortchanging the reader of their finest work. And year after year some of the best work recognized in contests was unpublished for whatever reason.

it’s all about attitude. In the UK where I learned my trade, they used to say “You are only as good as your last picture,” in Australia they say “You are only as good as your next picture.” Attitude is everything!

What a great line. Why didn’t I ever realize that the “only as good as your last picture” line that I’ve heard for years was complete crap?

I had about six more quotes that I wanted to put into this post, but why don’t you read them at the Raw Take site instead of mine. Here’s the link to the interview: http://rawtake.net/2008/03/30/tim-clayton-sydney-morning-herald/