Brent Lewis: On becoming the story
In this episode, we talk with Brent Lewis about becoming the story. He describes the importance of not becoming the story by incentivising people to participate in being photographed, but he also explains that we are, ultimately, part of the stories that we tell with the camera. Brent spends some time debunking some other “J School” ideas that can sometimes perpetuate unhelpful myths about photojournalism, including affirming that the photographs we take impact us in long lasting ways.
What does photography ethics mean to Brent?
“Photography ethics to me means to just bear witness. Let’s not changing anything. Don’t have ideas of what things are going to be or what it is. Just show what life is. That’s the beauty of what we do. … I want to see that person next door lives like, and how that communicates to me and how I see what they are going through that make me understand life that so much better. I want to see the person that is 20,000 miles away and what their life looks like, and how, at the end of the day, we both want the same thing. We both want to be happy, we both want love, we both want compassion, we both want that freedom, that ability to breathe and to live. So photography ethics at the end of the day means to just show me that reality. Show me what’s happening in the world and do just that. Do not harm, go no above and beyond. Just give it to me straight.” (46:23)
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Brent Lewis is a Photo Editor originally from the South Side of Chicago and now in New York City. He is the co-founder of Diversify.Photo and a photo editor at The New York Times working on the Home Page and breaking news desk. Brent was a Photo Editor at The Washington Post on the Sports desk and the Senior Photo Editor of ESPN's The Undefeated, where he drove the visual language of the website that is based around the intersection of sports, race, and culture. Before photo editing, he was a staff photojournalist with stints at The Denver Post, The Rockford Register Star, and the Chillicothe Gazette. Through the years his photos have been used by the Chicago Tribune, L.A. Times, Associated Press, Forbes, and Yahoo! News.
You can see his work at http://www.blewisphoto.com