By Gary Geschwind
Photographer: Joanna B. Pinneo
Figure 1
What is your field of photography?
I am a photojournalist and recently I have added wedding photography.
Why did you choose these fields?
In college, I majored both in art and psychology. I had a photographer friend who introduced me to photography, which turned out to be the best tool for me as an artist. In addition, I really wanted to travel and explore other cultures. Photojournalism gave me an opportunity to combine my interests of travel, study human behavior and express myself as an artist. What I found to my delight was a connection with people as I traveled and photographed them and the desire to share this connection through my photography.
In 1998 I was in a car accident in Peru and spent a month in the hospital there. I began thinking about not traveling as much. During this time I was working on a personal project about girls coming of age in America (Grrlstories.org). I received the Nikon Sabbatical to continue working on the project. Still casting about for other work, I saw an article on how photojournalists were moving into wedding photography and I believed this field fit well with my background and allow me not to travel so much. I did six months research about the "new" wedding photography and then added weddings in 2004. I still do quite a bit of magazine documentary work as well.
When did you first become interested in photography?
I first got interested in my senior year of high school, primarily because I had a boyfriend who was interested in photography. As a result I worked on the high school yearbook. In college I worked on both the newspaper and the yearbook. I studied both art and photography courses. I felt I could completely lose myself in the darkroom.
What was your training in photography?
While in college I went to Spain to study art history and tried my hand at sketching Spanish life. I had a Kodak Instamatic camera at that time and realized that I enjoyed taking pictures more than sketching. As soon as I returned home I bought a Canon SLR and took a photography class. I went to a small school in West Virginia to get technical training in photography and started applying for jobs. Then I took various workshops at the Maine Photographic Workshops and a Western Kentucky University.
Most of my real training was on-the-job at my first professional job, which was for the International Mission Board in Richmond, Virginia. I worked for 2 ½ years in their photo lab and kept asking them for real photography assignments. They sent me overseas on my first assignment to do work for their news division and magazine “The Commission”. I worked for them until 1989 traveling all over the world and then in 1990 went to work for US News and World Report as a staff photographer.
While working at the mission board I met Tom Kennedy, who was the Director of Photography at National Geographic. Aware of my overseas work for the Commission magazine, he gave me my first assignment for National Geographic in 1990, which was to photograph the Palestinians. Around the time of the First Gulf War, I also worked in Jordan, Kuwait, the West Bank and Gaza. The Geographic was pleased with the Palestinian assignment and offered more assignments.
In retrospect, what lesson(s) did you not learn at the school?
First, I could have used more training in the business aspects of being a professional. Business did not interest me at all at the time, but now I see how valuable that would have been. Also to truly be successful, it is important to practice, practice, and practice your art.
Has your photographic work been influenced by the work of other photographers? How?
Some of the photographers who influenced my work include Henri Cartier-Bresson whose photography is synonymous with the “decisive moment". He said, "I craved to seize the whole essence, in the confines of one single photograph, of some situation that was in the process of unrolling itself before my eyes."
I learned from David Alan Harvey the use of color and light and composition and he also really captures the essence of the moment; from Eugene Smith to take photographs that show the human condition as well as his very different use of light and composition. I have found his photography quite moving.
From Bill Allard at the National Geographic, I learned more about light and color and flawless composition. His work in the Basque Country in Spain is “incredible”. I was fortunate to do a story there many years later for National Geographic, but nervous to follow Bill's work! Colleague Don Rutledge at the Mission Board mentored and nurtured me and encouraged my development as a young photographer.
What was the biggest break in your career?
It was getting my first job with the mission board which led to my first overseas assignment. It gave me a chance to travel and the mentoring I received led to many other assignments.
What would you say is your most important accomplishment in the photographic industry?
Completing the Palestinian assignment for National Geographic gave me a tremendous sense of accomplishment – that type of assignment was what I had hoped for so many years and to complete it successfully was tremendous.
On another level, I hope that through my photographs I have been able to communicate the connection we all have as humans, to illuminate different ways of life and build more understanding.
What was your most interesting or memorable shoot? Why?
During the Palestinian assignment I took photographs of the funeral of a West Bank boy in an Armenian church in Jerusalem. When I was there, he was shot by the Israeli Border Patrol. I later went to the parent's home and was able to speak with them and photograph. It was upsetting to go with the boy’s father and an interpreter, to see the body in a tool shed at a neighbor's house.
My other most memorable assignment is on climate change. I traveled to five continents and eight countries resulting in a cover story. One of the photos became the cover of the National Geographic Magazine, as well the book Women Photographers at National Geographic. I was napping with a nomadic woman, her baby and her twelve-year-old daughter inside a tent in sub-Saharan Mali outside of Timbuktu. I woke up and saw them peacefully sleeping (Figure 1). That photo became the cover.
Please describe your workflow after transferring your photographs from the camera to the computer.
I shoot in Raw format and download my cards to a project folder. I make three backups of the photos and always keep one offsite. I make a "generous" edit in Photo Mechanic and import the photos into Lightroom 2. Then I sort the photos into different categories and from these choose my favorites or main selects. This is similar to the workflow we used while working for the National Geographic, even with film.
For wedding pictures I do more tweaking in either Lightroom or Photoshop on the Favorites. The rest I just do simple color and exposure correction. I export the images as high-resolution JPEG files, as well as put them on a web site as low-resolution JPEG files for the client to review.
Do you have any parting wisdom to share with young photographers?
Yes, do research in the field to determine what aspect of photography you want to practice. Understand who is doing the best work in the field. Look at the work of master photographers in that field. Learn what techniques they use to get those photos. Then practice, work to develop your own unique style and stay true to your own vision.
From a business standpoint it is important to understand how photographers you admire get jobs as well as some business background. When working with customers, be persistent!
