TimHGuitar Loc: San Francisco, CA

One day I was watching a music video and I realized that it has, in a way, replaced the photo essay. It used to be that a job at "Life" or "Look" magazine was the photographer's job to die for. Now it seems that that kind of vocation is gone and has been replaced with something altogether different. The photographer stalker who sells his image of a famous personality is apt to represent the high earner in the photographic trade today. And the captured image from an outdoor home video camera seems to be the main device that provides front page news photographs now.
Back in the day, photographers would tag along with a news journalist and photograph while the journalist worked on the story. Gene Smith did the photography for Life magazine's story titled "The Country Doctor." In it was the photograph of the doctor leaning against the stove smoking a cigarette after he had just lost a patient. That photograph was a momentous moment for me and it still hangs in my memory.
The music videos, too, tell a story, but the authenticity is gone. They hire excellent actors and fine video photographers and the editing seems to be top notch as well. The whole production is outstanding; it's like a very short story told within the space of a song, but what is missing is a true description of the story (in comparison).
We called it the spread when the magazine was laid out. So, in honor of the photo essay, I have started a new project that I call "The Spread." I am going through many hundreds of old negatives shot, not only my myself, but by others in my family, and I am producing prints to lay out within a folio I purchased that measures 17" x 22." When spread open it displays two pages that measure 22" high and 34" wide.
I'm not sure how long it will take for me to complete the folio. It has a total of 24 double sided sheets. But I've got nothing better to do now that I am retired. I am attaching the first layout I will place in the folio. It was shot by wife #1 when I and fellow members of my group were practicing Tai Chi meditation (in the 1970s).
What do you think? Is the photo essay dead or on its last legs?

erickter Loc: Dallas,TX

Glad you're keeping it alive. It's worth honoring for sure

rmalarz Loc: Tempe, Arizona

By odd coincidence, there was this posted a bit after yours. https://www.uglyhedgehog.com/t-727156-1.html
--Bob

TimHGuitar Loc: San Francisco, CA

Thanks I looked at the link. Those construction photos are amazing to look at. They look like illustrations because everything is so sharp.

John N Loc: HP14 3QF Stokenchurch, UK

If I go for a local walk and take a series of images along the way I'll post on my facebook page and / or our local Village page an ordered set of images and a short descriptive text along with either a Strava route or more likely replotted onto an Ordnance Survey map.

I like doing it, some people like seeing it, and some people replicate the walk taking thier own images.

dpullum Loc: Tampa Florida

I attended a big happening in Tampa Area, the Terri Schiavo case**, I spend a full day doing photography and made a slide show comparing the event to the Circus and included circus photos and music. It was a photo essay.

The camera club month assignment once was to tell a story with at least 5 photos. I chose the murder of Humpty Dumpty by Mrs. Dumpty's boyfriend. All with eggs and pin drawing and dye. It was a storyboard like used in making the plot of a movie.

I think camera video has killed the photo essay. Perhaps people's span of attention and ability to get-into photos and think has diminished.

**In 1990, 26-year-old Terri Schiavo fell into a persistent vegetative state after suffering cardiac arrest.
https://www.cbsnews.com/pictures/look-back-in-history-terri-schiavo-death/6/

Just Fred Loc: Darwin's Waiting Room

I think the general, overarching answer to your question, "What has happened to the photo essay?" is: The Cell Phone. They are ubiquitous, and I frequently refer to them as "cameras that communicate." It's now just as easy to "point and record" as it is to "point and shoot." And it only takes one press of a button!

sb Loc: Florida's East Coast

I don't agree that music videos have replaces the photo essay, but video in general and YouTube videos have replaced the photo essay. There are several very informative YouTube channels that I watch a lot of ( 74gear, by a 747 pilot, the Hornet King, Practical Engineering, and Chef Jean Pierre being some that are very good). They convey information with attention-getting video that are entertaining as well as instructive. The stories on the TV show "Dateline", 40 years ago, would have been photo-essays in true crime magazines or even "Look" or "Life".

ELNikkor

Love your idea! Coincidentally, my son's 10th grade history teacher assigned an option to do photo essay of what it was like to be a WWI soldier. We did the shooting in our woods on Thursday and he submitted it yesterday. Here is one of the photos. (D750, sepia effect in-camera)

(Download)

CHG_CANON Loc: the Windy City

By odd coincidence, there was this posted earlier this week: https://www.uglyhedgehog.com/t-726845-1.html
/paul

ELNikkor

Nice!

sippyjug104 Loc: Missouri

I grew up in the era of the "photo essay". Playboy and Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition were among my regular reading.....only for the informative articles, of course. 😜

muphoto

Sadly, I think you are right. In the 1970s as a student at Marshall University, the other student photographers and I, would look forward to the photo spreads in Look and Life and other publications. We shot for the student newspaper and every couple of weeks we would get a two page spread to do a photo story. Working for the yearbook one year, we did a 16 page One Day in the Life of Marshall University. We had 30+ students taking photos, each with a specific area or person and the university. It was a lot of work developing film, looking at contact sheets to chose the photos to use, but it was a great time. Don’t see that much anymore.

TimHGuitar Loc: San Francisco, CA

That was an interesting read and the photos helped the story along. Yes.

delder Loc: Maryland

I have considered the effect of the TARGET media on the art & craft of photography.
We don't have any/many large print venues [Life, Look etc.] left today.
They have been replaced with first the CRT TV's and NOW the LED etc. TV's up to 90" or so,
AND in the opposite extreme, a cell phone with ~ 6" screen.

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