Often working alone, searching for a feature photograph at a park or along Main Street. the days are generally mundane, there are school board meetings and dinners to celebrate achievements, bouncing from one to the next assignment. Head shot, grip-n-grin, candid and repeat, a voice comes over the scanner activating Station 100 for a working structure fire, your heart starts to race, you grab the bag and go. Spot news is never scheduled and has no concern for when you eat dinner or the road conditions, spot news doesn’t care that your shift is over in ten minutes or that it's 4am and you have to be in the office at 7am.
Working as a photojournalist is by no means a job but a lifestyle , the long hours, travel and stress became a way of life. Shoot first and ask questions later, I learned to grab the frame before being concerned with ethics, the image can always be deleted but there isn’t a replay button on life. I am an otherwise very private and shy person, I learned quickly how to interact with total strangers in cold situations, chasing information and fact. Parts of the job are grim covering car accidents, house fires, and murders, seeing people at their lowest and darkest moments. I also see the opposite, smiling children on the playgrounds having their best life or a mother hugging her son who’s football team just won the regional championships. I am not there to judge or exploit, I am there to document for others who are not present and for history. I live through my lens for other to see the world be it small or big.
All image rights reserved James J. Nestor/ Indiana Gazette Printing and Publishing,
