Out with the Old, In with the New: Everyone’s a Photojournalist in DC These Days

Out with the old, in the with the new, the amateur and anybody who can get a following on Facebook.

This week Politico filed two stories about photojournalists in the nation’s capital that provided (yet another) moment to see how photojournalism has evolved over the last two decades: the retirement of Pulitzer-winning AP veteran Ron Edmonds; and the rising stock of a Hill press assistant-turned-photojournalista Charlotte Sellmyer.

Edmonds, the AP’s senior White House photographer, retired after 28 years on the wire, Michael Calderone reported. He won the Pulitzer for spot news photography in 1982 for his photos of the assassination attempt on Ronald Reagan. From Edmonds goodbye email to his AP colleagues:

I have been lucky enough to win a couple of small awards for my work. But perhaps one of the most rewarding still was when my daughter Ashley came home from elementary school one day and announced that she was so proud, because that day she was able to raise her hand and tell the teacher that the picture on the front of her Weekly Reader was taken by her dad.

Then there’s Sellmyer, 23, an aide to House Judiciary Committee ranking member from Texas, Lamar Smith. Sellmyer shoots everything from wide-angle landscapes of DC monuments to the weddings and other extra-professional mischief of her fellow Hill staffers.

From Sellmyer's photoblog.

She developed a small following on Facebook and, yes, her blog. She told Politico:

“Everything on the Hill seems to be constantly in transition. Moving, babies, marriage, a change of power — those things should all be captured”

Sellmyer won’t be winning a Pulitzer for spot photography any time soon, but on the Internet there’s room for everyone to publish.

Other great, unconventional photojournalism blogs: Cellular Obscura, NYT Lens Blog Cellphone Project, Future Perfect.