As you may have seen from my photo blog (365inCamera) or from some of my recent Flickr updates I've been doing a little personal photojournalism of late. So much so, I added a new set on Flickr just for photojournalism. I say personal photojournalism, because I'm really only doing this for personal reasons rather than working on behalf of some kind of news provider (although that's not to say, I wouldn't mind the opportunity to do this at some point in the future). Similar to sports and candid photography, trying to capture the drama of a newsworthy event is a challenge I enjoy. By following the golden rule of photography - always have a camera with you - I've been able to photograph some interesting events of late. I was going to say that working downtown Toronto is another factor that has provided these opportunities for photojournalism, but just tonight there was another event that was closer to home.
After dinner tonight, I decided to take my dog Kooper for a run at Sunnybrook dog park before it got dark. On the way to the park, I noticed that Blythwood Road was closed at Mt. Pleasant with quite a lot of emergency vehicles and TV crews at the scene. I decided that a little exercise for Kooper was more important that investigating right then, so I continued to the park. It's been very windy for a few day so I thought a large tree may have some down. On the drive home, Blythwood had been re-opened and a did a quick drive by and saw that there had been a fire in one of the houses. A drove on a little, but then my new found photojournalistic instincts kicked in (plus I didn't have a great shot yet for the day), so I stopped, circled back and grabbed my camera.
While photographing the other recent events, I had some serious reservations about the potential personal injuries and losses that I may be recording. In the Chinatown accident, I hesitated taking any photographs until I could see that the young girl was not seriously injured and those people nearby were helping her. For the Gould Street incident, I heard from a few sources that luckily there had been no serious injuries. For the First Nations' protest, even though there was plenty of police at the ready, the event looked to be quite peaceful. I did wonder what the chances were of it boiling over, especially seeing a few people masking their faces. What would I do if things got violent ?
Back to Blythwood. So I'm walking back to the burned out house with my camera in hand and I'm wondering was anyone hurt here ? There was just one person I noticed on the street other than emergency and TV people so I asked if he knew if anyone had been hurt in the fire. He said that he heard from TV news that a lady had died.
I decided not to photograph the house. I didn't feel right. I drew a line.
The Toronto Sun report.
No comments:
Post a Comment