Speaker: Stan Grossfeld
Session: Image and Narrative: How To Take Photos that Make a Difference
Dec. 2, 2001, 11:00 a.m. - 12:15 p.m.

Tripping the Shutter, Lightly

By Seshu Badrinath

Several years ago, while rummaging through a bookstore's slim pickings of serious documentary photography monographs, I stumbled on a book so awesome in breadth and so evocative in nature it made me, a grown man, cry.

No, let me correct that. I bawled.

It was Stan Grossfeld's book, Lost Futures: Our Forgotten Children.

On Saturday, as people milled about in the lobby of the hotel, I worked up the courage to approach Stan Grossfeld. I pressed a pen and a fresh copy of his book into his hands and introduced myself. As he momentarily juggled the book, he looked utterly thrilled. Not in that self-absorbed sort of way an author gushes back at a well-meaning fan. No, this was different.

"The royalties," he said with a glint in his eye, "all go to help the children."

As I said goodnight, I assured him that I would catch his second act as well, this time a solo presentation, on Sunday. He looked at me, shrugged his shoulders, fidgeted with his baseball cap for a moment, and looked up and asked me in a tone bordering on the anxious, "So, what do you think I should say tomorrow?"

As a photojournalist, I sometimes have found it difficult to explain my images. What do they mean to me? What do they say to my audience?

Grossfeld's self-conscious question (which may or may not have been rhetorical) made me wonder if these concerns lingered for even a seasoned professional and a current associate editor at the Boston Globe. And I was, of course, taken aback by his generosity to receive a few suggestions for a topic.

In the back of my mind, I recalled his images as having the ability to quickly evoke an enormous response. They all jump off the duo-tone page and express something urgent about the human condition. Each told a story, a narrative. So, I knew that it would be much more than just a regular show-and-tell session the next day.

On a silvery screen, in a small, darkened room packed full of eager writers, slides glided past us. People in the room sat rapt with attention, some with their mouth agape, while some others shook their heads in displeasure when we saw through Grossfeld's eyes the myriad inhumane ways children are treated in the world.

Fida Sherafi with a glass eye perched in her left hand, an untimely gift of the Israeli army when as a nine-month old baby she took a rubber bullet.

"The rubber bullet took her eye," whispered Grossfeld.

Mobsin Ikramudin, who is 12, peeks up and through a cloud of acrid smoke as he toils in a factory in Muradabad, India, making brass statues -- most likely Lady Liberty for the tourists in New York City. The irony, unfortunately, slips by us as image replaces image in quick succession.

Grossfeld stopped at many junctures to explain the circumstances of a image, how he went about making the image and what response has been like to the image.

However, not all the images Grossfeld displayed were gloomy. A photograph shot from a cherry picker outside Fenway Park for a book on the famous baseball stadium gives us a glimpse of this photojournalist's legendary moxie.

While the Red Sox top brass battled him on his idea to document life in and around Fenway Park, Grossfeld approached Boston Mayor Tom Menino about his rights to photograph from the street just outside the landmark. With the mayor's approval in hand, Grossfeld got his picture -- the ongoing home run derby inside the park while expectant fans just outside the wall, all craning their necks in pregnant anticipation of baseballs driven well past the high nets set in place.

Speaking to a room full of writers can be a challenging experience for a photojournalist. But he didn't pull any punches. "It's a word-controlled world. And that's wrong," he said as he wrapped up. "People should do both write and photograph to have better control of their project."

And he does. A story about two teenagers in Maine who become parents was patiently photographed and written by Grossfeld.

What struck us in the room was how relentless and determined Grossfeld is in his pursuit to make images. His advice is simple: "Don't take no for an answer. Always find a way."

Having a sense of resolve is perhaps the first step to taking images that make a difference. Gaining access is a close second. To do so, he suggested that journalists chat with people, do the research, keep emotions in check but most important of all, show genuine concern for the subjects in your frame.

"What's a great shot?" chimed in a member of the audience, fishing perhaps for something very theoretical or formulaic. The response was neither. It's an image that evokes emotion and impacts the viewer, Grossfeld answered.

"I don't think any of my pictures are great," he offers.

He must have been kidding.

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