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Fears over ‘dying art’ after photography course is shelved

Fears have been raised that the art of photography in regional newspapers “will die” after the industry’s last accredited course was shelved.

Lack of interest has put paid to the flagship NCTJ-accredited Press Photography and Photojournalism courses at Norton College, Sheffield for the coming year.

And the demise of a similar course at Bournemouth has left aspiring photographers with nowhere to go to learn their craft.

Now the industry’s most respected trainer of photographers has voiced fears of a knock-on effect for local publishers.

Paul Delmar, responsible for launching hundreds of careers in a 30-year teaching career as head of photography at Sheffield, said: “This is a real tragedy – not just for photographers but papers as well. No NCTJ courses mean the art of photography in regional journalism will die.

“There is no future for regional newspapers if the job is not done properly. If photography is diluted, the subsequent results won’t even have the strength of water.”

Added Paul, pictured left: “There is no doubt in my mind that without these courses for photographers – everyone will suffer.”

“If a reporter takes a picture to illustrate a story – it’s not doing justice to their own story.  You ask a journalist how they would like their story to be best illustrated – and the answer is always with a picture taken by a trained photographer.”

His comments follow the closure of the Up To Speed Journalism course in Bournemouth and Sheffield cancelling next year’s course after only five wannabe photographers applied for the 33-week diploma.

College chiefs say the photographic and photojournalism courses at Norton – previously voted the country’s top press photography training centre by the UK Picture Editors Guild – will be restored in September 2015 when the college closes and students transfer to Hillsborough College campus, which is undergoing an £8.8m upgrade.

Norton’s principal Heather Smith said:  “We have written to the five applicants offered places on this year’s course to let them know. We are sorry for any disappointment caused.”

Steve Phillips, NCTJ chief examiner for press photography and photojournalism and group picture editor of the South Wales Evening Post, added:  “We are sorry to hear the long-established NCTJ-accredited photography course has been deferred but pleased that Sheffield College remains committed to its re-launch next year.”

The first NCTJ photographic courses were started in Wednesbury in the West Midlands by Birmingham Post and Mail photographer Eric Hale in the 1960s while the award-winning Sheffield course began under Eddie Bissell in 1979. Paul joined the lecturing team the following year, staying until 2010.

The NCTJ photography courses have been running uninterrupted at Norton College and its predecessors Stradbroke and Richmond ever since.

35 comments

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  • September 3, 2014 at 8:27 am
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    Oh dear what a shame. The photos in our local papers are pretty dreadful now – this will add to their demise.

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  • September 3, 2014 at 9:04 am
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    Sad news but inevitable with newspaper groups getting rid of staffers. Think that just leaves the photojournalism degree course at Falmouth for those wanting to specialize and hopefully sell their work to better paying publications and agencies.

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  • September 3, 2014 at 9:25 am
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    Perhaps if press photographers learned to hold their expensive camera at arm’s length and pout at the lens, or took pictures of kittens, a cupcake they were about to eat or someone tipping a bucket of iced water over their head, they might get somewhere?

    Times change and I am afraid an image which captures the humanity, horror or humour of an event is soooo last night!

    Suck it up, grow a pair, move on and smell the coffee.

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  • September 3, 2014 at 10:14 am
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    Bert Johnson will be turning in his wednesbury grave!
    Still happy memories 77/78

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  • September 3, 2014 at 10:28 am
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    This is a great pity, but it sounds like the course will be continuing at Hillsborough, so all is not lost.I was at Wednesbury and then Sheffield on block release courses in 78/79. Photography has changed so much since the digital revolution and the staff photographer has become an endangered species at both national and local level. Quality photography does not come cheap (neither does the gear) but free is better and quality not so much of a concern these days. I’m glad I had the best years, having gone from Rollei to DSLR.

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  • September 3, 2014 at 10:37 am
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    You don’t need a degree to take ordinary newspaper photographs. In the heyday of regional newspaper photography, none of them had degrees in anything. You needed more practical skill in those days, mastering dark room printing, f stops and shutter speeds etc.
    Nowadays cameras are all automatic and the actual “news” jobs much rarer with fare fewer incidents such as large fires, accidents, shipwrecks, etc etc thanks to health and safety.
    The skill today is in knowing what a “news” photograph is and, really, if you don’t automatically know what constitutes news you should seriously question your place in journalism.
    Regional photo journalism is a trade not a profession. I have taken many photographs for dailies and weeklies and try not to get too sniffy about how good I was.
    I’ve had work experience school kids take pictures for me and these have got into dailies without anyone knowing.
    It’s an ego buster folks, but that’s the truth.

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  • September 3, 2014 at 11:27 am
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    Seen the quality of sent in pictures in YOUR local rag?
    Don’t know how any self respecting journos would use them.
    But they are FREE.
    Quality is not needed in pix or writing now. Just cheap labour.
    Luckily I have worked with some snappers of real talent.
    You certainly don’t need training to get pix in local rag.
    The magic words are “no charge”.
    I think it is called vanity publishing.

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  • September 3, 2014 at 11:53 am
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    Its no good training photographers if there’s no jobs for them. Digital has changed everything accept a keen eye for a picture and thats sadly lacking for all to see in the local press. For those of us who have spent our lives in press photography its disappointing but inevitable.

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  • September 3, 2014 at 12:13 pm
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    College courses for taking pictures, are they really necessary these days?

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  • September 3, 2014 at 2:05 pm
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    l have no photo qualifications but have had a keen interest in photography over the years, including working in a photographers.
    l take most of the photos for my community magazine which l am also editor. The local press photographer is rarely seen and on many occasions l have been asked to take photos for them. Some of the ones l have seen l would never use they are awful l have also seen bad photos in Hello. Some times it is the survival of the fittest and hope for the best when you cant set up a shot. l have just taken some great photos using m left hand as l have a broken wrist.

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  • September 3, 2014 at 3:48 pm
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    The two key words here are ‘free’ and ‘cheap’ – the mantra of local newspaper management these days. It is true that you do not need a degree to take a decent picture, but you do need to know what constitutes a decent picture and the training offered on courses such as this is where you will find out. The alternative is two-page spreads of school prom pictures and ice-bucket challenges.

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  • September 3, 2014 at 4:27 pm
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    the Red Postman

    Don’t knock two-page spreads of school prom pictures and ice-bucket challenges. They make for good fillers if executed by pro-news photographers!

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  • September 3, 2014 at 4:30 pm
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    “There is no future for regional newspapers if the job is not done properly. If photography is diluted, the subsequent results won’t even have the strength of water.”

    I’ll second that Paul (Delmar)

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  • September 3, 2014 at 4:49 pm
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    A few questions for Cleland Thom:
    How many press photographers have you trained ?
    How many photojournalists have you trained ?
    How many of these passed the NCTJ diploma ?
    I notice you claim “our NCTJ exam results are as good as NCTJ colleges” – can we have some facts please because you do not appear to show up on the NCTJ results tables ?

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  • September 3, 2014 at 5:14 pm
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    I know they do, Northern Snapper. The key, as you say, is to have them executed by pro-news photographers!

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  • September 3, 2014 at 5:39 pm
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    I attended Richmond College pre-entry journaism, sponsored by The Star, in 1970-71 before joining the paper for three more years of indentures and a brief period as a senior qualified journalist. Before taking up this place I had secured one to read English at King’s College London, but I was already getting photography published regularly and wanted to be a press photographer. I was advised by Sheffield Newspapers, and my father, that this would be a dead-end job – photographers were never promoted into the management of the newspaper group, and if I did not want to do my English degree, I should train as a journalist instead – after all, I could already take photographs.

    What they omitted to say was that once I made this decision, I should never touch a camera again, due to union demarcation. That was out of the question for me as photography was my vocation, writing was simpy something I could already do… the other way round! So I stuck with it, enjoyed working with press photographer colleagues like Eric Willoughby and Dennis Lowndes at The Star (especially after being moved to design features pages) and kept my photography as a spare-time interest. Unfortunately the combination of training in journalism and success in photography meant that by 1975 my earning from illustrated articles elsewhere far exceeded my salary from The Star, and my bylines elsewhere didn’t please the local NUJ branch (the photographic dept was surprisingly tolerant as they knew this had effect on their employment – and I was willing as a sub-editor to let photographers write their own photo essay copy as several of them were perfectly capable journalists).

    After the winter of 1974 and return to normal work, the management was persuaded to remove me from the features desk and said I must spend some time as a news sub. It was very much forced by the NUJ. I left the paper to freelance with some regret, but it was a great world out there for anyone able to produces good pictures, good stories and design publications. My first pitch to The Sunday Times resulted in a double page feature spread with one picture over eleven columns for a story my former employers had thought was ‘not a story at all’ and I did the same a few times – even offering them stories, to be turned down, and then getting the story into the weekend heavies.

    My feeling today is that if there are still press photography courses around, they are incomplete. Photographers should be taught as much journalism as I was, and journalists should be taught photography – both should be taught design and pre-press, publishing law and copyright, and so on. Demarcation should not exist at college course level. In later careers, you can find your own strengths and become a specialist photographer or a pure writer.

    In my own small company, I’ve always employed multi-skilled staff. My last two editors (before I ended up doing it all myself) were skilled in writing, editing, design and photography and had they only had one skill would have been unemployable. I know there are ‘media’ courses out there and Sheffield’s long history in press photography is hard to let go, but I think the answer lies in updating to the 21st century and teaching students a portfolio of skills to suit their ambitions and aptitudes.

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  • September 3, 2014 at 6:27 pm
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    “You don’t need a degree to take ordinary newspaper photographs,” says Jupiter. Absolutely true! But these photographic courses didn’t lead to a degree. They led to equipping young newspaper photographers with a real understanding of the job, gave them a decent grasp of media law and valuable tips on how to make the most of the kind of hands-on situations they might encounter in a working day. No course is going to equal the experience of actually doing the job but what was taught in Sheffield and Bournemouth proved an invaluable foundation for many talented and successful photographers. In these days when senior editorial staff are so few that they barely have time to breath let alone mentor or train new juniors, a grounding like that is a serious asset. Idiot managements that think you can bring out papers with send-ins and the snaps of citizen journalists are deluded. Just watch those circulations plummet. Yes, I know there are many reasons for falling sales but crap photos are definitely playing their part in the decline. Oh and by the way Jupiter, who wants newspapers full of ‘ordinary’ photographs anyway?

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  • September 4, 2014 at 6:38 am
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    Sad days. Paul Delmar’s trainees that arrived at our newspapers in Wiltshire were all a success and the system worked well for everybody . Good days for all.

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  • September 4, 2014 at 9:14 am
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    I think readers are, unfortunately, getting used to seeing ‘snaps’ not photographs in their chosen paper. Top dogs are gradually running down their own products yet still hoping people will buy them. (Or worse, hoping they will use a digital platform, so are hastening the demise of print.) Why would they? It is obvious when a good photographer has been on the case, plus such photographs can then be offered for sale. Management don’t seem to think about being different/better. Just because most other titles are getting rid of staff photographers (and it shows) why should they all? Professional journalism backed up by quality photography, ad design, a presence in the community: have all these and your paper may be worth buying.

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  • September 4, 2014 at 9:59 am
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    ” l have just taken some great photos using m left hand as l have a broken wrist” says Hazel Gibb. Really Hazel? Who has judged your photos “great”?

    I’m a press photographer, trained at Sheffield by Paul Delmar who taught me press photography and instilled passion which remains to this day. I have also taken some great photos. I know this not only because I am trained to know a great photo but because I have been told so by numerous Picture Editors.

    The damage that’s been done to the newspaper industry by the closure of this course is incalculable.

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  • September 4, 2014 at 11:05 am
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    David Kilpatrick writes common sense from practical experience. I was a reporter on a weekly in the 1970s whose hobby was photography. One of my mates on the paper was a photographer who enjoyed going off to rally car events at weekends with his girlfriend. As many summer jobs were on a Saturday this posed a problem for him. Solution? He showed me how to use his Pentax and I’d snap away (for a pint in return, of course). This turned out to be beneficial in other ways. Being the photographer as well as the reporter made you more “important” in the eyes of contacts at things like local gala parades because in those days the public loved to see their pictures in the paper and would fall over backwards to help you out. If you went to a job just as a reporter people would ask: “When’s the photographer coming?”
    Things were less rigid on a weekly than a daily and the editor (ex Fleet Street) wasn’t frightened of the union or management.
    The only flies in the ointment were the journalists in the local NUJ branch who wanted a complete demarcation between reporters, subs, and photographers. The latter were only allowed to write captions reading “pictured from left are…”
    To say that they were small minded bunch of trouble makers would be an understatement. Some of the photographers refused to take advertising pictures on the grounds that they were “news only” journalists. They’d all sit together in their darkroom grumbling and if word got around that a big story had broken outside (a hotel fire or something) they’d start “repairing” their cameras or rushing into the darkroom to print. Anything to get out of a job.
    This is not meant to be read as an anti-NUJ tirade because everybody does need a union, but in support of journalists being multi-skilled.
    After all, knowledge is power.

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  • September 4, 2014 at 11:28 am
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    Disgruntled Toggy Well beside my Facebook page they have been in two other local publications. Plus it was a fast moving dance routine so not easy to capture admittedly some were better than others l have seen trained wedding photographer take photos with drainpipes coming out of the brides head. Also as a friend of Harry Goodwin l was told repeatedly by him l was doing ok kid praise indeed. Plus l became an editor journalist and photographer by change almost eight ago.

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  • September 4, 2014 at 1:01 pm
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    Hazel Gibb – Hope your photography is significantly better than your English grammar. Also, if you interpret “OK” as “praise indeed”, that’s up to you. Personally, I don’t think a professional, in any field, would be happy with it.

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  • September 4, 2014 at 3:27 pm
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    What a terribly stereotypical picture. Cameraman with a camera! No wonder there are no takers!

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  • September 4, 2014 at 5:20 pm
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    The worst are those who self style themselves photo journalists. Usually can’t do either to a good standard but still fancy themselves.
    Come to think of it most hacks are photo journos now. And it shows.

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  • September 4, 2014 at 7:15 pm
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    Ah…Wednesbury…three yearsof block release starting in ’71..
    Eric and Bert …typing lessons…precincts of court and a secretarial school next door for models when you needed one.

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  • September 4, 2014 at 9:24 pm
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    First off l have ADHD look it up so producing a high quality mag for almost eight years is in itself an achievement. Secondly l am tying this with fore mentioned broken wrist. As re OK its not what you say its the way hat you say it and it was a remark made between friends. The Hermans Hermits have used three of my photos on there website homepage

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  • September 5, 2014 at 10:11 am
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    Pictures in newspapers these days don’t need to be good, they need to be good enough. Most journo’s are perfectly capable of taking good enough pictures. By the time they are printed, they won’t look great anyway.

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  • September 5, 2014 at 11:20 am
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    Wow Ex London Newsquest, your journalistic standards must be appallingly low if you actually believe the points in your post! Unless you’re being ironic. You are being ironic aren’t you?

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  • September 5, 2014 at 1:25 pm
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    Foggy I think ex newsquest meant management now accepted poorer quality pictures and consider them good enough, not him. As for prom pics my struggling local is too lazy to send their staffer and they use dreadful sent in stuff just to fill. Desperate days indeed for local papers.

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  • September 5, 2014 at 1:29 pm
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    Toggy. I think ex London newsquest meant management considered hack pictures good enough not him. And they do, in all forms. No cost.

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  • September 5, 2014 at 2:13 pm
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    Not in the slightest bit ironic. In my newsroom, we went from 8 togs to 2, all reporters were issued with cameras, quality didn’t suffer and quantity increased. Not sure we lose too many readers because the pictures don’t quite right. It’s a newspaper, not a glossy.

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  • September 5, 2014 at 3:26 pm
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    Good point and very true f64! Apologies Ex London Newsquest if that’s the case…

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