In 2002, J. Albert Diaz won the ASNE award for Community Photojournalism. Poynter’s Kenny Irby talked with Diaz about his award-winning project.
Poynter: What drew you into this project and how did it get started?
Diaz: I work in the Broward bureau of The Miami Herald, and this project started in early 2000. My inspiration was personal: It is a project of my own life experience. Five years ago, I moved to Silver Lakes and it’s the area I cover. It was also professional: It is the community itself and the people searching for a piece of paradise that inspired me to pursue this project.
Poynter: What would you say was the central objective of the project?
Diaz: My main goal was to offer our readers pictures that captured a little part of what life is like in a suburban community. They have a real interest because they [the residents] have concerns about the consequences of over-development and buildout. I wanted to show people both inside and outside the community what the impact looked like. They were already living it.
Poynter: How did you approach such a massive project?
Diaz: I had worked on some other picture stories that were somewhat related. I made suggestions to my editor, Alan Freund, and our director of phototography, Maggie Stebber. Maggie urged me to write up a proposal, and everybody thought it was a great idea. I worked on this project almost all of the time — on my own time, in my down time, in between assignments. I just kept working on it. As a staff we had endured Elián, the election recounts, and Sept. 11. What really kept me going was that I knew it was an important story and a combination of our collective enthusiasm.
Poynter: Over the course of the coverage, how did your reporting relationships play out?
Diaz: The reporters were very involved and knew the official people to contact. Everybody knew what to do and we trusted one another. The entire paper got behind my vision. I worked most closely with the lifestyle reporter, Bill Yardley. He helped me focus. There were some times when I got discouraged, but Maggie, Bill, and Alan were always there. My family was great, too.
Poynter: What surprised you about this project?
Diaz: I think that it is interesting and gratifying that most people are much the same. It was very interesting to realize that we all want a place to call home and to be safe and the freedom to live our lives our own way. I tried to show that there is a diverse group of people living in harmony.
Poynter: Of all the segments of the project, what was most difficult?
Diaz: Without a doubt, it was the closing picture. Alan and I talked about how to show the encroachment on nature. We wanted the perspective from the Everglades. I went out there a dozen times. Alan kept telling me that it was there and that I could do it. Then, finally, the gator showed up and I was there.
Poynter: Say a word about feedback and reaction to your work by the community.
Diaz: It is gratifying to hear that the judges saw my vision. I wanted to inform and create emotion. I wanted a historical document of this experience in my community.
We have gotten a ton of e-mail and people have been talking about the project everywhere. My personal favorite so far was an e-mail that simply read, “I grew up in South Florida. You captured the essence of living here.” The paper has been viewed in a favorable light as a result of the coverage.
Poynter: You obviously spent a great deal of time on this story. How do you feel about the end result?
Diaz: What is most gratifying for me, because I am a true believer in community journalism, is that I contributed to a historic project that allows a group of people to see themselves. This project confirms that you do not have to go halfway around the world to report meaningful stories. No disrespect to those who travel a lot. This is a different kind of challenge: to unearth the images right in your back yard. I am so interested in telling the story of people living their daily lives.
Poynter: In the spirit of sharing, what was the single greatest lesson that you learned during this project?
Diaz: It is really important to document, not just do illustrative photojournalism. I hope that people will do more documenting and actually spend time with people and not rush the moments. It takes a lot of work to document. In my view, an illustration is someone’s concept or idea of what a situation is. These are sometimes graphically appealing, but with a message that often is not honest. Documentary photojournalism is informational — it goes beyond the quick-hit shot or setting up a picture. And that is the beauty of documentary photojournalism: It is real life.
Poynter: Let’s talk about some technical issues. What type of cameras did you use?
Diaz: I am not big on the digital camera as a daily tool, especially not for working on big projects like this. Film still has a lot more latitude when you are doing long-term documentary work because still film holds better quality. I used two Canon film camera bodies, the A2 and EOS-1 with two zoom lens, the 70-200 mm and 24-70 mm zoom.
Poynter: What was your film preference?
Diaz: Fuji 800 is the film I love. There were many situations in which it worked like a charm. I must have exposed a combination of 200 rolls of Fuji 200, 400, and 800.
Poynter: The vast majority of your work is taken in available lighting situations. Is that intentional?
Diaz: Indeed it is. I think flash photography takes away from the spontaneity and detracts from the moment. I really wish that I were invisible when I am working. I am more interested in capturing moments. I’d rather have a great moment in bad lighting than great lighting and a mediocre moment.
Poynter: How important is the photographer-to-subject relationship for you and how do you build good rapport and relationships?
Diaz: A lot of people accept me because I am not pushy. I try to show real interest in their lives and that I really care and respect their privacy. I give it as much time as it takes. Every situation is different, and most times you are trying to get into peoples’ homes to see their real lives. Sometimes I don’t even take pictures in the beginning. I just talk. This story had a large number of hit-or-miss situations; relationships were not the real challenge.
Poynter: Then what was the greatest challenge for you?
Diaz: My greatest challenge was that this story had a lot of different events and twists. There was an uncertainty about finding images that showed the emotion I knew was out there: angry homeowners and frustrated parents. The town hall meeting images showed the effects and frustration of urban sprawl. To find those situations meant that I had to enterprise and be there.
Poynter: What were your research tools and how did you find the right situations?
Diaz: Believe you me, I read our paper. The hometown Herald was a great resource, as were the community newspapers. They had all kinds of information that gave me picture possibilities. I really had this story mapped out in my head. It was almost edited in my head because I lived it. It was not a typical or traditional project. This project was very personal for me.
Poynter: What was your editing and support structure?
Diaz: I did all of my own processing, pre-editing, and film cataloging. I made some black-and-white proofs as a record, and every so often I would meet with my editors for input and discussion about my direction. I kept most of this story in my head.
Poynter: Can you offer a look into the overall editing process?
I feel I can relate to every picture in the story on an emotional level. Diaz: I did most of the editing as I went along. We did the final edit as a team. I had about 50 pictures that I really felt told the main story. I was trying to create a little journey for the reader/viewer. David Walters was the picture editor and page designer. The final layout was being done in Miami and I made several trips there. I was very pleased with the final result.
Poynter: How do you respond to the notion of finding a story that only you can tell?
Diaz: It is indeed a story that I can relate to. I moved to this community, and everyone was drawn to this area. I feel I can relate to every picture in the story on an emotional level. You cannot be distant.
Poynter: There has been lots of industry discussion about the difference between feature hunting and enterprise photography. Which model does your project fit into?
Diaz: This was enterprise photography. That is when the best work is produced. It is something that photographers feel a commitment toward and they go out prepared with a purpose in mind. And this is history. In 30 years, I hope people will look back and see that I made a statement about how people were living here at the turn of the century. I wanted people to see the diversity within this community. We [journalists] have a very important job of informing and sharing. Yes, I had to go out and find the situations, but I did not find them by wandering around. I lived this life, and I was reporting what I knew to be happening.
This piece originally appeared in “Best Newspaper Writing 2002.”
