The witty and bitingly honest blog Shit Photojournalists Like just celebrated one year of snark and insight into the photojournalist community.
The blog is the brainchild of Taylor Glascock, 23, who for the past 12 months has been finding a way to force photojournalists to confront much of the eccentric, egotistical and straight-up weird shit we do. The blog averages around 8,000 readers a month, but even early on it was an unanticipated success.
This article is part of a series of interviews with movers and shakers in the photography industry.
“Within a week it just kind of exploded,” Glascock says. “I thought it just would be something the Mizzou community would read. I didn’t know it would go international.”
Topics covered by the blog range from our fanatic gear loyalty (Nikon or Canon?!), to the trend of writing our bios in the third person (Jakob Schiller is a New Mexico-based photographer) to our obsession with vignettes (“What’s the best solution to a shitty photo? Vignette that bitch.”)
Glascock, who is currently a photo intern at the Peoria Journal Star (her third internship so far), said the idea for the blog originally came from observing other students at the University of Missouri, where she studied photojournalism.
She and two classmates, Clint Alwahab and Eve Edelheit, wrote and edited the first couple of posts and it’s been running like wildfire ever since.
Glascock is the first to confess that she often buys into the trends and techniques the blog so cleverly mocks.
“It all comes down to having a sense of humor,” she says. “It’s realizing that shit, I also do these things and that’s why it’s funny. I’m not going to stop collecting toy cameras because we made fun of it.”
She also knows it’s fairly early in her career to be throwing punches. But her relative inexperience is what keeps her fresh, she says. She’s not bogged down by too many years in the industry.
She refuses to admit that “photojournalism is dead” and is therefore willing to take on those whose egos and cockiness have gotten in the way of an industry trying to recover from a severe economic and structural hit.
“I feel like a lot people are kind of burnt out so I hope the blog will be a little spark,” she says. “Yeah, things suck. But why not just laugh at it and keep going?”
She said the blog gets plenty of hate mail. But it’s normally from people who misunderstand the humor.
“If you are offended, maybe you’re taking things a little too personally. But I’m sure there are some people who think, ‘Wow, that girl is an asshole.’”
The real fans are those who get the humor. When SPJL made fun of “shooting from the hip,” a technique made popular by Chicago Tribune staffer Scott Strazzante, Strazzante wrote Glascock to say he loved the post. She said LUCEO also enjoyed the post that made fun of collectives.
“We don’t normally pinpoint certain people,” says Glascock. “But if we do, they’re people we think can roll with it.”
Clint Alwahab, Eve Edelheit and Taylor Glascock. Photo: Andrew SpearWhile she’s been slightly distracted lately, trying to keep her own head above water in the photojournalism industry, Glascock said she hopes the blog continues to grow and evolve.
There are no specific plans other than continuing to sock it to those who deserve it.
“I’m only making fun of photojournalists because I love photojournalism so much,” she said. “Photojournalists are all pretty similar, we all do the same stupid shit, and we should embrace that. Let’s point out all of our flaws to bring us together.”
