The Visual Desk is an editorial support group based in Chicago and made by/for independent visual journalists interested in a more inclusive approach in serving communities they engage in. Members include Samantha Cabrera Friend, Pat Nabong, Sebastián Hidalgo, Max Herman and Youngrae Kim. City Bureau is publishing this statement with their permission.
Freelancers are struggling to adapt to a changing industry. Social distancing brings new challenges and a new balance to strike between putting food on the table and keeping ourselves safe. Now more than ever our relationships will determine by how we collectively move forward into a new world.
As a Chicago collective built by freelance visual journalists, The Visual Desk agrees that communication and safety measures outweigh the need for content. We can’t report on the problem if we are contributing to it. Even if the assignment is not related to COVID-19, assessing risk is one of the first lines of communication.
As the crisis deepens in the coming months, we fear that industry circles are becoming tighter. Freelancers are at a greater disadvantage because of a range of social and financial pressures. Only the well connected and financially stable journalists will remain. Even on a local level.
Approach
Maintain thorough forms of communication to assess the level of risk of each assignment and safety guidelines.
Communicate these guidelines to clients and sources, such as informing people that photographers will be wearing masks and gloves to protect all parties.
Evaluate each assignment after the fact to create guidelines, which we can learn from as we go along.
Trust in the photographer’s personal judgment on each assignment as social distancing becomes a new normal in the photographic process.
Payment
Include insurance (comp insurance) and 14 days paid sick leave for contracted gigs.
Personal Protection Equipment and other ‘Hazardous’ Pay should be included in standard freelance rates.
Pay full rate of each assignment, waive kill fees if a story does not publish.
We understand that the new world is not an easy one to maneuver. But if there is some comfort to think so, we are the pioneers of it. Not a world that we were expecting, for sure, but ours nonetheless.
Additional Resources
There are many recently published guidelines for everything and anything. Below are a few of our favorites for visual journalists/editors that might be helpful.
COVID-19 Guide for Visual Journalist (UPDATED)
Guidelines for editors and publishers: “We must consider their needs at the same time as our own; we are all seeing, in real-time, how these connections determine our collective well-being.”
Mental Health Resources for Journalists and You
Stay Safe,
The Visual Desk. 2020. Max Herman, Pat Nabong, Samantha Cabrera Friend, Sebastián Hidalgo and Youngrae Kim.
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