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In the final part of this series on photojournalism photographer David Rochkind outlines how he has funded a number of recent projects through grants and looks at ways in which the funding model can affect the final product.

"I began to work as a freelance photographer in 2003 when I moved to Caracas, Venezuela, at the tail-end of a national oil strike that changed the country's political landscape. I was interested in exploring how Hugo Chavez's self-styled revolution was affecting the country.
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"I spent nearly six years in Venezuela and relocated to Mexico City in 2008 to work on a project about the long-term costs and consequences of the country's drug war. Like most photographers, over the past several years I have seen a significant reduction in the amount of editorial work that is available.
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"In Caracas, most of the newspaper and magazine work I did was for daily or weekly articles written by a correspondent. I was paid by the day, as opposed to by the picture, and in the end one or two images would be published. I enjoyed doing the majority of the work but there was always a nagging feeling that I was simply illustrating someone else's story as opposed to telling my own.
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"I was initially drawn to photography as a way to become involved with issues that I was interested in, and to go on to tell those stories from my point of view. Sure, my pictures lent a bit of my perspective, but, essentially, they served as an illustration of the written text. It was frustrating and I began to think about how, through still images and multimedia, I could become the primary author, telling stories of my choosing in a variety of platforms.
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"The correspondents who came and worked with freelance photographers began to come less, then they came with no budget to hire a photographer and finally, many of them stopped coming at all. This dynamic largely continued when I moved to Mexico City in 2008, where I found numerous news bureaus had recently closed. I was confronted with the fact that traditional media was rarely publishing, let alone commissioning, long-form visual journalism. I saw the dearth of assignments as an opportunity that would force me to find different, and potentially more personally fulfilling, ways to reach an audience.
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"All of this led to reflection on what I truly hoped to accomplish with my pictures. Like many photographers, this came down to education, awareness and helping to motivate change. I decided to limit my focus to two projects: one on the global tuberculosis epidemic and one on the drug war in Mexico.
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"I figured that if my primary goal was not to publish in traditional print media, then I should take on projects that were larger and demanded a broader platform. I began to investigate ways to finance those projects and avenues to distribute them. I began to look for grants to produce the work, but was equally interested in figuring out how to reach an audience outside of traditional media outlets in a way that could still have a significant impact.
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"In 2008 I received a fellowship from the to produce a multimedia piece on the tuberculosis epidemic in the South African gold-mining community. This paid for the travel and production of the story, but the work did not garner significant interest from newspapers and magazines. As this was the kind of work I was interested in and believed in, I needed to find a different outlet that could properly display the work, and that could accomplish my goals of engagement and education.
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"The project went on to win the , which included a grant to produce an additional reportage about TB. I used the grant to work a piece about .
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"I was building a broad body of work about tuberculosis and wanted to use it in a way that educated people about TB, but in a more active and engaging way than simply raising awareness. I had images in my head of people reading a magazine with the pictures, or viewing them online, and responding to them, but ultimately moving on with no way to continue the conversation after they put down the magazine or turned off the computer.
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"I then applied for a grant from the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting to work on a story about that was part of a larger proposal submitted to both the Pulitzer Center and the , to create a free online educational curriculum to be used in secondary schools. This curriculum would be based on all of my work about TB and would engage students and teachers with the pictures, asking them to delve deep into the project in order to complete the activities in the lessons and hopefully develop a personal connection to the themes discussed in the work.
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"The project, EPIDEMIC: TB in the Global Community, is currently under production and should be available to schools in time for World TB Day on 24 March 2011. In addition to the curriculum, the website will teach students about letter-writing campaigns, fund-raising and activism, allowing them to take their experience with the pictures outside the classroom if they desire.
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"Parts of this project have been published in editorial outlets, both online and in print, but it was entirely funded by 'non-traditional' sources. In addition, its broadest distribution will be in a form that asks the viewer, in this case students, not only to look at the pictures and feel something, but also to engage in a meaningful dialogue about tuberculosis and public health.
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"I was looking for a way for the pictures to interact with the viewer over a period of time while beginning a conversation that had force and longevity. The project also attempts to impress upon the viewers that the experience with the pictures does not have to be purely passive, that they can be active participants in change. This kind of production and distribution would not have been possible with only the support of traditional media."

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I hope you have found some inspiration in this week's series of posts on photojournalism. I'd like to thank all my guest bloggers for sharing their thoughts and work with us.

If there are any specific subjects you'd like covered or photographers you'd like to hear from, why not e-mail me with your thoughts?

Related posts:
• Michael Kamber on photojournalism today
• David Campbell on photojournalism in the age of image abundance
• Adrian Evans on future funding of photojournalism
• Coming at photojournalism from a different angle

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