Years ahead
Just taking pictures might not be enough any more. Multimedia reporting is here and photographers are encouraged to do more than just record who, what, why, where and when in their captions.
Vital though those details are, editors are after direct quotes from those depicted; in addition, photographers are often asked to record interviews so that audio slideshows can be produced.
Some of the language we use to describe this kind of newsgathering is new, but photo-journalists of today can look to the early years of the previous century for inspiration.
A forthcoming auction of the work of got me thinking about the way in which he pioneered this approach more than 100 years ago. Curtis set out to document the life of Native Americans and today many of his pictures are well known, though I suspect his name is not.
Curtis's project began in 1907; in 1930, he published the final volume in a set of 20 books. Each is illustrated with 75 sepia-toned alongside detailed essays.
Curtis's stated aim was "to form a comprehensive and permanent record of all the important tribes of the United States and Alaska that still retain to a considerable degree their... customs and traditions".
This is a serious body of work that required total commitment and is arguably one of the finest ethnographic studies using photography ever undertaken. Curtis's project received the support of President Theodore Roosevelt and was made possible by financier and art collector .
Morgan offered Curtis $75,000, instructing him to produce the most beautiful set of books ever published. Curtis duly obliged, insisting on the highest production values available.
The quality of the photographs is undeniable, though to return to the point in hand, Curtis did not just take pictures, more than 40,000 of them. He also made more than 10,000 recordings of his subjects' speech and music.
His output was not confined to the printed page. He produced illustrated lectures, slideshows and a production entitled The Indian Picture Opera.
Despite his commitment, Curtis was inevitably working from the outside looking in. It's said that one translator told Curtis he was trying to capture that which did not exist.
Yet, for any flaws that time and distance can now highlight, Curtis's approach was many years ahead of its time, and one worth adopting today.
You can see and my thanks go to for the picture showing the 20 volumes of The North American Indian.
I'm 
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