Rob Hart’s Tumblr: Day 1 – unemployment paperwork and cold pizza

After the Chicago Sun-Times laid off its entire photography staff last week, including Pulitzer Prize winner John H. White, the paper announced that reporters would be trained to take iPhone photos to replace the photographers’ work. One former staffer is fighting back.

Chicago media critic Robert Feder posted to Facebook:

Sun-Times reporters begin mandatory training today on ‘iPhone photography basics’ following elimination of the paper’s entire photography staff. “In the coming days and weeks, we’ll be working with all editorial employees to train and outfit you as much as possible to produce the content we need,” managing editor Craig Newman tells staffers in a memo.

Former staffer Rob Hart has been documenting his life after the Sun-Times with iPhone photos posted to his Tumblr. The site reads, “Rob Hart was replaced with a reporter with an iPhone, so he is documenting his new life with an iPhone, but with the eye of a photojournalist trained in storytelling.”

“I thought it was a great way to both mock my situation and celebrate it,” Hart said in an interview with Erin Lodi.

The images are mainly in black and white, giving glimpses into sad or funny moments as he works, eats, and spends time with his daughter. The photos chronicle his life working from home in the wake of the layoffs: day four he posted “new home office set up behind dryer”; day five, “Interview on NPR. Using toilet paper as a mic stand.”

“If they had laid me off on a Wednesday by myself, nobody would know who I am,” Hart said in an interview with The Daily Dot. “But they laid us all off at once, and people are pissed.”

From the rest of Hart’s interview:

DD: Is it insulting to be replaced by iPhones?

RH: A camera is just a tool. A carpenter using a hammer and me using a hammer are going to get different results. I can use a hammer but I don’t know how to make a table. For me it’s not about the camera, it’s about the skill and the storytelling ability. I’ve had 20 years of training. I’ve developed an instinct to know when to move in and to capture the moment that you think is going to happen. Reporters use a different part of the brain. They show up and ask, “What happened?” Photojournalists show up before something happens.

We need to start teaching people to do everything. I wasn’t taught how to write a story. I developed that skill from sitting with reporters, but I have a hard time writing notes. When I write a story, it takes me a long time. I heard from a reporter yesterday who shot two features with her phone and she marveled at how much time it took to shoot the photos, choose the ones she wanted, edit the photos, upload the photos—she just had no idea how much time it took. The product of the reporting and the photography is going to suffer.

DD: Is it because they don’t know how to be photographers?

RH: How many people come up to me and say, “Oh, your camera’s nice. I bet it takes great photos.” Yeah, it does. Because I’m using it. No one would say to a dentist, “Oh your drill must do great root canals.” Photojournalists aren’t replaceable. Photography isn’t about smarts, it’s about feeling and understanding emotions. Some reporters are really good at that, but most of them aren’t.

Hart wrote to MobyLives that his experience with Tumblr has been positive, and has taught him something about what it’s like to be on other side of the lens. “People from all over the world have been emailing me and telling me their stories. It’s strange to get so much attention. As a visual storyteller, your job [is] to be a loving presence and the eyes for the rest of the world. To become a subject has been eye-opening.”