PHOTO CONFESSIONAL: Kevin Moloney
IF YOU WEREN’T A PHOTOGRAPHER, WHAT OTHER PROFESSION WOULD YOU PICK?
I have the luxury of already choosing that profession! For 21 years I taught college photojournalism classes part-time while I worked mostly for the New York Times. I quickly fell in love with the students, their work, their eagerness, and interest, and knew that when the time was right I would reverse the proportion and teach full-time while photographing part-time. I’m now a professor of transmedia storytelling at Ball State University.
WHAT HAS BEEN THE MOST CRUCIAL DECISION YOU HAVE MADE IN YOUR CAREER’s DEVELOPMENT?
In 1995 I decided to quit a happy, good-paying job at a newspaper in Florida and move to Brazil to start a freelance photojournalism career. That one risky decision changed the entirety of my life. I knew I would face some debt (and I certainly did), risk, and personal and professional challenges. I would do it all again in a second! (but perhaps with a little more money in the bank).
HOW IMPORTANT IS RESEARCH IN YOUR WORK?
I always seek a balance in how much I research (through prior reporting of my own or by others). To tell a story accurately, we must know what we are telling is accurate and well-contextualized. Our goal is to tell the story that is, not the story that we wish it to be.
The important balance is that we also need to be just näive enough to see the story with new eyes. I first research to understand the story. Then I think about and acknowledge my assumptions — I let go of them as much as I can — and I work to catch myself jumping to conclusions. That’s even harder than it sounds, and sometimes I fail at it too.
IS THERE A PHOTOGRAPHER/ARTIST WHO IS A CONSTANT REFERENCE FOR YOU?
This is always a bit generational, isn’t it? When I was a kid I was surrounded by photo books in my father’s collection. I would browse through them with curiosity and slip most back onto the shelf. But as I went through those books it was always Henri Cartier-Bresson that I kept opening. His unbelievable ability to catch fleeting moments within complex compositions raised my heart rate and loaded my brain with dopamine. His work still does that to me, and so does that of many of his contemporary Magnum colleagues like Marc Riboud, René Burri, Raymond Depardon and others. I have always wished my work to be an extension or an expansion of what they started.
WHAT WOULD YOU NOT WANT TO PHOTOGRAPH?
Although I have photographed protest, strife, poverty, displacement, and some armed conflict, I have never photographed an institutionalized war. I’d like to keep it that way. Too many of my colleagues suffer emotional consequences I don’t wish to share.
I have photographed far more mass shootings and school shootings than I would like, and it led to some treatment for PTSD, particularly after I found myself photographing a shooting at my own son’s middle school in 2018. It is a mindful to find yourself telling the country to look again at this madness while wondering where your child is and if they are safe.
WHAT EQUIPMENT DO YOU USE, AND WHAT IMPORTANCE DO YOU GIVE TO TECHNIQUE?
I use far too many kinds of cameras! I still love film alongside digital, and each system enables me to see the world differently. I love the square frames of my Rolleiflexes and how large format (4X5) cameras slow me down.
However, my go-tos are my Leica M cameras for their subtlety and their rangefinder view of the world in clear focus. Layering complex compositions is much easier when everything in your view is in focus. SLRs show a world in shallow depth of field, which inspires one kind of composition. Rangefinders inspire another kind.
When I am out hunting for quotidian (Cartier-Bresson) moments I pick up the Leicas. When I am under deadline pressure or in fast-changing news work I need a camera that gets as completely out of my way as possible. Then I pick up my Nikon DSLRs. I don’t yet use EVF mirrorless cameras because I still find the electronic viewfinders anti-immersive. They take me out of the scene. That tech will change and improve, assuredly, and then I’ll adopt it.
Technique is very important to me. You can’t be a poet if you are not fluent in a language. To tell important stories we need all the tools of visual storytelling at our disposal — from an understanding of how something as basic as depth of field changes communication, to where and when to break accepted and comfortable composition patterns.
WHAT IS THE STARTING POINT OF YOUR CREATIVE PROCESS?
Dorothea Lange once told Ralph Gibson that he needed a “point of departure” — a stepping-off point that gives work a purpose. That can be as simple as a new neighborhood or country to explore, or a social issue that needs more public awareness. I look for reasons to be curious or intrigued, shocked or amused.
This set of images is an example. At the height of the pandemic I was frustrated that I couldn’t travel the world, I was in need of a subject, and I wanted to explore my recently adopted state. So I set off to photograph the towns in Indiana named for ancient, biblical or modern foreign lands. It was a point of departure. I also wanted to enjoy my trio of beloved Rolleiflex cameras and shoot some film so I could sink into a darkroom. The images are also a departure of style. Since I did not want to be a virus vector I observed these places from a social distance. In the end it revealed the dangers of that as a documentary photographer. The biggest discovery I made in wandering 50 of these towns was that distance only reinforces assumption and bias for the photographer and the viewer. You, viewer, are making many assumptions about the people who live in these places based only on surfaces. While I like these images, they don’t tell us anything real about these places.
HOW DO YOU DEFINE YOUR PHOTOGRAPHY WITH a #tag
I pick #empathy as that is what I want to inspire.
at what point did you feel you were a photographer, and what made you think that way?
As a kid I was fascinated with the famous people my photojournalist father met, the important events he saw, and how much fun he had photographing it all. I guess I decided that this business was for me when I found out that somebody even paid him for it.
But I’ve learned more about the profession since then. As my own career has progressed, I’ve discovered what he knew all along — that experiencing the notoriety of an event or person is not the most intriguing part of the career. It is documenting how that person or event affects the lives of others that presents the challenge and satisfaction of photojournalism.
The point at which I moved from thinking of photojournalism as a fun job and discovered that it was a vocation was while photographic my first meaningful and successful photo essay on the religious pilgrimage in Chimayó, New Mexico. On that story, I met scores of people eager to tell me how much the place meant to them, and to allow me into some of their most intimate and personal moments. That is when I felt what I do..
HOW DO YOU DEAL WITH REJECTION?
Poorly. Ask my therapist about that
HOW DO YOU THINK YOU HAVE ACCOMPLISHED SUCH SUCCESS?
When I launched my freelance career, I built success by being dependable, a good reporter, and able to write good captions in AP style with all the necessary information to contextualize the images, and do it on deadline.
That is generational, though. Now I aim students toward a unique vision and an ability to tell their own story as meaningfully as they tell the stories of others. The professional landscape is completely different for them than it was for me.
HOW DO YOU APPROACH STRANGERS IN YOUR PROJECTS OR TO INCLUDE IN YOUR PROJECTS?
This has always been the hardest thing for students to do. Without a purpose behind the photographs, it is often excruciating. We assume we will be rejected. We assume that they will assume that we are up to no good.
I tell my students — and I have to remind myself of this occasionally too — that people like to share their stories, even terrible ones. As a social species, we want others on our side, in step with us, and understanding us. We like to talk about ourselves. Talk is usually the entry point.
Most people are also far more afraid of how they look than they are of the ridiculous things they might say. Photos make them nervous, and when they are nervous people perform who they wish to be rather than who they are. That’s why we see so many duck faces, flashing fours, thumbs up, and plastic smiles. If time is short I pull a camera away from my face and wink, letting them know that this is not what I am after. If time is long, I know they will relax and be themselves again soon enough.
IS IT COMMON FOR YOU TO QUESTION YOURSELF OR YOUR PHOTOGRAPHY?
Back to my therapist… I now know why this is called a confessional!
It is the peculiar nature of the artist or communicator to always view their own work as terrible and that of others as annoyingly brilliant. If I were to think my images were good enough, they would never get better.
how is to approach to the art world/ photo-book world?
I am a photojournalist. Even though sometimes the most telling image is not as artful, some of the most important, moving, and consequential works of photojournalism have been art masterpieces that echo the works of Goya, Michelangelo, Rembrandt, and others.
Photography tell stories through both implicit and explicit emotion — the implicit is often in the framing, light, and composition, and the explicit through the expressions and actions of the subject. Seeing them at once and capturing them both is very artful.
Books are an excellent channel to deliver photographs that ask for a little more time and comtemplation, or works that a reader might return to regularly. Much photojournalism (or documentary work) is most effective in a book. I love them and have hundreds in my collection.
The “artbook industrial complex” is a tough one for anyone to crack, though. It is a highly curated and filtered business that shifts with fashion and and sometimes by whim. I’ve not succeeded in it either (but neither have I tried very hard).
WHAT WOULD YOU SAY TO A NEW PHOTOGRAPHER WHO IS JUST STARTING OUT?
LOVE this.
It is hard work that will often demand more than you think you have to give. It will pay poorly. Success is elusive, and its pursuit is quixotic. It is something best done with the passion, devotion, and self-sacrifice of a young lover.
I would also say, “Save money, conserve money, and plan ahead.” When you start out, it might feel like something you will eagerly and happily do until you drop dead. But most of us will want and need to retire someday, And along the way, we might want families, long-term homes, and other comforts money does buy. Building any business requires investment, but don’t overdo it.
"The most important thing is not what the author, or any artist, had in mind to begin with but at what point he decided to stop.'' — D.W. Harding
ABOUT KEVIN MOLONEY
Kevin Moloney is a distinguished photographer and educator with a prolific career in photojournalism and teaching. He has photographed nearly 1,000 stories for “The New York Times”, with many appearing on the front page. His work has also been featured in prominent publications such as “National Geographic”, “TIME”, “Newsweek”, and “The Washington Post”, among others. Throughout his career, he has served as a staff photographer for four daily newspapers, and his extensive archive includes around 500,000 images available for licensing.
For 21 years, Kevin taught photojournalism at the University of Colorado at Boulder, where he guided students who have gone on to work with top agencies like VII and l'Agence VU. His students have received numerous prestigious awards, including “World Press Photo” and “Visa pour l'Image”. Additionally, he has conducted international journalism workshops in various countries, including Argentina, Chile, and Myanmar.
Currently, Kevin serves as an Associate Professor of Emerging Media Design and Development at “Ball State University”.. He holds a Ph.D. in technology, media, and society from the University of Colorado's ATLAS Institute. His expertise in transmedia storytelling has led him to present at various conferences, including those organized by the National Press Photographers Association.
Kevin's commitment to photography extends beyond mere documentation; he views it as a powerful means of expression that can give voice to the voiceless.
Self-Portrait
