Episode Details

It was a real pleasure meet award winning photojournalist Lisa DeJong recently. She has been a local news photographer for the past 20 years has been on the staff at the Cleveland Plain Dealer for the last seven. Before that she worked for the Flint Journal in Flint, Michigan and the storied St. Petersburg Times.

We’re very fortunate in the Cleveland market to have a staff of excellent photographers at our local newspaper. For years I’ve been following their work and in the process have learned so much about working with available light, composition and capturing the moment.

As part of my daily ritual of catching up on the news I’ve admired Lisa’s work by seeing her publish one brilliant photograph after another. Yet she takes it in stride describing it as another day at work. Like most true professionals, she makes it look easy. It’s not.

A local newspaper photographer has a very difficult job. They’re responsible for covering many stories every day. Not only do they have to deal with traffic, bad weather, uncooperative subjects and bad light, but they are under constant pressure to “get the shot” every time. They don’t have the luxury of coming back another day when the light is better…they have deadlines…every day. It doesn’t stop. But they’re artists too, and creativity on a time schedule, under pressure isn’t easy.

Lisa is a perfect example of this. She tells us in order to be successful in her field you have to do the work every day with you feel like it or not. It’s important to be detached to become invisible and not be part of the story. To capture the story and not be part of it.

Street photographers have much to learn from photojournalists. They work fast, in the moment, make the best use of available light and work in the moment. Many of Lisa’s photographs that we show in this article are not considered street photography. But we felt it was important to show the depth and breadth of Lisa’s work in the types of photographs she has to make every day.

This is the first time that I had an opportunity to sit down with my interview subject face-to-face and have a real conversation. It was a true pleasure to meet one of my influences in person. I hope you enjoy it too.

– Bob Patterson

A Selection of Lisa’s Pho