How a Photojournalist Tells Stories Through Photography

About Deanne Fitzmaurice

As a Pulitzer Prize-winning editorial and commercial photographer, San Francisco-based Deanne Fitzmaurice is most known for her unique ability to go behind the scenes to discover and convey personal, intimate and emotional stories through images. Fitzmaurice, a Nikon Ambassador, is an assignment photographer with publications including Sports Illustrated, ESPN, National Geographic and many other respected outlets. Deanne has also partnered with foundations and non-profits including the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the Lucile Packard Foundation. Deanne’s commercial clients include Apple, Nike, Google and Facebook.

Show Notes

Building relationships with people is key.
Photojournalism, Documentary, and Street photography are often interchangeable and overlapping, though do tend to lend themselves to particular kinds of projects:
- Documentary tends to lend itself to longer term projects.
- Photojournalists tend to lend themselves to assignments and journalistic ethics.
- Street photography tends to be walking the streets and seeing what unfolds.
When you look at the scene in front of you, look at potential foregrounds and backgrounds.
Spending time in a location can help you become invisible.
Sometimes you can take an assignment that calls to you, and sometimes you can find a project and pitch it to turn it into an assignment.
You have to care about the projects you want to document if you want others to care.
Don’t rush a photo, spending time on a photo can help you make a photo you think will be great even better.
If you need to take better photos, put yourself in front of more interesting situations.