Electronic Photo Editing

Ali Balunywa in Kampala, Uganda

Jimmy Adriko is a veteran photojournalist who joined the New Vision in 1991. He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Fine Art and he has attended many different courses in photojournalism from Moscow, South Africa, United Kingdom and Netherlands.

Excerpts from the interview

Ali: Jimmy what exactly is your role as a photos editor?

Jimmy: As photos editor I assign duties to the photographers. I convene meetings every morning and give the photographers assignments for the day. For those who are not present, I do it via telephone, SMS or email. I also receive photographs from my staff through the network or via email from those photographers out of the station. I select the photos to be used in the newspaper and send them to the editors and I archive the unused ones electronically. I also take photographs, write and coordinate training, equipment and budgetary needs for the New Vision and the sister papers. In addition I organize with international agencies in terms of photo needs with institutions like Reuters, AFP, photos.com and the like. I also manage the sales and purchases of photos.

How does the New Media support you in fulfilling your duties?

Until a few years ago, the photo process was all manual. Taking, processing and cleaning the photos was a long process. For example if a photographer was to travel to Rwanda, the photos he would take would only be used on his return! 

Today coordinating activities is easily done using the mobile phone. Photographers can be tracked and those in the field reassigned duties. The mobile phone can also be used in emergences to take photos and also use MMS or email to send them. This encourages citizen journalism. 

We use the Internet to buy and sell photos through the wire service. We also search the Internet for photos to illustrate our stories. Email and the intranet are other useful tools of communication. 

All photographers use digital cameras to take the photos after which they upload them on the computer, clean them and send them to me through the network. The computer processes and enhances the photos. All photographers are trained to use the Adobe Photoshop software for this.

The computer is also used to archive photos. At the moment we are in the process of scanning all the photographs and very soon all hard copies will be discarded. In a day, the New Vision archives a minimum of 200 pictures.

Photographers also use the Social Networking Sites to share photos with peers and some have created their own catalogues online.