Dear Reader,
I went to sleep Monday night with well-laid plans for Tuesday morning – a no-no in the life of a journalist. I’d scheduled a morning recording session with photographer Jake May of The Flint Journal, for our MLive Behind the Headlines podcast. We planned to discuss the life of photojournalists during the coronavirus pandemic. But I was greeted with this message when my alarm went off: “We've got a lot of flood damage up here in Saginaw Bay area and would like to deploy Jake May this morning,” wrote regional news manager Clark Hughes. “Is it possible to shift the podcast discussion to later in the day?” Of course it was – an elemental rule in journalism is that breaking news trumps all. And sending Jake May is always a good idea. May was a Pulitzer Prize finalist for his coverage of the Flint Water Crisis, and has been named the National Small Market Photographer of the Year for the past two years. The day before, he’d been in Owosso, covering a rally supporting a barber who is defying Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s orders to stay closed. And in the days before that, he was covering news in Flint. So when he got to where divers had to rescue a driver from a truck that had been swept away, he applied the same philosophy he uses on all assignments – he waded right in. “Every step you take, you have to be careful. There was a drop off, and water rolling … I knew I had to get that photo to show the readers the true impact of what (the flooding) does to our everyday lives, to people,” May said. That word, “people,” defines May’s body of work. He consistently illustrates how news events impact the lives and conditions of human beings. The coronavirus pandemic has made that challenging, to say the least. “(Legendary photographer) Robert Capa said, ‘If you can’t feel their breath, you’re not close enough,’” May said, then paused. “Not right now.” May and MLive’s excellent cadre of photojournalists statewide are doing admirable work during this crisis, documenting everything from political and social protests to businesses preparing to reopen and quiet moments of everyday life. It’s not the sort of thing they can do from a home office. So, they don masks and sometimes gloves, they socially distance and put a longer lens on their cameras – and then find creative ways to tell human stories. For instance, May helped lead a project in which our photographers took portraits of Michigan residents through their doors and windows, and then gathered short stories about how they are coping with life during “stay at home.” “It’s so vital to have a human connection,” May said. “It’s how we built society. We are all doing something to better humanity, but we’ve never felt more alone. That, to me, is mind boggling. “And the fact that we do feel that way – it’s our job as journalists to help connect those dots, and help make sure people understand they are not alone.” May has honed that principle, and his reputation to match, in the seven-plus years he has lived in Flint. The city was already beset by well-publicized problems when he got there, such as crime, economic hardship, population decline and blight. And then the water crisis hit. For a journalist, those kinds of conditions make for meaningful reporting. But for May, telling the story meant living the story. “Flint’s my home. I wouldn’t call it a second home,” he said. “I’ve gained so much respect and trust with so many just by being present. That’s a huge thing we can do as journalists today … the relationships you build are the foundation of how we can continue to tell intimate and purposeful stories in our communities.” I don’t know how this pandemic is going to unfold. But I am confident that MLive, with committed journalists like Jake May, will bring the human element forward in all that we do. |