Page 13 - Capture Nov 21-Jan 22

a look back at 2021 editorial
Editorial
The Year in Review
A nervous optimism began to grow in editorial photography towards the end of 2020. 2021 was to be the year the new normal began. The 2021 normal wasn’t what anyone expected. Candide McDonald explores what it was.
MAIN: Jody Marquess (42) stands for
a portrait in the home of his deceased stepfather
in Phoenix, Arizona, on 23 June, 2021. His stepfather, John Ramer (69), died 17 June during a heatwave
in Phoenix on Jody’s birthday. “He had tough- guy syndrome and was very frugal. He was an honest and simple man,” said Jody.
Jody said the temperature inside the house was 130°F. “He was cooking in a leather chair.”
The “great editorial culling” that occurred in print in 2020 waned this year, but its scars remained. In Australia, NewsCorp stopped printing 112 newspapers in May 2020. 36 closed and 76 became online only. In July 2020, Bauer Media (now Are Media) magazines Harper’s BAZAAR, ELLE, InStyle, Men’s Health, Women’s Health, Good Health, NW, and OK! closed shortly after Mercury Capital acquired the company. The pattern was the same throughout the world. The “great democratisation of photography” showed no signs of abating either. Unearthing less established [read: less expensive] photographers became not only a budget necessity, but a trend – aided and abetted by the diversity movement. Less work, smaller commissions, and more photographers promised that 2021 would be a challenging year.
Then came a second wave of COVID. This struck the northern hemisphere early in the year while Australia was enjoying a few months of production with rules, but without lockdowns. In July, Australia’s dream run ended as Europe and the US began to be freed. This year, the world didn’t conquer COVID either. We’ve realised, instead, that the new normal involves living with it. 2022 should be an interesting year.
Here is how five Australian photographers managed 2021.
Adam Ferguson: It has been such a year
When the pandemic overturned life as usual last year, Adam Ferguson’s work became limited. Like most freelancers, he found it very difficult financially. “Nothing really lined up for me in 2020 workwise – a combination of my timing with a few projects and where I was positioned globally,” he explains. Ferguson had been living in New York for more than a decade. 2021 has been a different story, although he spent much of its latter half trying unsuccessfully to return home to Australia. “To be honest, 2021 has been pretty good to me as a photographer,” he admits. “I think it’s been a confluence of mid-career point and relative success. I’ve been fortunate enough to get some really interesting editorial assignments in America and in Mexico, including a field project in Mexico on migrants for The New York Times, a cover story for The New York Times recently about climate change in the
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