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Where’s My Eyeball?
Put an Eyeball on It.
That’s what one of my first photo bosses called a loupe, an eyeball. His eyeball would normally be sitting on, or near the light table. Occasionally it would go missing, at which point he’d ask the room, “Where’s my eyeball, dad?”
Bob Jarboe was a photojournalist, an Associated Press staff photographer based in Des Moines. He managed the AP’s photo report across the entire states of Iowa and Nebraska. To do so, he depended on a sizable network of AP stringers, mostly college students, to shoot the majority of the AP Laserphotos moved from the region.
It was easier and more productive to ride herd on these youngsters, coach them up to AP standards, and deal with their college age problems, then it was to rely on images from member newspapers.
The stringers got priceless, real world experience. They got to keep the rights to their work. They got paid (a little), and they occasionally got some extra film thrown their way.
Bob, trained an endless stream of these kids. I like to think it kept him young, but it probably had the opposite effect.
He had several roles. He managed his photographers and kept them (mostly) on the straight and narrow. He decided who was going to get the jobs. He figured out the strengths and weakness of his crew. He was a mentor, a coach…
