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POV: Fixers

Mandalay, Burma - Image Copyright © Tewfic El-Sawy
My Point Of View this week is prompted by the recent release of an Italian journalist and his guide in Afghanistan.

By fixer, I mean someone local who helps you, whether photojournalist or a travel photographer, to get where you need to go, to translate, and who smoothes your way into making the photographs you need. You can call him a guide, if you like...but I prefer describing such a person as a fixer because that's what they are. They 'fix' stuff...so they're fixers.

I've had many fixers helping me during solo assignments and travels. When we first meet, I always spend at least an hour to get to know them better...and to see if they have what it takes to be fixers. I want someone who can watch my back when I'm busy photographing, someone to make sure that I'll get where I want to be at the right time...someone who has the flexibility and street smarts to suggest alternatives if something doesn't work for me...and to suggest what I haven't thought of.

On a recent project in Varanasi, I had the good fortune to hire a local person who had a solid network of connections, and who called on his contacts (whether official or unofficial) at street level to deliver what I needed. While photographing in a Sufi shrine, I was saved from probable injury when he quickly and literally pulled me away from an uncomfortable situation (I hadn't seen that I was threatened by someone wielding a stone) so i'm indebted to him for far more than just fixing. While photographing indian widows in Vrindavan, I had just the opposite...a fixer who was scared of his own shadow, and I was left to fend for myself when I got into some difficulty.

I know I'm preaching to the converted, but there's no harm in saying the obvious. A good fixer is an extremely valuable resource and for photojournalists, the relationship may need to be cultivated over many months or even years. I've had good ones, and had bad ones. The good fixers have considerable pride in their work...and develop a kinship with the photographer. I've often seen photographers treat their guides (or fixers) not as well as they should, and they end up being disappointed in the results of their assignments or projects. So fixers are of critical importance, and shabby treatment -be it shortchanging them or being too bossy- is counterproductive.

But the 'hard core' fixers are those who assist conflict photographers. Most of the photographs we see in the newspapers and in the rest of the media out of Iraq, Afghanistan and Palestine were made possible because a fixer was involved to some degree, or at some stage. Some pay for their job with their lives...others are kidnapped. These are the real fixers. Some conflict photographers go on to win international and national recognition, awards and prizes...but most fixers stay where they are...earning modest wages to feed their families while surviving difficult situations. In my opinion, they certainly deserve part of the credits that are heaped on the photographers....are they honored when the photographers receive their well-deserved prizes, awards and recognition? I hope some are...they certainly deserve it.