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I can’t quite pin
down who sang the pop music hit ‘Respect Yourself,’ or when it made the
charts. I do know that Aretha Franklin’s monster hit ‘Respect’ released
in the late 60s, won the hearts of even hardcore avant-garde jazz
purists like pianist Cecil Taylor, for its soul rhythms as well as its
strong, demanding lyrics. The bottom line was basically what good
parents are supposed to drum into the ears of children quite early in
life, that you first earn then demand respect.

It would sadly seem
that this simple lesson in good social behaviour is entirely lost on
the majority of ‘younger’ press photographers on the scene today. As
for their freelance counterparts – those regarded with rightful disdain
as ‘kpa kpa kpa photographers’ – bad social behaviour is their stock in
trade; hence press photographers worth their salt usually keep a
spiteful distance away from them when they appear, usually uninvited,
at events. Maybe it is the patronage they enjoy and the open display of
cool good cash being offered them by their ‘customers’ at social events
in exchange for their ‘instant portraits’ that has infected press
photographers and made them abandon decorum for rowdiness and unethical
behaviour.

Local paparazzi

‘Kpa kpa kpa
photographers’ have never earned and, will never earn respect. It is
not in the nature of their genre of photography which thrives on a
dog-eat-dog philosophy. Hence they swoop on their victims and potential
customers in a pack and then jostle and block their fellow photographic
tribesmen, just to get the first and best shots. They then rush out to
print (temporarily pawning their cameras to the laboratory owners) and
offer to their potential customers at the venue, while the event is
ongoing. That they are desperate is an understatement. That they are
our local version of ‘paparazzi’ hunting down celebrity preys is
investing them with too much respect and intelligence. They most times
don’t care or know who their ‘victims’ are. They are solely driven by
the instinct that their victims are vain egomaniacs in love with their
faces and current fashion statements! They are usually right in that
they are patronised by an ever-growing class of people who want to
publicly show off, our socialites, as the gossip papers label them.

Unruly photographers

My concern about
how ‘younger’ press photographers have decided to lower themselves and
their genre of photography to the base level of ‘kpa kpa kpa
photographers’ was triggered by two items in the Arts and Culture
section of Next on Sunday, May 16, 2010; and observations I had
previously made in Media Review about the unruly behaviour of press
photographers at important events.

First, I was happy
about the photograph (courtesy of Newswatch) chosen to illustrate my
tribute to Matthew Faji. Dressed in a natty suit and tie was a smiling
Faji fondly holding in each hand SLR cameras fitted with medium and
zoom lenses. We behold the picture of a master photographer, properly
dressed for any occasion and venue and, very professionally equipped
with the right tools, especially the lenses. Faji demonstrates that he
has earned the respect that will smoothly open doors for him, be it at
UN Headquarters, the White House and our own State House/Dodan Barracks!

In the same edition
is a story on the Award ceremony for the Soyinka Prize in Literature
worth a cool 20,000 US dollars. To quote from Aderinsola Ajao’s report,
‘(Soyinka) gave an insight into dealing with obtrusive photographers
who proceed to plant themselves in the audience’s view, leaving their
“backsides” as the only entertainment available to the viewer. A few
pricks of the fork on the “soft backsides”, he said would instantly
deal with “this insensitivity to audience.”’

What Soyinka kindly
describes as insensitivity I bluntly regard as bad manners and
unethical behaviour on the part of press photographers! From my
article, Profile and Ethics (Media Review, June 2009), I offer some
quotes. ‘Where once you had press photographers like Sunmi Smart-Cole
and Felix Elijah (to name a few) wearing suits on assignments, and many
others always smartly and appropriately dressed, we now have many young
press photographers scruffily dressed in branded T-shirts, wearing
sandals and roaming around the venues of events without professional
comportment. Why would they not be disrespected and, why would the
security forces and political thugs not harass and push them around?”

Herd mentality

At the unveiling
(shown on satellite TV) of the mascot for the 2009 FIFA Under-17
Championship in Abuja, ‘Nigerian press photographers put on a very
embarrassing display of poor professional ethics. Hundreds of press
photographers and television cameramen (many unsuitably dressed) rushed
on to the stage and completely blocked the view of all the invited
guests who were seated at their dinner tables. After more than five
minutes the MC was forced to call them to order for unruly
un-gentlemanly behaviour.’

Then Vice-President
Jonathan, governors and top FIFA officials were at that Abuja ceremony.
Soyinka (who refused a call to the high table) was at the Awolowo 100th
Anniversary ceremony at Muson Centre, Lagos in early 2009; when press
and kpa kpa kpa photographers rushed on stage to grab shots of Ma Awo,
Governor Fashola and other VIPs on the high table!

‘This herd
mentality,’ I later wrote, ‘which drives press photographers; all in
the name of looking for exclusive close-up shots, has become the norm
as they crowd high tables at events and turn themselves into a public
nuisance. That they are usually verbally and physically abused for
their bad manners has not dissuaded them so far.’

Faji’s style

I wish our current
crop of press photographers will learn from Faji’s photograph on the
need to be always properly dressed and equipped with the correct lenses
to get their shots without interfering with the audience and other
photographers. It is bad enough that press photographers are still
viewed as poor cousins to the editorial staff in the newsrooms and on
editorial boards of Nigerian media organisations. Their newly-acquired
added minus of poor social decorum further diminishes their social
profile.

Journalists in
Nigeria fought hard and long to stop our so-called big men – the
military and all grades of politicians including Presidents – from
viewing and calling them ‘press boys’. The editors and senior
journalists who still crave for and accept ‘brown envelopes’ have
definitely tarnished the new and established image of our strong and
fearless press men. I wonder how our press photographers feel when all
manner of people shout out at them “hey foto-grapher, come here!”

The kpa kpa kpa brigade doesn’t care. For them, “Oga, madam, you want foto?” is a ‘professional’ prelude for quick cash!