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Editor's note: This excerpt first appeared in photographer and author Harold Davis' recent Focal Press book, Photographing Flowers: Exploring Macro Photography with Harold Davis.
The closer you...
Jodi Cobb specializes in large-scale, global stories exploring such topics as 21st-century slavery as well as more intimate stories set inside closed and secret worlds. A former staff photographer for National Geographic, she has worked in more than 50 countries, primarily in the Middle East and Asia. She is the author and photographer of the book Geisha: The Life, the Voices, the Art, which explores the previously hidden world of the Japanese geisha. Cobb’s photography has been honored many times by the National Press Photographers Association, and in 1985 she was the first woman to be named the White House Photographer of the Year. Cobb was one of the first photographers to cross China after it reopened to the West in the 1970s when she undertook a two-month-long, 7,000-mile (11,262 kilometers) journey for the National Geographic book Journey into China. Cobb has produced numerous articles for National Geographic, including “This Thing Called Love,” “21st-Century Slaves,” “The Enigma of Beauty,” and “The Women of Saudi Arabia,” and she has contributed to several National Geographic books. Cobb resides in Washington, D.C.
I took a moment with Jodi to talk with her about her passion for photojournalistic photography. Jodi has an extensive 30+ year career as a staff photographer for National Geographic, and is currently doing freelance with them for the past year, expanding her photojournalistic coverage into other avenues as well.
It was interesting to find out her insider’s perspective on the creation of a story from start to finish—how she proposes an idea, the research that goes into the stories, and the length of time for completion. Her story on “21st-Century Slaves”, was a massive project involving following all forms of trafficking in 10 different countries and ended up being about a 28-page spread. It received the biggest reader response in the history of the magazine until that time. Jodi was carving new grounds with a story that had hardly been written about or researched.
As a strong follow-up to the interview, I attended Jodi Cobb’s An Evening with an Artist, organized by PIEA and sponsored by Nikon at PMA. Many of the stories and details she shared with a packed room full of eager listeners she also had shared with me earlier in the day. The difference was seeing the striking images that accompanied the dialogue. Cobb’s presentation spanned the length of her career touching on some of the more meaningful stories and projects she had completed with National Geographic, such as Saudi Arabian women, Beauty, Love, and the list goes on. She also presented on her book project Geisha: The Life, the Voices, the Art, for which she took a 6-month leave of absence from National Geographic to pursue, and the entire work on the project spanned three years.
It was extremely inspiring to speak with Jodi about her vision with photography. “The real joy of photography for me is in the actual taking of the photograph. It’s that zen state—completely focused on that one thing, that moment. I want my photographs to either be beautiful or meaningful.”
Tell us a little about your time shooting for National Geographic.
I’ve been a staff photographer at National Geographic for several decades. Prior to that, I had worked as a staff photographer for two newspapers for a short time right out of school, then went to Geographic and I’ve been there ever since. I had been on staff until last year. They’ve eliminated the position of staff field photographers at National Geographic to switch to an all freelance photography department.
How does that change the relationship with National Geographic, moving from staff to freelance?
It’s very exciting for me. It was time. I’ve been there my whole life. I always talked about being on my own and doing other things, and now I can. When I left, it was a great time. Now, with the economy, it’s a little harder. It’s been pretty tragic since then. Who knows what’s going to happen with the photography business, especially with documentary/investigative journalism photography. I’m still doing work with them. I just finished an assignment on Venice, which was my first major assignment shot entirely in digital. We just finished the layout last week.
Jodi Cobb
National Geographic has been the pinnacle for so long for photojournalists, documentary photographers, and science photographers. How long do you see that lasting? Do you think National Geographic will be able to survive the digital and online media push?
I don’t know. No one knows the answer. The more I’ve had time to think about my next move, the more I realize how much I love to photograph. I just love taking pictures. While there are other things I could do such as editing, there’s nothing like taking photographs for me, and I’ll be happy as long as I can keep doing that. The final medium doesn’t matter as much anymore. I used to think that you had to have a magazine in your hand. Currently, there are all sorts of ways of looking at photographs and I think that if photographers don’t embrace all that, we’re lost.
I’m one of the last converts to digital. Now that I have, the advantages of digital for me have been huge. It’s really renewed my enthusiasm for photography. Usually on a project, I’m in the field for a month or more at a time and unable to see any pictures that I’ve taken. To be able to see the pictures is huge. Before, I had to just rely on faith that the camera was working and that my settings were correct.
I never was that interested in equipment and technology until went freelance and switched to digital. I’ve always just used whatever I could to interpret what I wanted to show. The kinds of photography I was doing in small places, small rooms, and intimate spaces, I didn’t enjoy using flash. It was so intrusive, disrupting, and I never really learned to master flash technique. Now, I can see in the dark with digital. I like to think I waited to switch to digital until they’ve optimized all the equipment, and I was able to jump in at the end of the digital revolution [she laughed].
What is your typical lens kit these days? Have you had any major focal length changes over your career?
I find all the Nikon zooms with VR (vibration reduction) to be pretty cool. I’m using the same focal lengths, but instead of having to use five prime lenses, I have two zooms, which has simplified my life enormously. I do a lot of wide angle and moderate telephoto work, and occasionally will use a 300 or 400mm on very special things, such as the “21st-Century Slaves” story for long shots down streets where I was not supposed to be.
Can you relate a quick synopsis of how you broke into this field of work, specifically the larger format photojournalist story telling?
Our choices were much fewer when I was starting out. Fine art photography back then didn’t exist as a concept. It wasn’t appreciated as much as it is now. Only a few magazines existed for this line of photography: Life, Look, and National Geographic. Then Life and Look folded. National Geographic, Time, and Sports Illustrated, and newspapers were all that existed for a time. That has changed so much and so fast over the years. There are just so many venues and opportunities now for photographers, if you move away from the printed medium. You see newspapers dropping like flies, magazines folding or getting rid of their staff photographers. I don’t know what to tell you on the photography career path right now. It’s kind of scary in the documentary/news photography line of work to get paid for being a photographer. There are all kinds of outlets now online, but to have someone to support your work, that’s one of my biggest fears with all the newspapers folding—who’s going to pay investigative journalists? Can the people who do the work make a living?
Jodi Cobb
What were some real turning points in your career?
In college, Cornell Capa who started the International Center of Photography, came out and saw my work, gave me a grant and got me exhibitions in New York. That was the start of a great relationship and got me onto a certain level of being seen or known.
Getting a summer internship at a newspaper and staying on there.
Being laid off at the Denver Post and having the Director of Photography at National Geographic call me the next day with an assignment. That was the major turning point, and probably the last big one.
A grant from Kodak to do the Geisha book.
Moving to freelance.
With so many outlets going down, disappearing, or changing, does grant work come into play in your career? When you mentioned Kodak, though, as a previous grantor, it’s apparent a lot of companies that you normally might have been able to approach for grants to support your work are fighting their own battles to survive.
That was something I was going to start looking into to support my freelance work. The kind of photography I want to continue doing is very much about human rights issues and “changing the world.” I was thinking that grants were going to be a way forward, but who knows about that.
I just renewed my subscription to PN last week, got a quick payback on my $25. I hope a lot of people take the time to read this gem of an interview because it is really good!
I like your photos from Geisha project and Arabian Women. It inspired me this mysterious depiction of these women.
I've seen the movie called "Geisha". I wonder, was it made after your book? (I have to make a search). I love the emotional intensity in that movie. And your photos have that too, this kind of vulnerability and mystery.
Ever since I was a young boy, I have always admired the photography in NGM. Back issues from as far back as the 1950s are sold on the streets of Nairobi, and I am an avid collector :)
It is through artistic and technical mastery coupled with a fine sense of the evocative that you, Jodi, and others at the Geographic have inspired countless others like myself to dream of and work towards creating photographic epics. Thank you...
I am kind of surprised that three of the six example photos of such a famous and skillful photographer evidently show the halos of too much sharpening applied in Photoshop. Why? Was this already in the originals, or do they only show in this web-version?
Great article. For my series, I chose to show the love between our children: Asta (4 1/2 years) and her little brother Anton, who turns one year old tomorrow - May 14. The pictures were taken over the course of the last month using the camera that I always carry on me. All pictures were taken in black and white at 35 mm focal length - a few were cropped slightly.
In India, at least in the South, there are some rules. They are mostly unspoken rules, the kind that somehow seamlessly weave their way into the fabric of lives undetected. There is the rule that the wife must follow paces behind the husband when walking down the street. A married woman should not be seen running around town with single friends, or after dark without her husband. The few times couples can be seen touching is when a woman, riding side-saddle and saree-clad on the back of a motorcycle, clings to the man driving. Teenage boys can easily be found kissing and leaning on each other, while girls are more reserved in their public displays of affection. In India the acceptable way for displaying emotions in public is distinct from the western world. Here, the spaces in between male and female, public and private, can be seen.
After I read this interview, I am really worried about how this Magazine world will turn? Being a subscriber of both NatGeo and Time magazine, ofcourse Washington Post, I am not sure whether they sustain in this Digital World down the line.
Though I am getting all these printed magazines, I hardly read those because lack of time and more time spending on laptop/computer or iPod touch/iPhone.
Very nice interview and thanks for sharing your thoughts.
, March 21, 2009; 11:54 A.M. 
