By Sue Hinkin
There were very few women in positions behind the camera back when I started–like none. The TV station that hired me had FCC sex discrimination suits against them and with that loomed the possibility of losing their broadcasting license. That got their attention. They had to employ more widely or face dire consequences.
Despite their teeth-gnashing and fear that I wasn’t strong enough to lift the camera equipment, (I reminded them that a vacuum cleaner was probably heavier), they hired me as an on-location cinematographer.
I didn’t study journalism, I was an art major in college, did a frame-by-frame animation for my senior thesis. Telling a story with visuals inspired me. The cameramen, and they were all men in the profession, usually came out of engineering backgrounds. Compared to the engineers, I think my visual arts training made me more aware of design, detail, and nuance.
I also loved lighting and how it influenced a subject and could set a mood. But the news biz is down and dirty, get the pics and have them back to the station, edited and on air, fast. I had to let go of my artsy inclinations equally fast and learn to get the images that told the story under time constraints as best I could.
Out in the field it was the wild west and one had to be prepared for anything—disastrous accidents, angry teamsters, protests, interviews with the Governor, sports, sweet elementary school Thanksgiving plays, along with murder, mayhem and all kinds of criminality. It was also pretty wild being a woman in a male dominated business.
In a time of widespread sexual harassment, there was little recourse. Fortunately, the industry has changed drastically and opened up for women in both the technical side of journalism and in the grittier news-gathering assignments like war reporting and wrangling politicos at the White House.
As I look back on my journalism experience, I see how storytelling has always been a thread in my life, whether the narrative was visual or literary. My experience in news photography taught me to look for the details that illuminate the story. In my latest book which will be out in October, ‘The Snake Handler’s Wife’, photojournalist Lucy Vega is meeting with her significant other on Zoom. She’s in California and assumes he’s at their home in New York. As he is talking, she notes the edges of the video image on her laptop.
The details show her he’s is not where he is purported to be:
A long-time news photographer, Lucy’s well-trained eye quickly scanned the digital scene before her. His context would tell the story. The setting was not Michael’s office in Manhattan or their dining room table in Brooklyn. Thick, peeling layers of paint—military green, bone gray, and umber the color of faded blood—provided a grim backdrop. The shadowy edge of a chipped Cyrillic-inscribed sign hung in a dark top corner of the frame.
Michael Burleson was not in New York.
He was not on this continent.
He was not coming to the ranch as promised.
Lucy uses her observational skills as an intuitive third eye. That ability also serves a writer well. It’s the small things, the almost throwaway things that can sometimes speak volumes and bring a scene to life. That’s what a good photojournalist does, sees not only the expected picture but the unexpected. As a writer, I’m always seeking the unanticipated to reveal character and create a compelling visual narrative to ensure that the story is vivid and engaging. The writer does the same things the photographer does only with words.
Another important aspect of news photography is the importance of being assertive, brave, and willing to take risks to get the image that informs the audience. Turn on the evening news and every scene, whether it’s a talking head discussing the local economy, a game winning touchdown, a natural disaster, or a political protest—they’re all on-screen before you showing the story because a news photographer was recording images in the midst of the event.
As a writer, one also has to be a courageous risk-taker in the thick of the fray, but the fray being more psychic than physical. Not to say that writers, particularly mystery and thriller writers, don’t occasionally take some pretty intense physical risks to understand what the protagonist experiences and feels with first-hand authenticity!
Writers constantly brave the pain of criticism and rejection, of bearing their artistic soul, seeing it trampled, then getting up and starting over. Also as a writer, risks come when you tackle controversial topics, dicey behaviors, and unforeseen outcomes. While the media differs, photojournalists and fiction writers share the common goal of using their skills to create compelling narratives, evoke emotions, and connect with their audience on a deep level.
Sue Hinkin is the author of the award-winning thriller series, ‘The Vega & Middleton Novels’, featuring the investigative team of Los Angeles TV news journalist Bea Jackson and best friend, photographer Lucy Vega. BestThrillers.com called Lucy and Bea one of the top 10 female detectives of 2023. A former Cinematography Fellow at the American Film Institute, Hinkin has worked in higher education and as one of the first female TV news photographers. Now living in Colorado, she was voted Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers Writer of the Year. She is active in that organization as well as Sisters in Crime and the Rocky Mountain Chapter of Mystery Writers of America. Find out more about her work at www.suehinkin.com.
ABOUT THE BOOK: When Lucy’s war correspondent significant other, Michael Burleson, accepts an assignment in Iraq, Lucy is left alone with their four-year-old son Henry on her isolated Malibu Ranch. Then Michael’s daughter, a sweet but unstable, recovering addict, shows up seeking to form relationships with her baby half-brother and Lucy. Despite Michael’s warnings, Lucy hires the girl to help care for Henry. Ominous mishaps begin to plague the ranch—Lucy’s beloved horse is bitten by a non-native rattlesnake, the animal enclosures are vandalized, and a loaded gun is found next to Henry’s swing set. When the daughter announces she has married a charismatic, snake-handing preacher who is always around to offer help on the ranch, Lucy and Bea begin to sense that the young woman has fallen under the spell of this sexy, sociopathic, cult leader who will do anything to get Lucy’s ranch and her son. It will take all of Lucy’s and Bea’s formidable wits to stay one step ahead. Sometimes, the darkest mysteries are the ones closest to home.
