Matters means...

My friend Lance posted this comment about my new year's resolution: "So what do you mean by "matters"? Matters to YOU? The person/family/community that you're photographing? The reader? An art buyer? Your peers? A contest judge? They're all different. I'm curious as to what Lisa Krantz means when she says that she resolves to take pictures that matter."

My answer: My dream is to make pictures that help people see the world in a different way, see their community in new ways, open minds. I try to promote understanding and educate readers about people and things they would otherwise not know about. We say it all the time, but it's true, we want to give a voice to the voiceless. I think that's when photojournalists are at their best.

When pictures really "matter," in my mind, they create positive change and action. Maybe a homeless person gets a home through a story, a sidewalk gets fixed that a person in a motorized wheelchair couldn't use because of a construction zone, laws can change through the stories newspapers do.

Photographs are a reflection of a community, of society, of ourselves. It's hard to ignore when a compelling image is on the front page. Pictures keep people from being oblivious to the wrongs and rights in the world. They can no longer say they didn't know it was happening if we show them.

So the answer is yes to a few of those things. Yes, I want it to matter to me. I do want it to matter and mean something to the person/family/community that I am photographing and definitely to the reader. That's why I got into photojournalism and I'm happy to say, almost 10 years later, my mission hasn't changed.