“The paradigm for photographers today is that you just can’t be, you have to be sort of a jack of all trades, you can’t just specialize anymore,” said VII Photo Network photographer Benjamin Lowy, featured by Kristen Joy Watts this morning on the NY Times Lens photoblog.

Lowy strikes the perfect chord, and from a newspaper perspective, it’s easy to agree with him. One day you’re shooting a story on industrial pollution,  the next day you’re shooting fashion at the Ritz-Carlton, the following day you’re shooting video and filling a request to fix a 400mm Canon lens (well, that may be an extreme, but it’s plausible as you can see).

Specialization of personal style has its place, but I also believe now — contrary to thoughts in my early years of photojournalism– that you sometimes have to “tailor” your style or look to a particular assignment, or better yet as Lowy explains it:

“I tailor how I see, and I let each situation I’m in impact my eye and the way I work.”

People I meet on assignment always ask me the same question. “What kind of pictures do you take? Sports? News?” I have the same answer every time — everything, and anything, or if not still pictures, then video or audio gathering. Call it a one man band like one of those poor broadcast saps who do standups on their own sticks, but that’s the direction this industry has taken, for better or for worse. Either way it’s a win-win for the photographers. We’re more versatile, creative, and attractive to potential clients.

“The time has passed where, you know, the photographers of the last generation were able to really get into a niche, and I think today we need to be able to do a little bit of everything, and that doensn’t water down the preciousness of your work, it doesn’t water down your vision.”

Via Click and the NY Times Lens photoblog.