The Working Journal
by Michael J Fiedler, www.working-journal.com
While the idea for my book The Working Journal came from many sources of inspiration and individuals, it all began on a 1500-foot pier at the Newport
News Naval Shipyard in Newport News, VA, USA. It was there in 1987 while serving as a Naval Photojournalist aboard the aircraft carrier Dwight D.
Eisenhower that I learned how to make pictures. The ship was in dry dock and every day, my then mentor, Warrant Officer Patrick Wilkerson would
task me with photographing the cacophony of work being done to the ship. The activity was staggering — a labyrinth of wires, cranes, crates pulleys and
machines — surrounded by a blur of electricians, welders, engineers and seamen hauling cargo onto the thousand-foot behemoth. I may not have
realized it at the time, but Officer Wilkerson’s daily assignments were forming the basis of how I wanted to capture people in images. I wanted to
photograph them doing their jobs.