ONE of the most durable rivalries within journalism is between those who man typewriters and their colleagues who use cameras. The wordmen greatly outnumber the picture people, and on most publications the writers usually win the "friendly" competition for space. Though better known for its reportage and analysis than its photography, TIME in recent years has, we feel, significantly improved the play given to artwork. Last week our graphics staff received another boost: Picture Editor John Durniak won the National Press Photographers Association's Joseph A. Sprague Memorial Award. The citation said that Durniak's "early and continued influence on American photojournalism has helped create much of the interest that it has today."

After earning a master's degree in journalism at the University of Iowa, Durniak began his career as a photographer's assistant for LIFE. Later he mixed print and pictures during 16 years with Popular Photography and became the magazine's editor in chief. He joined TIME two years ago, and has journeyed from prison cells in Danbury, Conn., to auto plants in Detroit in pursuit of exciting photographs. "Human reach," he says, "is photography's reach. A camera is the unique, most dynamic extension of man. It can take him into veiled worlds and let him be an eyewitness to dangerous, inaccessible events. Our job is to select those pictures that have immediate impact, an impact that words alone sometimes cannot convey."

To that end, Durniak and his staff, including Arnold Drapkin and Mary Themo of Color Projects and Assistant Picture Editors Michele Stephenson and Deborah Pierce, review thousands of new photographs each week. They also have access to the 18 million items in the Time Inc. picture collection. From this vast choice the editors select the 75 to 95 pictures we use each week.

Many of these are taken by the freelance photographers round the world with whom Durniak keeps in touch. Relying primarily on freelancers, he says, permits him to match the special expertise of photographers to specific assignments. For instance, he has chosen a dozen experienced political photographers to accompany him to the Democratic Convention this week. Among them are Ken Regan, who, in addition to photographing every major candidate this year, provided the color photography for this week's Essay on the Rolling Stones and this week's cover photo; Pulitzer Prizewinner Eddie Adams; Yoichi Okamoto, President Johnson's White House photographer and Walter Bennett of our Washington Bureau, who has been capturing the capital on film for two decades.

In addition, the 16 staff members of the Nation section are in Miami this week observing the convention firsthand. Thanks to Durniak, they are all equipped with pocket cameras -- in the unlikely event that words fail them.

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