What is Photojournalism?

Lesson Module 1

• Photojournalism is telling a story with IMAGES, visually rather than with words. Journalists use photos in conjunction with the reporting of news in all types of media (newspapers, magazines, broadcast, online). It is providing information, while conveying the truth to give insight to the viewer.

• Characteristics of pictures that contribute to the media:

• Timeliness: Images have meaning in the context of a recently published record of events.

• Objectivity: The situation implied by the images is a fair and accurate representation of the events they depict in both content and tone.

• Narrative: The images combine with other news elements to relate facts to the viewer or reader on a cultural level.

History and the People of Photojournalism

The history of photojournalism is based on different camera developments throughout time.

• In the 1930’s the 35mm Leica made it possible for photographers to move with the action they were trying to capture and record events as they unfolded. The Leica was a small camera with no bulky equipment required. It was during this time that newspapers and magazines built their reputations on photography. It helped photographers such as Robert Capa document wars, like he did for WWII. His pictures focused on the fighting and the death of soldiers. Capa also photographed wars such as the Spanish Civil War, the Second Sino-japanese War, and the First Indochina War.

• Margaret Bourke White was another war photojournalist who used the Leica. She viewed photography as a powerful tool for informing the public. She documented the poor conditions of industrial workers during events such as the Great Depression and the Indian-Pakistani Partition Violence in 1946.

• Another era of photography was magazine photography, especially for Life Magazine, which was an instant classic on newsstands. Editors and photographers worked together to build a story with pictures and words. Circulation went from 380,000 copies of the first issue to more than one million copies a week months later. It was cheap and was filled with blown up pictures and small captions.

• Walker Evans was a photographer known for working with the FSA-Farm Security Administration, to document the effects of the Great Depression. The FSA used photography to fight rural poverty. Evans goal was to capture “literate and authoritative” images. His talent was a new form of art that focused on people during the depression. He revolutionized documentary photography, which is recording events through photographs ay any given place.

• Dorothea Lange also photographed for the FSA. Her goal was to document economic and social distress among agricultural workers and advertise FSA’s relief programs.