WHAT IS PHOTOJOURNALISM?

Today the term photojournalism is still a concept that its only related to newspapers and magazines but the truth is that this practice has evolved over the years to so much more. According to photojournalist Ed Kashi, photojournalism is a form of visual storytelling originally created for print magazines and newspapers but has now morphed into multimedia and even documentary filmmaking.

Photojournalism uses the art of photography to tell stories but photographers are not necessarily photojournalists since they can do commercial work such as wedding photography and not work for a paper or multimedia network. Photojournalist tend to get their work to a broader audience, when other type of photography is for a single source. In the same way photojournalism can be used along with real life reportage and audio to form documentary photography.

Steve McCurry is a very talented photojournalist I admire. He has worked for National Geographic and spends most of his career traveling the world to find iconic photos of ancient traditions and vanishing cultures. He is the author behind the famous photograph “ Afghan Girl” that captivated the world as it was a first glance to the conflict in Afghanistan.

Photojournalist like Steve McCurry that work in places of conflict such war zones may be exposed to a lot of stress and disturbing situations. There are websites for journalist such as the Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma that have guidelines to help journalists cope with this time of situations. As well journalists need to be ethical during their practices. A good organization that helps journalists’ for this matter is the NPPA (National Press Photographers Association.)

In the business side of things photojournalists have representation of various agencies. Some of these are Magnum photos, Agence VU, Associated Press, Oculi and Contact Press.