What is Photojournalism?
Photo Credit Tim Hetherington © 2001-2002
So what is photojournalism? Google says:
“the art or practice of communicating news by photographs, especially in magazines.”
I say photojournalism is a way for you to share what you see with others nearby and, via the internet, around the world. While documentary and street photographers work to capture the ‘happening’, photojournalist work the capture the emotion. (Did you see that picture of the little boy washed up shore in Turkey? That’s what I mean by ‘capture the emotion’).
Photo guilds are a great way to get a ‘support group’ for your work. Also, when you are ‘guilded’ as we will call it, you tend to have higher reputation, it makes your photos that much cooler and better received by the general public and the higher ups. They’ll think, ‘Oh that person is part of this fancy guild or that cool group. They must be really good!’ And you definitely do have to be really good to get in, most places have a committee that will review your work and decide whether or not you’re ‘good enough’ for their group. If you’re interested in joining a group, here are some that I found.
UK Picture Editor’s Guild
-How to join: Fill out the application on their website http://piced.net/How-to-Join.html and you will be contacted by a committee member with how to procede. (Must have a ‘recognized proposer’)
-Price: £35 yearly
-Purpose: “The purposes of the Guild are to provide a forum for discussion and information concerning pictures and publishing, the administration of awards and other events, and promoting the role of photography within the media. The Guild is dedicated to the industry code of practice and the improvement within the media. It is non-political and non-profit making.” (From their webpage, http://piced.net/Constitution.html)
United Freelancers Guild
– How to Join: Contact the guild president at jgordon@unitedmediaguild.org.
-Price: $12 per Month
-Benefits: “If you join you will become a card-carrying member of the United Media Guild, TNG-CWA Local 36047. Membership will entitle you to a variety of Union Plus discounts and benefits. Explore that website to see all ways union members can save money. Of special interest to freelancers is access to the CWA/NETT Academy, with a variety of on-line courses, and theexpansive Lynda.com instructional video library. For more information, check out this Lynda.com Flyer Best of all, you will be joining the organized labor movement and help us support the craft of journalism on local, regional and national levels.” (Information from their webpage http://unitedmediaguild.com)
Artistic Guild of Wedding Photojournalist Association
-How to Join: Fill out the membership application form found at http://www.agwpja.com/for-photographer/join-agwpja.html Then the committee will vote on your membership.
-Price: DUES FOR NON-WPJA MEMBERS is $240. USD per year DUES FOR CURRENT WPJA MEMBERS is $120. USD per year.
-Benefits: “Through the AG|WPJA, photographers book more weddings thanks to the affiliation with its parent organization: The Wedding Photojournalist Association (WPJA). Due to all the positive publicity the WPJA is receiving and due to its notoriety, reputation for high standards, and respect within the wedding industry, the WPJA attracts prospective couples that appreciate, value, and seek the best in wedding photojournalism. Therefore, AG|WPJA members benefit from the existing prestige and influence of the well-established parent organization. By participating in the FREE AG|WPJA contests, members have numerous opportunities to further demonstrate creative and technical excellence, gain exposure for their work, receive professional recognition, and ultimately to become more marketable in the industry as international award-winning wedding photographers. Additionally, photographers who participate in these member-only competitions receive AG|WPJA site listing rank advancement and a Gold Medallion next to their name. AG|WPJA contests are another great means by which members draw the attention of their prospective customer audience.” (Information from their webpage http://www.agwpja.com)
Two photojournalists I found that I really like I’d like to imitate are Cristina de Middel is from Spain and Tim Hetherington is from England.
Middel seems to make her living by doing some freelance work. Her pictures are truely fascinating, I especially like the Afronauts Exhibition (That’s where the picture on the right is from), which you can check out here http://www.lademiddel.com/the-afronauts-1.html
Tim Hetherington worked for the UK press mostly covering conflicts in Africa and some in Afghanistan as well. My favourite project by him is the Blind School (The one on the left and the one at the beginning are in this exhibition) you can check it out here http://www.timhetheringtontrust.org/about-tim this one is great because he’s not afraid to get close, I really like close-ups. Sadly, Hetherington was killed in Lybia in 2011.
Let’s face it, today is the golden age of photojournalism. Not only can we see the work of the people who are great now, but also that of those who worked decades ago. The internet is the best tool to bring all this knowledge to your fingertips. Watch, I will search Twitter with the #photojournalists and see what I get. David Ryder comes up first, he’s a photojournalist who tweets about Ansel Adams’ work in Japanese internment camps more than 60 years ago, and about the little boy found on the beach in Turkey earlier today. See what I mean? The past and the present are all combined into one place and we have access to all of it.
If you are interested in seeing more great photojournalist for inspiration you can visit http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/picturegalleries/uknews/11308348/UK-Picture-Editors-Guild-awards-the-shortlisted-press-photographers.html it has the pictures that were nominated for the UK Picture Editor’s Guild Awards in 2015, which is one on the guild’s I mentioned earlier. Hopefully this will give you an idea of where you can take your own photography. Remember you see the world differently than I or anyone else does. Get out there and show me what you see!
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