MODERN PHOTOJOURNALISM

People always have a story to tell and it’s really brilliant when it’s told through a photo. Going back in history and photos of soldiers, people, or just kids playing in the street are time captured at that moment that tell an individual story, and to me that is what photojournalism is. According to McMahon, in the article What is Photojournalism? , “Photojournalism is a branch of journalism characterized by the use of images to tell a story. The images in a piece may be accompanied by explanatory text or shown independently, with the images themselves narrating the events they depict”.

The main difference between documentary journalism and photojournalism is that while photojournalism takes photo of a specific event during that time, documentary photojournalism focuses on a subject over time. They are both important to journalism though, in that it involves informative and honest photos.

There are many ways photojournalists can make a living such as becoming a staff photographer for a newspaper, a freelance photographer for a magazine such as Life or National Geographic. The photojournalist I chose was Henri-Cartier Bresson , and when he needed steady income he “found a job as a staff photographer for France’s Communist daily, Ce Soi… submitted leftover work to an agency, Alliance Photo, and many of the images were published in Vu, the French version of the popular American photo-newsweekly, Life,” according to the Encyclopedia of World Biography.

A professional photojournalism organization would be the National Press Photographers Association (NPPA). You would want to join an organization because it’s a good resource for learning, seminars and job listings, including internships. Students do get a discount for joining the organization.

Three agencies that represent journalists are, Getty Images, Corbis, and Sipa Press. The function for this is great for photographers because these agencies sell your images and you make a profit from this.

Photojournalism started in Germany, on 1925, with the invention of the 35mm camera. People could now walk around and take an instant photo without having to carry around bulky equipment. The golden age of photography was from 1930s through the 1950’s Eugene Smith, Romano Cagnoni and Robert Capa. A Contemporary source of photojournalism is The digital journalist or Corbis images.com.

A contemporary photographer I like is Aris Messinis. He’s 35, and chief photographer for AFP in Greece since 2006. He worked in Libya and Egypt during the “Arab Spring” and photographed riots and war. The photograph below is one he took of riots in Greece showing a man kicking the police.