More than a Picture, a Story.
A journalist tells stories. A photographer takes photographs. A photojournalists tells a story through photographs. As a photojournalist you must always have your ears open and be ready to ask questions such as: “What are they doing? “What happened?” What exactly did you see?” You must be willing to talk and understand what’s doing on because it’s the job of the photojournalist to capture the frozen image and for the reader to be able to understand what’s going on in the captured moment. Photojournalists make a living from doing freelance work, where the sky’s the limit and variables are nearly infinite. Working for a newspaper is a way that photojournalist make money. The money they make just depends of the type of newspaper, the circulation of the paper, and the experience level of the photographer. The most well-known professional organization that represents photojournalists is The Professional Photographers Association. This association is a nonprofit association for professional photographers. As a professional photojournalists it will look good to an employer if you have joined a professional organization such as PPA. It will show that you follow a code of ethics and are networking with a group of over 27,000 professional photojournalists. PPA offers live classes, consultations and conventions- to spread the best practices, new ideas and strong networks together. To join an organization like PPA there are different tiers. A Professional Active pays $28 per month or $323 per year. This includes Photo care Equipment, Indemnification Trust, PPAedu, Copyright resources, Imaging USA, and benchmark.
Magnum photos, Ap, and Pf Photos are just a few photo agencies that represent photojournalists. Photo agencies are for those who have built a portfolio and own their own professional camera. According to Photographybb.com, Agencies are very competitive. Ultimately, you can seek out and keep applying to agencies to hire you. Once you are hired, you will work for them when projects arise
The “Golden Age of Photojournalism” is often considered to be from the 1930s through the 1950s. Martin Munkacsi was the first staff photographer and Erich Saloman, one of the founders of photojournalism. Some famous photographers from this era include: Eugene Smith, Margaret Bourke- White, Robert Capa and Romano Cagnoni. Erich Saloman developed pictures of political figures in the 1930s. According the NDSU, beginning of modern photojournalism took place in 1925, in Germany. The event was the invention of the 35 mm camera, the Leica.
There are so many great photojournalists out there documenting everything under the sky. One photojournalist that stands out to me is Marcus Bleassale. Marcus is a documentary photographer who uses his work to influence policy makers around the world. His work on human rights and conflict has been shown to the US Senate, The US House of Representatives, and The United Nations. He appears in National Geographic, New York Times, the Sunday Times Magazine etc. His photos are sharp and he really captures the “verbs”. Marcus is a professional photographer whose earned many awards and has a large portfolio. His feature is “Rape of a Nation”. Below is my favorite picture from his feature.
About Author
