What is Photojournalism?

Boys playing on a hill overlooking Bethlehem. © Christopher Anderson, Palestine. Israel. 2007.

Photojournalism is defined as the job or activity of using photographs to report news stories for magazines or newspapers. The first known photojournalist was a Romanian man by the name of Carol Szathmari who documented the Crimean war using engravings. The “Golden Age” of photojournalism is considered to span between the 1930s to the 1960s with photographers Walker Evans, Gordon Parks and Dorothea Lange to be the most noteworthy photojournalists of that time.

Photojournalism distinguishes itself from other forms of photography, such as street photography, by being mainly a vocation that one does for documenting events, often historic, for the news or some sort of publication. Street photography is more of a genre of photography typically done in public spaces to capture candid moments, or “the human condition.” Both photojournalism and street photography share some similarities, however. Both forms of photography are generally used to document events as they naturally unfold. Photojournalists typically maintain a level of transparency and objectivity between them and whatever they’re shooting, whereas street photographers sometimes encourage further interaction from their subject. This can include directing their subject or posing them.

Christopher Anderson, a member of Magnum Photos, is a photographer who I think encapsulates what it means to be a working photographer. Christopher Anderson first gained recognition for his pictures documenting Haitian refugees travelling overseas to reach America on a boat. He was working with New York Magazine at this time and was also heavily involved in conflict photography, photographing various conflicts throughout Afghanistan, Iraq, Lebanon and Palestine early in his career. Now, later in his career, Anderson has moved away from conflict photojournalism and has been focusing more on editorial and portrait work, yet still works closely with New York Magazine. Anderson’s recent clients include Joe Biden, Lady Gaga, Derek Jeter, and other well-known celebrities and artists.

Magnum Photos, established and founded in 1947 by the great photographers Robert Capa and Henri Cartier-Bresson – amongst others – is an international photographic cooperative owned entirely by the members themselves. Magnum serves as a community built on the idea of being a “Community of thought, a shared human quality, a curiosity about what is going on in the world, a respect for what is going on and a desire to transcribe it visually.” Henri Cartier-Bresson. Magnum Photos provides a space for photographers to chronicle the world and interpret its peoples, events, issues and personalities. Magnum Photos also provides photographs to the press, publishers, galleries and museums across the world. In an interview with The Photographic Journal in regards to Anderson’s membership with Magnum and how it’s affected him professionally, “I’m sure it helps to open some doors that have nothing to do with me, that are just because I have Magnum attached to my name, which is a very useful, fortunate thing.”

Other contemporary sources of photojournalism include Verve Photo and The Photographic Journal, both of which are online publications that feature original works by the new faces of photojournalism.