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Encyclopedia :
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Photojournalism |
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PhotojournalismPhotojournalism is a particular form of journalism (i.e., the collecting, editing, and presenting of news material for publication or broadcast) that creates images in order to tell a news story. It is now usually understood to refer only to still images, and to refer largely to serious news stories. Photojournalism is distinguished from other close branches of photography (such as documentary photography, street photography or celebrity photography) by the qualities of:
Photojournalism as a descriptive term often implies the use of a certain bluntness of style or approach to image-making - one would not call a normal wedding photographer a 'photojournalist', even though they cover a timely event and their images may be published in the press. A similar and related term is reportage. HistoryPhotojournalism has been a major element of newspaper and magazine reporting since the early twentieth century, although its historic origins have been traced to mid 19th century European battlefield photography by British press reporters in the Crimean War. Its use was greatly spurred by the development of the commercial 35mm Leica camera. The invention of the term "photojournalism" is commonly attributed to Cliff Edom (1907–1991), who taught at the University of Missouri School of Journalism for twenty-nine years. Edom establish the first photojournalism workshop there in 1946. Some attribute the word, instead, to the then Dean of the School of Journalism, Frank L. Mott. The Golden Age In the "golden age" of photojournalism (1930s-1950s), some magazines (Picture Post (London), Paris Match (Paris), Life (USA), Sports Illustrated (USA)) and newspapers (The Daily Mirror (London), The Daily Graphic (New York)) built their huge readerships and reputations largely on their use of photography, and photographers such as Robert Capa, Alfred Eisenstaedt, Margaret Bourke-White, W. Eugene Smith became well-known names. Farm Security Administration From 1935 to 1942, the Farm Security Administration and its predecessor the Resettlement Administration were part of Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal, and were designed to address agricultural problems and rural poverty associated with the Great Depression. A special photographic section of the agency, headed by Roy Stryker, was intended merely to provide public relations for its programs, but instead produced what some consider one of the greatest collections of documentary photographs ever created in the USA. If such documentary photography can be called 'photojournalism' remains debatable, since the FSA photographers had much more time & resources to create their work than would usually be the case. They also had a wider brief. World War II World War II brought a tremendous increase in the supply and demand for quality photojournalism. In its latter stages, the war also stimulated the supply of new faster & smaller cameras from Japan to Europe and the USA. Magnum In 1947, two years after the war ended, the Magnum Photos photographic agency was founded by four photographers: Robert Capa, Henri Cartier-Bresson, George Rodger, and David Seymour. Magnum differed from other agencies by supporting rather than directing its photographers, and by granting copyright of images to the photographers, rather than the magazines that published them. Acceptance by the art world Since the late 1970s, photojournalism and documentary photography have increasingly been accorded a place in art galleries alongside art photography. The work of the great war photojournalist Don McCullin has been widely shown in galleries, and compared in its intensity to the work of Goya. Professional OrganizationsThe National Press Photographers Association (NPPA) was the first national organization for newspaper photographers; it was founded in 1946 in the USA, and has approximately 10,000 members. Others around the world include:
Ethical and Legal Considerations Photojournalism works within the same ethical approaches to objectivity that are applied by other journalists. What to shoot, how to frame and how to edit are constant considerations. The emergence of digital photography offers whole new realms of opportunity for the manipulation, reproduction, and transmission of images. It has inevitably complicated many of the ethical issues involved. The U.S. National Press Photographers Association, and other professional organizations, maintain a Code of Ethics to address what are thought to be the proper approaches to these issues. Major ethical considerations are often enscribed - with more or less success - into law. The law on photography often varies greatly from nation to nation. The legal situation is further complicated when one considers that photojournalism made in one country will often be published in many other countries. The Impact of New TechnologiesSmaller, lighter cameras greatly enhanced the role of the photojournalist. Since the 1960s, motor-drives, electronic flash, auto-focus, better lenses and other camera enhancements have made their jobs easier. New digital cameras means that photojournalists are no longer limited by the length of a roll of film, as 1000s of images can be stored on a single microdrive or flash card. Content remains the most important element of photojournalism, but the ability to extend deadlines and compress the process of gathering and editing that content has changed greatly. As recently as fifteen years ago, it took nearly thirty minutes to scan and transmit a single color photograph from a remote location to the news office for printing. Now, equipped with a digital camera, a mobile phone and a laptop computer, the print photojournalist can send a high quality image in seconds, only minutes after an event occurs. Video phones and portable satellite links increasingly allow for the mobile transmission of images from almost any point on the earth. Some Notable Photojournalists
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