Children play around an impromptu bonfire in The Fountain, a Loyalist housing estate in Londonderry, Northern Ireland on Aug. 11, 1989.

In the last few blog posts I have spoken in some detail about Photojournalism. Photojournalism is a specific type of photography whereby the photographer records real-life events as they happen, usually to be published in a newspaper or magazine article.

The genre of photojournalism is separate from many other forms of photography as it is very restricted in the type of photographs that can be made, due to the fact that the photographer’s objective is to truthfully display their account of the world, without any deception or falsification. Photojournalist are expected to report on the world in a very distant and objective manner, producing work that is impartial and of no emotional attachment. This can be a problem for many photographers, who are often inclined to immerse themselves deeply in their subject matter, valuing creativity and interpretation over absolute realism. As a result, the work that photojournalists produce is under constant scrutiny and pressure by the world of journalism, and their have been many cases recently such as the World Press Photo controversy, in which prize winner Giovanni Tripoli was striped from his prize as it transpired he had staged and falsified some of his photographs. These issues have opened new question of the meaning and purpose of photojournalism.

Photojournalism is a very general meaning and relates to any type of photography which conveys and real-life news story and narrative. Because of this, it is seen as a genre in itself, treated as an umbrella category of various other forms of documentary photography including; War and Street Photography.

Henri Cartier-Bresson is viewed by many to be the master of modern photojournalism. He specialized in Street Photography and helped to popularize the genre of candid photographs.