Photojournalism 

Photojournalism is a particular form of journalism which involves collecting and editing news material for a news publication. Photojournalism uses photographs in order to tell a story, it’s different to other types of photography such as documentary and street photography because of it’s rigid ethics  which demands that the photos are honest and impartial and are only telling the story in journalistic terms. The objective of photojournalism is to have images which are a fair representation of events of situations. Illustrating news story’s with photographs began in the mid 19th century in The Times newspaper of Lord Horatio Nelson’s funeral. The first newspaper with weekly illustrations was the Illustrated London News.

Street photography

Street photography is photography that shows human conditions within public places, however it doesn’t necessary have to include a street in it or an urban photography although this is very common. Timing and framing can be important aspects of street photography as some photographer aim to capture of decisive moments. On the other hand some street photographers focus on the human character, recording their history and their emotions. Street photography expanded in the late 19th century with the emerge of portable cameras. Eugene Atget is regarded as the ‘father’ of this genre, not because he was the first of his kind, but due to his popularity as a Parisian street photographer.

At the World Press Photo contest, there was an uproar when an Italian photographer won the top prize and had misinterpreted the location of the photograph and had also staged them. This made the photographers question the line between photojournalism and art photography and the line between what is and isn’t acceptable. This lead to the judging panel rewriting their code of ethics so that staged photographs would not be permitted in the contest. Mr Leroy  who is founder of Visa Pour l’Image said he defined photojournalism as “witnessing the world.”  The fact that Mr Leroy used the word ‘witnessing’ implies that you shouldn’t influence the photograph but simply record what you see. Photograph’s today are easily manipulated and staged with the use of technology, photojournalists are known for ‘bare witnessing’ real life situations therefore it’s hard to establish how much photo manipulation is acceptable if any.

Can Photographs change the world?

Some people argue that a powerful photograph has the ability to change the world, by influencing peoples perspective and bringing out emotions in them. Photographs inform the viewers visually about world events often with little description, which I think sometimes is more powerful than a detailed report because the photograph allows you to sympathize with what is going on. However other people argue that it cant change the world.  Photographer Lewis Bush believes that photographs can’t change the world, but “Photographs represent the idea that things are happening, or exist, or are possible”. He believes that it’s not so much the photograph that can change the world but the effect it has on people and the action they take. I think that photographs are capable of changing the world if they are powerful enough and transmit a strong message. I do think there is something about photography which brings people together. However, I do agree that a large part of changing the world through a photograph is how people react and take an  action after having seen the photograph itself.

Can photojournalists preserve their integrity and maintain trust?

Photojournalism is known for it’s credibility, however as the use of technology rises photographers are manipulating their photographs more and more which in turn is making viewers more skeptical of weather or not to believe what they see and they begin to loose trust.  Donald Weber said by taking away photojournalism’s credibility  “we’re only killing our own profession.”  In NPPA’S code ethics for journalists in one of their rules they state  “Do not manipulate images or add or alter sound in any way that can mislead viewers or misrepresent subjects.” which justifies why the manipulated photographs were disqualified. However, although there is a code of conduct which photojournalists should obey many of them don’t which makes it harder to preserve photography integrity.

https://nppa.org/code_of_ethics

More recently, a photograph of a 3 year old Syrian boy who had been washed up on the beach after travelling from Turkey to Greece in a rubber raft played an important part of getting peoples attention. This photograph was spread all over social media, the news and magazines which alerted people to the seriousness and the consequences of the refugee crisis. This photograph promoted politicians all over the world to  take action and ‘support’ the people who are part of the refugee crisis. I think this is a good example of how photographs can change the world and do have a big influence on peoples actions, however was it morally right for the photographer to have taken this photograph? The article below shows how the photograph affected the boys family.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/04/world/europe/syria-boy-drowning.html?smid=tw-share&_r=0

“Documentary photography usually refers to a popular form of photography used to chronicle both significant and relevant to history and historical events and everyday life.”

Documentary photography is a form of storytelling, usually with one powerful photograph and deeper meaning which often moves people. This form of photography is used to ‘document’ events and people in everyday real life situations which in the past has been used to bring the attention of an audience to a particular subject, change their perspective and create a social change for example: a photograph taken by Nick Ut in Vietnam in 1972 of children running from a bomb explosion caused outraged protests in America and changed the outcome of the war. Views on documentary photography are controversial as some people believe that certain situations should not be documented which  also brings in social and political associations such as whether or not it is deemed ethical or moral to take these pictures and publish them.

A more recent example of documentary photography is a a photograph taken of a young refugee boy washed ashore aged 3 who was travelling into Europe from Syria. This photograph has been seen all over the world and has alarmed people about how serious the refugee crisis is, it has also incentivated people in power to take action to try and help these refugees. However on the other hand some people have a negative view on this photograph as they think it is disrespectful and shouldn’t have been taken.

http://www.wsj.com/articles/image-of-syrian-boy-washed-up-on-beach-hits-hard-1441282847