History of Photojournalism Conclusion

            For my creative experiential exercise, I went out and took pictures at the Festival of Trees in downtown Springfield. I took pictures on my iPhone in both color and black and white. Although it was not a political event or some sort of conflict, it was still really interesting and fun to go out and take pictures of all the trees and the people enjoying the holiday festivities. When taking pictures,  I captured different angles of the event and it was interesting to see how people reacted while I was taking the pictures. Since I used my iPhone, it was a lot easier to get shots in focus, as well as getting the lighting to be just right. Taking pictures on my phone was also very convenient because I was able to easily take out my phone and take a quick shot of people walking around the event. Also, I think that a camera is more noticeable than a phone and therefore most of the time people did not even see I was taking pictures. I shot images in black and white and color,  at times capturing the same image using both styles. It was very cool to see how the images looked when they were in different colors. The black and white images looked more serious, and almost timeless. After taking these pictures, it was really fun to look back and see all of the images that I captured. When looking through all of the images, it was as though I was reliving the event over again. I enjoyed this experience and I felt as though I was a photojournalist capturing images specifically for this event. I liked being able to go out and capture a piece of history and even though the event was not that significant, it was still a great learning experience. 

         When looking back at when I first defined photojournalism, I would say that my definition for it has basically stayed the same. However, I think that I understand more clearly what photojournalism actually means after studying it in-depth. When I first wrote about photojournalism, I stated how “Photojournalism is a type of journalism where photos, instead of words, are used to convey a powerful or meaningful message to people about current events that are happening around the world.” I still believe this to be true. A photo has the ability to tell a story and allows people to see first-hand an event or conflict that is happening in the world. Photojournalism  captures and records some of the world’s greatest accomplishments, as well as tragic events. When writing my first blog, I do not think I understood exactly what photojournalism was. I understood the basic concept, but never imagined how much photojournalism plays a role in our everyday lives. Photojournalism has played a major role when reporting on news and current events. The use of a photo to convey a story has radically changed how people respond to certain events. As Ed Kashi explains, “Photojournalism can also work as an agent of change, often outside of its role in mainstream media…. [it] expands the aesthetics of visual reporting, justifies its grand intentions of enlightenment and contributes to our deeper understanding of the world.” Before diving into this course, I looked at photojournalism as just sharing pictures with the world, however I have learned that it is much more. Photojournalism acts as a visual truth, which can impact people’s perceptions, changing the way we view the world.   

            In my first blog, I saw photos as being evidence of history, for they can bring us back in time without physically ever leaving. Photojournalism helps solidify events that happened in the past, therefore giving us a better understanding and connection to the past itself. After learning much more about the history of photojournalism, I still believe this to be true. However, I have gained new insight as to why studying the history of photojournalism is so important. Without every knowing the history of photojournalism, it would be impossible for photojournalists to have accomplished the things they have done over the years. Knowing the history of photojournalism helps us gain a better insight into the different past components that have made photojournalism what it is today. People can understand all the events that have happened within the history of photojournalism and how it has impacted our society. Without the existence of photojournalism throughout history, some of the most famous images and world events may have never been seen throughout the world.    

            When taking this course, one big “Ah-ha” moment that I had came when we were learning about photojournalists' ethics. When looking at images, I never thought about whether a photograph was ethically right or wrong. The news shows images of wounded soldiers and starving children all the time and I do not think a person's first thought is to think about the ethics of the photojournalist who took the image. After learning about ethics though, it has made me more aware of the ethical dilemmas that a photograph could cause. Take for instance the photograph taken by Kevin Carter of a starving child and a vulture who is stalking her. When I looked at this photo, I immediately felt sorry for the little girl, but it never crossed my mind whether or not this photo was ethical. After learning about ethics in photojournalism, I questioned the ethics of this photojournalist and whether he should have put the camera down to help the starving child. I also look at images now and wonder if photojournalists exploit their subjects, which I never thought about before taking this class. We so often focus on the details in a picture that we never really wonder what happened to the subject. Another “Ah-ha” moment when taking this class would be when we learned about the technology that photojournalists use. I honestly never knew how much equipment was used back when Mathew Brady was capturing images. It is crazy to think about how far we have come in technological advances in both photojournalism and mainstream media. The new technology in photojournalism has made it more convenient for photojournalists to take images from around the world and allows them to publish and share these powerful images at a faster rate. The creation of social media and the wide spread access to it has changed the way photojournalism is used in main stream media.

Photo by Kevin Carter

                     Image Source: https://iconicphotos.wordpress.com/2009/08/12/vulture-stalking-a-child/

           Although photos may not directly impact the world, I do believe that they play a major role in helping us understand and connect to the situation or conflict that is occurring. An image has the power to evoke a variety of different emotions, which can greatly impact a person. All it takes is one person to want to change or help in a conflict for something to happen. One image that has impacted me would be the image by Lynn Johnson of two older women sitting on a swing, which Courtney Partridge posted on her blog. This image shows two older women who are laughing, one woman is African American, while the other is Caucasian. Within the last few years, issues about races have divided our nation and have caused a lot of conflict. I believe that color should not be the thing that matters, rather its what is inside that counts. This image reminded me that people can still love one another, no matter the color of their skin or age. I also liked this photo because it was in black and white, showing that color is not what is important. Another image that has had a great impact on me is Ed Clark’s image, Going Home. To me, this image embodies the exact feeling when you experience the loss of a loved one and are grieving their death. I think it captures the raw emotion of how most people respond to death, and I think how I myself might respond to a tragedy. I think that everyone can relate to this image and it sends a powerful message about human suffering. The last photo that truly impacted me was Eric Miller’s image of children learning under a tree, which I posted on my blog. This photo truly spoke to me because it was so heartbreaking to see the children having to learn under a tree with no textbooks, pencils, or desks. As a future teacher, it is hard to imagine not being able to have a classroom full of textbooks and equipment that is necessary to teach students. This picture shows the lack of quality of education and resources in third world countries. This photo has truly impacted the way I view schools in America, and makes me want to teach students in other countries, who have nothing. After seeing this photo, it makes me cherish what I have and I feel blessed to have had the resources to get me educationally to where I am today.

Photo by Lynn Johnson 

Image Source: http://voices.nationalgeographic.com/2016/06/24/hate-kills-photos-insights-photographer-lynn-johnson/

Photo by Ed Clark

Image Source: http://time.com/3764064/mourning-fdr-in-a-classic-photo-the-face-of-a-nations-loss/

Photo by Eric Miller

Image Source: https://dornsife.usc.edu/news/stories/1432/an-objective-analysis/

                                                 

             Throughout my creative experiential exercise, it was fun to think of myself as a photojournalist who was trying to share the joys of the holidays through the Festival of Trees event. Although these pictures would not necessarily have an impact on the world, someone might see them and automatically get into the holiday spirit. I know that when I was looking at these pictures, all of the trees and people having a good time made me feel happy. It would be cool to be able to share pictures with the world that could inspire others or evoke some sort of emotions. When taking these pictures, I was more in the mindset of a photojournalist, wanting to capture every moment of the event, as well as thinking about what would evoke certain emotions. When looking at the images I took, they do not exactly fit the images that a photojournalist would take. I took these images to share the memories and feelings of the holiday spirit, rather than sending a powerful message about a conflict or event that is happening within the world. Although it was a small event, and most people in the world, or even Massachusetts for that matter, would not know about it, it was still a fun experience to be able to capture history that was occurring in Springfield. This experience showed me that there are a lot of events going on that people do not know about, however the events might be really popular in the area they are happening in. I really enjoyed being able to go out and take pictures of this event because it was something that I have never done before. Taking pictures made me more aware of the event and the actions of the people at it. I felt like a photojournalist, studying every aspect of the event and keeping an eye open for those shots that capture the essence and meaning of the Festival of Trees.   

            I really enjoyed taking this class because I gained so much new insight into the History of Photojournalism from my own research and from that of my classmates. In Allison Gavin’s Photojournalist Profile blog post, I learned that as “Addario was photographing injured soldiers, she did in fact get permission from the troops to be in their presence taking photographs.” I think this shows how professional Lynsey Addario truly was and how much she respected her subjects. This fact made me wonder if other photojournalists ask their subjects if they can take pictures of them or if the photojournalists do it without their consent. In this case, I feel that this would be unethical and wrong. In Alyssa Desroches’s blog post, I learned about how photojournalist Anja Niedringhaus views how photojournalism has impacted the way we view a conflict. For she states, “I don't believe conflicts have changed since 9/11, other than to become more frequent and protracted. But the essence of the conflict is the same - two sides fighting for territory, for power, for ideologies. And in the middle is the population who is suffering.” She talks about how the conflicts have not changed, rather the way we see them has. Images can be uploaded to the internet at lightning speeds now, which allows people to see things faster than ever before. With the rise in technology, photojournalism has changed, therefore changing the way we see things. The images of the issues are more available now then before and everyone can see what is happening in the world, even if they are not physically there. From Judith Soto’s blog post about Tim Hetherington, I learned that he “had an extraordinary talent for documenting, in compassionate and beautiful imagery, the human stories behind the headlines… in every assignment, he demonstrated a remarkable sensitivity to his subjects, a tender insight into their human ordeals, and a keen sense of how visual imagery could be used to effect positive social change.” I believe that Tim Hetherington was able to encompass the values and ideas that make up a great photojournalist. He cared for his subjects and tried to show the world the human suffering that resulted from war. Tim Hetherington was able to inspire the future photojournalists to document the truth, while showing compassion and kindness to the subjects they shot.  

Photo by Lynsey Addario

Image Source: http://content.time.com/time/photogallery/0,29307,1963443_2062707,00.html

Photo by Anja Niedringhaus 

Image Source: https://www.theguardian.com/media/gallery/2014/apr/04/the-work-of-killed-ap-photographer-anja-niedringhaus-in-pictures

Photo by Tim Hetherington

Image Source: https://pro.magnumphotos.com/image/NYC118500.html

Photojournalist Profile: James Nachtwey

I made did my Photojournalist Profile on James Nachtwey in the form of a book.

        John Nachtwey has dedicated the last 30 years of his life to photojournalism, capturing powerful images that have moved the world. After graduating from Dartmouth College, Nachtwey began his photojournalism career as a photographer for New Mexico’s Albuquerque Journal in 1976. During his time at the Journal, he covered local news and issues that the surrounding communities were dealing with. In 1980, Nachtwey decided to move to New York to pursue a job as a freelance magazine photographer. As National Geographic Society states in the article, “His first foreign assignment was to cover civil strife in Northern Ireland in 1981 during the IRA hunger strike.” After this assignment, he signed a contract with TIME magazine in 1984, in which he covered a variety of social issues and war. John Nachtwey is still under contract with TIME magazine and during his years with it, as National Geographic Society explains in the article, he “has devoted himself to documenting wars, conflicts, and critical social issues. He has worked on extensive photographic essays in El Salvador, Nicaragua, Guatemala, Lebanon, the West Bank and Gaza, Israel, Indonesia, Thailand, India, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, etc.” In 1994, he traveled to South Africa where he documented the first non-racial elections. With over 30 years of photojournalistic work under his belt, Nachtwey, in 2001, became one of the founding members of VII, which is a photo agency that primarily focuses on the world issues and how different cultures live.

      John Nachtwey became interested in photojournalism, mainly war photography, when he first viewed images of the Civil Rights Movement and the Vietnam War. He was against the Vietnam War, believing that violence was not the best way to solve the problem. As James Nachtwey says in his speech, “I was a student in the '60s, a time of social upheaval and questioning, and on a personal level, an awakening sense of idealism. The war in Vietnam was raging; the Civil Rights Movement was under way; and pictures had a powerful influence on me.” He believed that pictures could tell a story of truth, which could help change history for the better. Nachtwey’s main motivation as a photojournalist has always been to bring a sense of awareness about social issues and war conflict to the general public. As Nachtwey explains in the article, “I’m only one among many journalists who’ve committed themselves to covering conflicts and revealing social injustices, that have been hidden or ignored, but that are crying out to be corrected.” Nachtwey wants to give a voice to those individuals who have none.  He believed that people need to know the truth, and maybe that truth would spark a change. As Nachtwey once said, “There is a job to be done…to record the truth. I want to wake people up!”

      Since 1976, James Nachtwey has devoted the last 30 years of his life to capturing images of social issues and war conflict. Nachtwey entered the photojournalism scene right at the end of the Golden Age of Photojournalism. He experienced a lot throughout his lifetime of work, and has seen an age of paper photojournalism change to digital. During the 1980’s, as Bran Jones explains in the article, there was “a shift in the world of photojournalism in the 1980s as practitioners began to explore new ways of generating content and present their work to the public…photojournalists began to aspire to explore more personal approaches and expand the genre by communicating the experience of complex issues and events.” James Nachtwey documented many conflicts during the 80s, such as the Palestinian-Israeli conflict beginning in 1981, the civil unrest of the people in Central America during the Cold War, and the Scorched Earth campaign rebellion in Latin America. By the 1990s, James Nachtwey was seeing a transition in photojournalism, where photography was being driven by technology. As Ross Collins states in the article, “By the 1990s, photojournalists were already shooting mostly color, and seldom making actual prints, but using computer technology to scan film directly into the design. And by the beginning of the new millennium, photojournalists were no longer using film: digital photography had become universal, both faster and cheaper in an industry preoccupied with both speed and profit.” James Nachtwey was able to witness the civil war between Bosnia, Croatia, and Serbia, after the Soviet Union split. He documented the aftermath of the wars and the tragedies that people had to suffer. He found himself becoming more than just a war photographer, for Nachtwey began to focus on social issues as well as those that involved the environment. During the 90s, people began to become more concerned about the effects that air pollution had on humans and the environment. From 1995 through 1996, James Nachtwey explains how, “Going deeper into the legacy of the Eastern European regimes, I worked for several months on a story about the effects of industrial pollution, where there had been no regard for the environment or the health of either workers or the general population.” He exposed the harmful effects that air pollution had on workers, making people more aware of the issue. He also began to focus more on social issues throughout the world, such as the African countries that suffered from feminine and the disturbing effects it had on the people living there. James Nachtwey now lives in the age of digital technology, where he can upload an image straight from his camera, sharing it with millions of people. Nachtwey actually witnessed the September 11 attacks, where he was able to capture some of the first images of the aftermath of the attack. Throughout the last few years, Nachtwey had been documenting and bringing awareness to, as he says, “suffering in the Islamic world from political oppression, civil war, foreign invasion, poverty, and feminine. With new technology and the ability to upload images to the internet at record speeds, Nachtwey says, that he is going to “come up with innovative and exciting ways to use news photography in the digital era.” 

         When first starting out, James Nachtwey used the Canon EOS- 1N AF SLR 35 mm Camera. The 35mm Single Lens Reflex camera, as author Rene Smith explains, “use[s] a mirror and prism system to allow photographers to accurately see the image that will be captured. This system uses one optical light path whereas previous cameras had two, one through the lens to the film and the other to the viewfinder.” This camera gave photographers the chance to see images at eye level directly through the lens and also allowed them to change the lenses. Photographers were able to capture images as they truly were. The 35mm SLR camera, which contains a 35 millimeter film, was made to be lightweight and easy to use. In 2000, Canon released their newest version of the Canon SLR 35 mm Camera, which was known as the Canon EOS-1V SLR Camera. As Philip Greenspun states in the the article, “the EOS-1V is the top-of-the-line film body in the Canon EOS system… it combines an intelligent 45-point autofocus system with a 10 frames-per-second exposure rate.” Since James Nachtwey was considered a war photographer, he had to be able to take pictures of the action without being close enough to get hurt. In order to get up close pictures, Nachtwey used a variety of different lenses, such as the Canon EF 17-35mm Lens and the Canon EF 28mm F/1.8 Wide Angle Lens to capture the perfect shots. The Canon EF 17-35mm Lens, as Ken Rockwell states, “any color fringes are corrected in-camera. This gives better image quality today than we ever could get with this lens when it was new.” Now that technology has changed and the main focus is on digital cameras, James Nachtwey uses the Canon EOS-1Ds Mark II, which as Phi Askey states, “the camera maintains an impressive four frames per second shooting rate and a buffer large enough for 32 JPEG or 11 RAW images.” With the creation of the Digital Single Lens Reflex camera, film is no longer needed and photojournalists do not have to worry about replacing film in their cameras. The digital single lens reflex camera contains a large imaging sensor, which means the photojournalist can get better quality pictures to share with the world. All of James Nachtwey’s cameras were compact and lightweight, meaning that he was able to take photos of people or events instantly, without having to luge around heavy equipment. With the invention of these new hassle free cameras, it allowed for him to travel to different places and capture images of war conflict and social problems that were happening in the world.

          As a photojournalist who focuses mainly on social issues and war conflicts, James Nachtwey must see a lot of tragedy and suffering in his work. John Nachtwey’s ethics towards his subjects and work itself were impeccable. He respected the subjects that he shot and as he said, “I attempt to become as totally responsible to the subject as I possibly can. The act of being an outsider aiming a camera can be a violation of humanity. The only way I can justify my role is to have respect for the other person’s predicament. The extend to which I do that is the extent to which I become accepted by the other, and to that extent I can accept myself.” However, most of the images that James Nachtwey covered involved social issues where people in poverty were suffering. For example, Nachtwey visited a small town in Romania, where as James Nachtwey explains in his speech, “Children who couldn't be supported by their families were raised in government orphanages. Children with birth defects were labeled incurables, and confined for life to inhuman conditions.” Although he did not physically help these children, he saw the images he took to be a way to show the world the cruelty that these children have faced. As James Gilbert explains in the article, Nachtwey “acknowledges that recording grief, injury, death, and distress is potentially a form of exploitation, but he makes it clear that the alternative - allowing man-made misery to remain invisible beyond the reach of those whose consciences should be shocked by it - is worse.” He believed that by sharing these images with the world, it would show people the need for change and spark an outrage that would benefit the treatment of the orphans and their living conditions.

  

James Nachtwey seemed to favor those subjects who were poverty stricken and those who did not have a voice in their own society. As he says in one of his speeches, “I want to record history through the destiny of individuals who often belong to the least wealthy classes. I do not want to show war in general, nor history with a capital H, but rather the tragedy of a single man, of a family…I want to give a voice to those who otherwise would not have a voice.” He showed sympathy towards individuals who were suffering and documented their lives to show just how much our world needs to change. Nachtwey believed that everyone’s story mattered and as he explained in an interview with TIME, “Each of us is a single mind, a single sensibility – one pair of eyes and one pair of ears – one heart – moving through the real world in real time, to tell the stories of what happens to people, one-by-one, at the sharp end of history.” Since he captures images of social issues and war conflict, most of his photos show the darker side and aftermath of what is happening in the world. His photos are meant to get people talking and allow them to see what is really happening in the world. He uncovers the truth, and tends to show the ugly side of an issue. He showed people the effects that the 1993 Sudan famine had on the individuals who lived there. The images showed adults and children, who looked like skeletons, crawling on their hands and knees because they were too hungry to stand. Nachtwey believed that people were not going to change until they saw the problem with their own eyes. As Nachtwey states in a speech, “If there is something occurring that is so bad that it could be considered a crime against humanity, it has to be transmitted with anguish, with pain, and create an impact in people – upset them, shake them up, wake them out of their everyday routine.”