Newspaper Assignment

Photojournalism

Photojournalism is probably the most unique type of photography. The purpose of photojournalism is to create images in order to tell a news story. Photojournalism is usually meant to shock and scare people as the photos are used to capture the emotion and story. Photojournalism is distinguished from other close branches of photography (for example; documentary photography, street photography and celebrity photography) by complying with a rigid ethical framework, which demands that the work is both honest and impartial whilst telling the story in strictly journalistic terms. Photojournalists create pictures that contribute to the news media. That is why photojournalism is so unique as the photographers do not set up a photo shoot and manipulate the meaning of the photograph; they just capture what is happening in real life.

Photojournalism really started to become popular through 1930s to 1950s and was called the ‘Golden Age of Photojournalism’. The change started by a new style of magazines and newspapers that used photography more than text to tell their stories. Magazines like Life, The Daily Mirror and The New York Daily News built huge readerships and reputations largely on their use of photography and photographers like W. Eugene Smith, Robert Capa and Alfred Eisenstaedt all became well-known names through photojournalism. Photojournalism’s use in the industry is to create a big impact in newspapers and magazines.  Henri Cartier-Bresson is a very successful photojournalist; Cartier-Bresson's photography took him too many places, including China, Mexico, Canada, the United States, India, Japan, and the Soviet Union. He became the first Western photographer to photograph "freely" in the post-war Soviet Union. One of Henri Cartier-Bresson most famous photographs was when he was the photographer for Mahatma Gandhi’s last days and funeral in 1948, these photographs really put photojournalism as a whole on the map as these photos today are now very iconic.



Another successful photojournalist was Robert Doisneau, he and Henri Cartier-Bresson were pioneers of photojournalism. Some of Doisneau's most memorable photographs were taken after the war, his photographs never ridiculed the subjects, he once refused to photograph women whose heads had been shaved as a punishment for sleeping with Germans; ‘I don’t photograph life as it it, but life as I would like it to be’ – Robert Doisneau.  He won several awards throughout his life, including: The Balzac Prize in 1986, The Grand Prix National de la Photographie in 1983 and The Kodak Prize in 1947. His most famous photograph was taken in 1950 and is known as The Kiss, Robert to the photograph of a couple kissing in the busy streets of Paris which became an internationally recognised symbol of young love in Paris. I got most of my photojournalist information from Wikipedia under the search ‘photojournalism’ (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Photojournalism) and Portfolios under the search ‘Henri Carti-Bresson’ and ‘Robert Doisneau’ (http://www.robert-doisneau.com/fr/portfolio/).

Examples of photojournalism                       

'The Kiss' by Robert Doisneau.
 This a good example of photojournalism as it essentially captures love and romance but in the most genuine and realist way. This image is one of the most popular photos in the world and its known worldwide to symbolize young love.  
                                                                                                  







'Migrant Mother' by Dorothea Lang is a very powerful image as the emotion is so strong. Or though the mother isn't directly looking at the camera you still can see a story through her eyes. Also the fact her children are looking aware and you can't even see there faces also adds more emotion to the photo as it looks so real and un-staged. I would say it shows raw emotion which is difficult to show through photography as it often looks to set up.

This example of photojournalism was taken by Ed Kashi. Its a very powerful and emotive image and I like his use of black and white as I feel it exaggerates the emotional intensity. I also like how Ed has captured an action shot with the boy moving mid air; it makes the photo more interested and drama to the photojournalism.






My Own example of photojournalism

 These photos were taken at a local fashion show down Gunwarf Quays in Porsmouth. With these photos I tried to achieve the models walking down the catwalk without them looking to in motion as possible; basically as if the models were standing still and posing for me. This showed photojournalism through the photos visually documenting the Portsmouth fashion show. I like that in a lot of these photos I achieved what I wanted to do and even captured the models looking straight in my direction.