Thursday 27 September 2012

Photo Journalism notes

Photo Journalism means not only writing in new stories but also adding pictures that link to the story.
For example, Robert Capa was a freelance journalist during the war. He worked for LIFE magazine and photographed various going on's throughout World War 2. He didn't just capture photographs for World War 2 though, there were many smaller yet significant wars he went out to get pictures from.

Henri Cartier Bresson was known as the 'un official founder of journalism'.  One of his most famous photographs was simply of a man jumping over a puddle, known as 'Behind Saint-Lazare Station'. This photo was done accidentally as Bresson did not mean for the man to jump over the puddle, that just what happened. His belief was if he waited long enough in the same spot something would happen. He didn't not know what, or when, but something interesting would come along.

However, Photo Journalism can be deceiving. People think that just because its in a picture, that means the story is truthful. That's not the case however, as most photographs in photo journalism have been tampered with. Just because it is in a photograph, it doesn't mean the reader is given the entire story behind it, and this could mean the reader thinks something has happened, when in reality it is a completely different story.