As with everything in life, there is always a beginning and photojournalism. Without photojournalist, people not directly related to situations, would have never experienced the frontlines of war, the Great Depression, or the inhumanities of abortion. Photographically evaluating history is a way to analyze what once was and to forge ahead toward what will be. From its turn of the century birth, the professionals that have shaped and continue to form; its “Golden Era,” to its present day modern identity; photojournalism still proceeds.
Photojournalism hit the world’s stage in the early 19th century. According to Dillon Westbrook who writes for Photography_Schools.com, the British were using a form of the box camera to capture the movement of soldiers. The first recognized photojournalist was Romanian born, Carol Szathmari. He photographed the Crimean War from 1853-1856. “Szathmari's newsworthy photographs were exhibited in European galleries for the world to view and were later copied in limited numbers and distributed globally” (Wanke). Yet most information available points to the early 1920’s as being the proper beginning for modern photojournalism. Instructor Ross Collins of North Dakota State University, states that “modern photojournalism took place in 1925, in Germany. The event was the invention of the first 35 mm camera, the Leica. It was designed as a way to use surplus movie film, then shot in the 35 mm format” (Collins). Instructor Collins also includes that prior to the Leica, camera equipment was difficult to transport because of bulk and the necessary lighting equipment. He asserts as well that Germany also receives due credit for the first photojournalism magazine. According to Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History, “...
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Wanke, Michelle. "History of People in Photojournalism - LoveToKnow Photography." Photography Tips | Camera Instructions. Web. 3 Feb. 2011. .
Westbrook, Dillion. "A Brief History of Photojournalism." Photography Schools. Find the Best School and Be a Career Photographer. 2007. Web. 03 Feb. 2011. .
Johnson, Brooks. Photography Speaks: 150 Photographers on their Art.” New York: Aperture Foundation Inc., 2004. Print.
Susan Sontag once wrote, “To collect photographs is to collect the world.” In her article entitled “On Photography,” she overviews the nature of photography and its relation to people using it. Sontag discusses photography’s ability to realistically capture the past rather than an interpretation of it, acting as mementos that become immortal. Continuing on to argue the authenticity of photography and how its view points have shifted from art into a social rite.With the use of rhetorical devices, Sontag scrutinizes the characteristics of photography and its effects on surrounding affairs; throughout this article Sontag reiterates the social rites, immortality and authenticity of photographs, and the act of photography becoming voyeuristic. With the use of the rhetorical devices pathos, appeal of emotion, ethos, appeal to ethics and credibility, and logos, appeal to logic, Sontag successfully persuades the audience to connect and agree with her views.
Born of Irish immigrants in 1823 in a little place called Warren County, New York; Mathew Brady is known as “The Father of Photojournalism.” While a student of Samuel Morse and a friend of Louis Daguerre (inventor of the “Daguerreotype,” a method of photography that the image is developed straight onto a metal coated surface), in which he had met while under the study of Morse, Brady took up his interest in photography in the year of 1839, while only seventeen years of age. Brady took what he had learned from these two talented and intellectual men to America where he furthered his interest in the then-growing art of photography.
Tolmachev, I. (2010, March 15). A history of Photography Part 1: The Beginning. Retrieved Febraury 2014, from tuts+ Photography: http://photography.tutsplus.com/articles/a-history-of-photography-part-1-the-beginning--photo-1908
In the chapter, “The Mirror with a Memory”, the authors, James Davidson and Mark Lytle, describe numerous things that evolved after the civil war, including the life of Jacob Riis, the immigration of new peoples in America, and the evolution of photography. The authors’ purpose in this chapter is to connect the numerous impacts photography had on the past as well as its bringing in today’s age.
"Theartsdesk Q&A: Photographer Mick Rock." First with Arts Reviews, News & Interviews. N.p., n.d. Web. 03 Dec. 2013.
5 Light, Ken. Tremain, Kerry. Witness in our Time: Working Lives of Documentary Photographers. Washington and London: Smithsonian Institution Press, 2000.
Leica introduced a small format 35mm camera in 1925. This smaller machine revolutionized the way photographers could transport the camera, as they could photograph discretely in all situations. (Uk.leica-camera.com, n.p.) Leica are considered a premium brand camera, well built and precise ensuring the images they create are quality. Leica, who are still a camera maker, have photographic galleries in Frankfurt, Los Angles, New York, Salzburg and Tokyo, alternating exhibitions of work that the Magnum Photographers captured. But from here, the 3...
Sontag, Susan. "Essay | Photography Enhances Our Understanding of the World." BookRags. BookRags. Web. 15 Apr. 2014.
First, let us define Photojournalism and Fine Art Photography. According to the Oxford dictionary, photojournalism is the art or practice of communicating news by photographs, especially in magazines. But according to Merriam-Webster, photojournalism’s full definition is journalism in which written copy is subordinate to pictorial usually photographic presentation of news stories or in which a high proportion of pictorial presentation is used. In other words, photojournalism is news photography. Photojournalism found itself invading photography from the late 1920’s and can be defined as a spontaneous and newsworthy photographic narrative of human events. Fine Art Photography is the new kid on the block. It is usually thought to refer to the visual creation for a specific expressive or aesthetic value. This is often distingui...
In this essay we will analyze the advancement of photography and its contribution to film, photographers and their contributions to photography and society, and how many major publications have been affected by photography. Photography has changed
The idea for photographing came around in 1814 when Joseph Niépce wanted an image of his son before he left for war. He succeeded in making the first camera in 1827, but the camera needed at least eight hours to produce one picture. Parisian Louis Daguerre invented the next kind of camera in 1839, who worked with Niépce for four years. His camera only needed fifteen to thirty minutes to produce a picture. Both Niécpe’s and Daguerre’s cameras made pictues on metal plates. In the same year Daguerre made his camera, an Englishman by the name of William Henry Fox Talbot made the first camera that photographed pictures on paper. The camera printed a reverse picture onto a negative and chemicals were needed to produce the photo up right. In 1861, color film came along and pictures were produced with color instead of being just black and white. James Clerk Maxwell is credited with coming up with color film, after he took the ...
Photojournalism is a specific form of journalism that employs the use of images to form a news story that meaningfully contributes to the media. This allows a photographer to capture stills that tell the story of a moment in time. Photojournalism creates a transparency between the media and the people as it depicts an accurate representation where meaning can be misinterpreted through text. Photojournalism largely contributes to the way we understand the reality of a moment. Becker (1982) supports this concept as he compares photography to paintings. He says that paintings get their meaning from the painters, collectors, critics, and curators; therefore photographs get their meaning from the way people understand them and use them. Photojournalist’s
Pictorial Photography started out as a means to create graphic imagery that could not be possible through one photograph. Thus photographs were created in the later half of the 19th century with aesthetics in mind. Photographers began to think “what would the people like to see?” and so they began to show pictures of everyday life and an all around image of society from labor to war. Civil War photography was one of the more interesting series, which focused in on the soldiers and contributors of the war.
Newton, Julianne H. The Burden of Visual Truth: The Role of Photojournalism in Mediating Reality. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 2001. Print.