The Art of Photojournalism Assessment

Image #1: 

Photo By: Museum of the City of New York/Byron Co. Collection

Image Source: https://www.gettyimages.com/photos/hospitals-1800s?mediatype=photography&phrase=hospitals%201800s&sort=mostpopular

Year Created: 1899

Contrast

The image holds a high contrast between the dark shadowed areas and the brightened areas. The lighten areas of the image are what appeals to the eyes of the audience and the light is positioned directly behind the operating table. This draws the focus into the patient, nurse, and two surgeons at the operating table.

Background

The image's background works well and compliments the task at hand being done in the photograph. In the background, are numerous types of operating instruments stowed into cabinetry within the operating table. Things that are in the background that display text (such as the containers in the cabinets) and the photos hanging on the wall are small enough or facing away so that they don't distract the focus of the audience from the subjects.

Depth of Field

The photographer maintains focus within the photograph from the front to the back. This shows that everything in the image is important for the viewer to acknowledge. The most important part of the image is focused on the back where the subjects are located.

Why did I choose this image?

I chose this photograph because I feel as if I have a connection with it because of my nursing career I am pursuing. I have spent a few clinical hours in an operating room in the present and it is interesting the differences/improvements between modern-day operating rooms and the one displayed here. All I can think about when I look at this image, the irony that is shown that the glass jar reads "sterile sponges", yet the use of the sterile technique is lacking. 

Image #2: 

Photo By: Unknown

Image Source: https://rarehistoricalphotos.com/iron-lungs-polio-1930s-1950s/

Year Created: 1949

Simplicity

The photographer in this image kept it simple and only had little to no background of the blank wall. This allowed the attention to remain focused on the individual and the nurse. He also uses the mirror on the iron lung to show the expression of the boy inside.

Feelings

The nurse and the young man seemed relaxed in the image it does not have the same impact on me as the viewer. From this image, I feel as if it is very sad that the young man is bound to this iron lung from a result of polio that had no yet been vaccinated against. It shows that his quality of life is so poor that the nurse has to assist him to smoke a cigarette even though his lungs are impaired in the first place. 

Color

Although it wasn't until 1961 that color images began in the industry and black and white images were the only thing used in 1949 when this image was published it actually helps the image. It helps the image display the saddened mood that was discussed above and also gives a sense of authenticity/age to the image. 

Why did I choose this image? 

This image gives a lot of insight into what the impact of vaccines has had on modern-day life. Before research for vaccines, detrimental illnesses impacted the lives of individuals and specifically polio in this image. Polio, when caught, weakened the muscles throughout the body including the diaphragm disallowing them to breathe. These iron lung machines were used 24/7 by the infected individual for proper ventilation. Such a sad concept is revealed in this photo and I think it is necessary for people to be aware the value of vaccines has made to our society.

Image #3

Photo By: James Nachtwey

Image Source: https://www.canon-europe.com/pro/stories/james-nachtwey-memoria-interview/

Year Created: 1994

Subjects Emotion

In this powerful image, the positioning of the boy shows the viewer the amount of trauma that is apparent on his face due to a Hutu death camp. The image looks as if it were a candid image and the boy had seen something shocking right in front of him. This assists in displaying the utter horror that the boy had faced within the camp it is like he is continued to be exposed to the trauma through this pose.

Rule of Thirds

If you divide the image in thirds vertically Nachtway places the Hutu survivor off-centered and to the right of the image. It allows the image to be balanced and creates a dramatic effect. It also helps the viewer move through the image. 

Use of Shadows

Nachtwey uses a good balance of light and shadows to create a dramatic effect. The shadows entail the background of the boy and his neck. The light looks as if it was positioned so that it brightens his face (showing the scars) and so that he is looking into the light. 

Why did I choose this image?

As I was looking through all the imagery from 1951 and today, I came across this image of this boy. His facial expression and the amount of trauma on his face made me feel absolute sorrow. Then when reading the article that this photograph came from that expanding on how he was a Hutu survivor, it made me feel extremely hopeful that his life will improve as the years go on. 

Pre-Digital Photographic Technology

Prior to the invention of cameras, in order for pictures to be produced to convey a message, artists had to sketch up interpretations of an event to be published, leaving room for the artist’s biases within the image and were very time-consuming. This held issues when developing news articles because it took such a lengthy amount of time to produce images that didn't directly reflect what had happened. This is where the evolution of cameras began.




In the year of 1924, a German individual named Oscar Barnack designed the first module of the Leica 35mm camera. A year later it was released to the public where it became a success in changing photography as a whole. In the article, The Leica I: The Camera that Changed Photography by John Wade, he explains the transition from “glass plates to be used in cameras, and those that took roll film were thought of as miniatures. So imagine the culture shock when a still photography camera was produced to take 35mm movie film.” Which is exactly the impact it had on the public when the camera was readily available to them. These cameras were handheld and allowed for easy transportation that took high-quality photographs.


                                                                   

Oscar Barnack working on the Leica, Photo By: Unknown

In Professor Nordell’s video, Before There Were Pixels Part 1, he describes the above referenced “glass plates” and explains the hardships that individuals endeavored when going out into the field to record “photographs” outside a designated studio occurring in 1851. He explains the process of utilizing wet glass plates as the primary source of recording pictures as “there were glass plates in that whole van/wagon you’d put different chemicals on that glass plates and while they were still wet put them in the camera, take pictures, and then immediately put those plates back into the chemicals to process them to make them into useable photographs.” This process was called the wet collodion process and it entailed 8 important steps to creating these images. Two key features to this technology are explained in The Getty Museum video as allowing “photographers to use finely detailed images on paper and to print an unlimited number of copies.”




Then to a huge advance to the Leica camera, which used 35mm film that allowed an individual to take from 24-36 pictures. As Professor Nordell explains the Leica camera in his video, Before There Were Pixels Part 2, “more surreptitious” allowing for the picture taken to be hidden. The advancement in this technology allowed a more convenient and easier way to photograph events that were occurring in real-time. From there, the timeline continues in advancements in technology. Since the Leica 35mm camera, there have been major advancements in technology in regards to cameras and how easily accessible they are. In today’s society, there are extremely high tech digital cameras that have many different lenses that could be bought to assist in taking very clear pictures from a very short or far distance. Also, cameras are within people’s fingertips on the daily with cell phones. These cell phones hold many different editing applications that can assist the photographer adhance the photograph in any way.  Cell phones are constantly adding more advancements in their camera technology to appeal to consumers and allows for photography to be exchanged on a daily basis without any expertise in photojournalism.

Below is an image I took of my dog, Luke using my iPhone 6s:

(Notice the difference in color and clarity of this photo compared with the photo of Oscar Barnack using early technology) 

                                             

My Golden Retriever, Luke at Eagle Hill

 

Does Photography Change The World?

Can a simple photograph change the direction of which the world is going? This question can produce complex answers but ultimately I do in fact believe that it can essentially assist in the change. As Johnathan Klein of Getty Images discusses in his TEDtalk, “images themselves don’t change the world, but we are also aware that since the beginning of photography images have provoked reactions in people and those reactions have caused change to happen.” He is exactly right in his explanation of this; images alone will not produce a change in society but they do however aide in conversation to be had and may change the public's perception on certain aspects. For instance, things that occur on a global level may go without being recognized to an individual that resides in another country. However, a photographer that sets out to convey a message and record realities of other nations will bring the awareness that is necessary to govern change. The more images that are captures of a controversial event, the more difficult is it for society to ignore it.

 

Image published by MassLive

This image is rather straightforward and illustrates a drug bust in the town that I grew up in but also emphasizes the impact of the opioid crisis. The Masslive article reads, “the increasing number of accidental deaths from heroin abuse and related opioid drugs ravaging the state is hitting this community hard - with the highest number who die on a per-capita basis, according to an analysis of state and census figures.” Which is exactly the case. Since I graduated High School, I have attended double the number of funerals related to an overdose in a young person than I have gone to celebrations (such as weddings, baby showers, birthday parties, etc). The individuals that use within the community are not who you would expect it to be. One case in Ware that really impacted me was an individual that I had competed for our dance studio for years with. She and her younger sister began to experiment with heroin until their family and friends began to pick up on hints that they were using. Both sisters were forced to go away to the state of the art rehabs. Upon return, they would relapse and begin again. All until the younger sister had died of complications of chronic use. Since then, the amount of people that began to use in Ware and surrounding towns has become so large and unfortunately, the number of deaths related to opioid drug use have as well.

Photo by AFP- Getty Images

One well-recognized picture that has impacted “the world” is an image of a little boy in the back of an ambulance in Syria. Author Eun Kyung Kim, of the article Syrian Boy in Ambulance Reminds World of War’s Horror, adds, “The simple image of the barefoot young Syrian boy, covered in gray dust after being rescued from a bombed-out building, or the dazed and desensitized look on his blood-caked face.” The five-year-old boy, identified as Omran Daqneesh, was a civilian in the town of Aleppo when an airstrike hit a surrounding building and he was rescued from the rubbish. This photo taken in 2016, was a complete horrifying eye-opener to the impact of the Syrian war on its people and that little boy become the face of Syria. It is known that the U.S. has partaken on war throughout History but it rarely leaves families residing in the U.S. questioning their safety and security on a daily basis. In the same article, a California mother of 2 little boys around the same age as pictured Omran Daqneesh said, “how unfair for these people to have to live like that. My kids are safe in a house and these kids are dodging bombs out there. It’s horrifying. I can’t believe this is actually happening in 2016.” Which is exactly the case, it is unfortunate that the threat of an airstrike lives on the conscious of parents and children in Syria on a daily basis. After being exposed to this image, I followed the news broadcasting that held any information on Syria amongst many other individuals because it was more frequently on the news channels and constantly was discussed over multiple platforms.





Photos that are taken plays an important role in documenting history and informing individuals on a nation or even global level. However, Professor John Nordell adds a valid point within his exemplar in his video Do Photographs Change the World, “if a tree falls in the woods and there is no photojournalist to take a picture of it, did the event happen? Can the event become part of history?” This question that questions reality and validity can be applied to any event that happens in the world. If it is not documented with an image that proves that it happened, it may just be interpreted of “he said, she said” data. The article Ferguson’s citizen journalists revealed the value of an undeniable video written by Dan Gillmor states, “Antonio French, an alderman in nearby St Louis, spent days posting to Twitter pictures and a series of videos of the demonstrations and police actions that he captured on his mobile phone..He is a citizen journalist of the best kind: a credible witness who has helped inform the wider public about a critical matter.” The nontraditional photojournalistic approach of people that take pictures on their phones of something that is occurring. This in the case of police brutality will hold the police officer that may be breaking a code of ethics in the way they are handling a situation accountable for their actions. It serves as hard evidence and allows for appropriate disciplinary actions in a court of law. Without this video/photography captured, a respected police officer or even a civilian would be able to present untrue recall of the events.




What if taken images cannot be published?



This is another issue that may be present within the photojournalism profession because media companies are multi-million dollar industries that control what the public is exposed to. In the article, Big Media Companies And Their Many Brands — In One Chart demonstrate this. It reads, “The Walt Disney Co. has bid more than $52 billion to buy much of 21st Century Fox. It's only the latest merger in the wave of deal-making washing over the media industry. AT&T is facing off with federal antitrust officials over its $85.4 billion purchase of Time Warner, which has been pending for more than a year.” This can be dangerous in who controls what is being published regardless if the news is worthy of being published. Disallowing news that is important to be released to the public or recorded as American history to be published to refrain from damaging the reputation of these major companies.

What is Photojournalism? And Why Do We Study it?

In order to study photojournalism in-depth, it is important to define what exactly is photojournalism and to analyze why is it essential to understand the history behind photojournalism. In the simplest terms, photojournalism can be defined as the art of utilizing photographs to communicate a message or event to an audience. However, there is much more involved in creating these pieces to which will convey this overall message or will assist in making the photograph appeal to the audience. Professor Nordell discusses the concept of photojournalism on a fundamental level in his video, What is Photojournalism? when saying, “divide the word into two words: photo and journalism.” By doing so, it allows a deeper investigation of what these two words mean when put together. Photos (which are the prefix of Photographs), which has evolved throughout the technological advancements are images that are produced by light. In the way, the light interacts with the type of instrument used will have a different result for how the picture is recorded. These photos that are captured by journalists are then published in many different forms of journalism. Journalism itself is taken upon professionals that write or communicate a message through publishing via newspapers, magazines, news channels, online sources, etc. When combining these two words: you have photojournalism. Professor Nordell adds in his video, “there are specific skill sets that are unique to being a photographer and being a journalist. With effective photojournalists those skill sets overlap.”

                                    

Image By: Belchonock

Rachel Towne discusses in her article, A Brief History of Photojournalism that photojournalism was first practices in the midst of the mid-1850s during the American Civil War and the technique utilized was engraving. This was a very time consuming and strenuous technique that only allowed for very few productions of work. In the time periods of the 1930’s to the 1960’s, Towne discusses the “Golden Age” for photojournalism. This is when two major advancements of the Leica camera and the first flash bulbs were invented. This allowed for easier transportation of these devices into the community where photographs could be taken of individuals during the activities of daily living. Photographs that still exist through this timeframe may not have ever been able to be recorded without these advancements. Photojournalism in today’s society is much more frequent than it was even then. Prints that were utilized in exhibits and such still exists but the widespread and utilization of the internet has made photojournalism easily accessible to the public.




So why do we study photojournalism? Why is history relevant today?

The video titled History is.. created by Holli Pearson, gives various reasoning for why it is important to understand and study history. Two key concepts that she included within the video that stand out as valid reasoning as to why history is important are that it is “ History is...crucial” followed by a picture of the administration of the polio vaccine and “History is...righting wrongs” followed by a picture of an anti-slavery campaign sign. These two things come to mind because if we were unexposed to what our ancestors and people of history have done incorrectly or made the corrections we would continue down the same road of ignorance. Both great examples that were included: the implementation of vaccines to prevent illnesses that were detrimental to individuals’ healths and killing millions of people and the anti-slavery movement that had ended the mistreatment of African Americans and changed the world for the better.

                                                         

Image By: Kenneth Jerecke

Photojournalism documents history as it is being lived and can be used to generate change or show insight as to the past to other generations. In the excerpt from the documentary War Photographer about the photojournalist, James Nachtway he explains the importance of photographing war. Nachtway questions, “Is it possible to put in end to a form of human behavior which has existed throughout history? By means of photography… For me, the strength of photography lies in its ability to evoke a sense of humanity… And if it's used well it can be a powerful ingredient and antidote to war.” His motivation behind capturing these photographs in the middle of a warzone despite the risk of losing his own life provides hope that it will communicate to society the impact on the lives of the many that live in these warzones. Publishing these photographs to the public that are unaware of what it being done outside of their countries territory can open conversation for change.

My Interpretation of Photojournalism

Photo captured by Philip McMaster of photojournalist Richard Lautens

Photo by Philip McMaster

Image Source: https://contrastly.com/photojournalism-101/