Chapter Three: The Art of Photojournalism

Photo By: Alexander Gardner

Gettysburg 1863

Contrast: The contrast is low in this photograph and it attributes to the feelings of this image. This images contrast represents the sadness of a casualty of this soldier. If the contrast were too high, it would not give the same eerie effect to the eye.

Texture: There is a rough texture evident. Rough texture is seen as more dynamic and emotional. The rocks create texture within the background.

Color: The black and white color of this image is essential in what the photograph is covering in terms of the event. Only black and white was possible in 1863. But it shows the effects and seriousness of war.

I chose this image because it was taken before color film existed. I also chose this picture because war pictures paved the way for photojournalism. This photo has a lot of depth and history and really interests me.

Photo By: Alfred Elsenstaedt

August 14th 1945

In or out of focus: The image is slightly soft and a little out of focus, it shows the movement of this glorious day of this sailor returning home. It shows the beauty and life of the photograph more. If the image were sharper it would take away from the story of the image.

Quality of Light: The lighting is bold it makes the woman in the image the center of attention. Which in turn makes the eye focus on the sailor kissing her as well. You do not even see the people behind them when your eyes are first drawn to this photo.

Rule of thirds: The image's focus and subjects are centered to grab the viewers focus. With the bystanders shown on the sides of the subjects, it still allows you to see the reactions of them making the photo very dramatic. I also like how the subjects feet are towards the bottom of the picture it makes a nice clean line.

I chose this image because as a little girl I saw it and asked for the poster of this picture to be in my room. It was always a special photo for me. I think maybe because my father was in the service and the feeling of him coming home reminded me of the joy of this image.

 By: Richard Drew

September 11th 2011

Use of lines: The subject is not completely centered he is on the top third horizontally in this photo. The lines are perpendicular to the subject so they don't take away from him and they are also a huge part of this story behind the image. The lines in this image increase its impact to the eye.

Obvious main subject: The main subject is small, it is smaller then one-quarter of the full image. But that does not take away from the image in this case it adds to it. The proportion of the body related to the building shows the falling of the man. If the building and man were not both in the picture together this picture would lose all of its effect and purpose.

Exposure time: This photo was taken with a fast shutter speed. The man is sharply shown against the building as he was falling because of the fast shutter speed used. It still shows movement without a blur especially with the man's positioning of his body shown against the buildings architecture.

I chose this image because of the meaning behind the photograph. This photo became a part of history and represents the lives lost on September 11th. This capture was one of many, and this man was one of many who had no choice but to jump from one of the twin towers that day.

Chapter Two: Pre-digital Photographic Technology

 The Dry plate collodion process consists of a glass plate coated with a gelatin emulsion silver bromide. It can be stored until exposure, and can be brought to the dark room with no exact time limit. That is why dry plate collodion is more advanced than wet plate, because with a wet plate the plate has to prepared right before exposure and developed immediately after. The dry plate was introduced by R.L Maddox in 1871.  The dry plate method was much easier to transport, and needed less exposure to light then wet plates.

Photojournalism was improved by the dry plate method because it was much more convenient and the needed equipment was lighter. As professor Nordell introduced, “As technology progressed photographers were able to move away from using wet plates, so they could have dry plates made in advance which meant it wasn’t as cumbersome to take pictures.” This meant you were able to freeze motion now unlike the wet plate method. Motion photography was a huge impact on photojournalism.  George Eastman then developed smaller cameras with roll film, and revolutionized photography.  In 1879 the first dry plate factory was established.

Digital photographs are taken for granted in today’s society. For 100 years or so silver based materials were photography in itself.  The dry plate process included about 9 total steps; within those steps are multiple processes. Today all we have to do is focus in and hit a button, we lost the magical and independent part of photography in some ways. As Roger Fenton stated in conclusion of his wet plate collodion process, “The biggest challenge I have is the technical aspects of the process…but when successful it can be very rewarding.” Although dry and wet plates were more challenging for the photographer than a digital camera would be, it was almost that these successful photographers were more rewarded to others as well as to themselves. When I took the digital photograph below it was quick and easy to capture a subject I love. 

The digitalization has made photographs of events much easier to capture and hold on to. An example of the difficulties before digitalization is explained in an article about Margaret Bourke-White’s extremely successful career is as follows , “When time finally came to shoot, Bourke-White’s first flashbulb failed. And while the second one worked, she forgot to pull the slide,rendering it blank. She thought it was all over, but luckily, the third attempt was successful. In the end, she came away with an image that became Gandhi’s most enduring representation.” This quote comes from Bourke-White’s experience in India when she was covering impending Indian independence in 1946. She almost missed her opportunity of coverage. In today’s society digital photography has its own difficulties but not nearly as expansive as those before its time. Digital photography issues include blurry pictures, too much contrast, red-eye, off-colors, subject being to far, low resolution, underexposed pictures, and overexposed pictures. But the difference today with common issues of photography is that you can edit a digital photograph. Bourke-White could not edit her mistakes if she forgot to pull the slide or the flashbulb failed she couldn’t edit her picture she just would not have a successful shot. An example of one of today's brilliant photographers is Farzana Wahidy. As Marie Mcgrory writes, "Her photos of daily life range from men selling balloons on the streets to the secret lives of female prostitutes. And Wahidy was not the only one to recognize the need for this type of photography in Afghanistan. She is now part of the recently created Afghan Photography Network." Although the history of photography is greatly appreciated and studied today even digital photographers have great importance in photojournalism. Below is a comparison of my own digital photograph and a historic photograph that used the dry plate collodion process. 

Image by: Alyssa Desroches 2016

Image by: Elwin R Sanborn 1904

Image Source: http://www.wcsarchivesblog.org/category/project-notes/

Chapter One: Can Photographs Change the World?

The photograph below connects with me on a personal level. It is photos like these of past nurses that touch me and motivate me to be the best caregiver I can be in my future. Nursing practice started long ago and at these times nurses were not as appreciated. But historic photos like this of nurses today are greatly appreciated because they show the passion that was sparked long ago for caring for others. Like Professor Nordell stated, "If a tree falls in the woods and no one is around to hear it does it make a sound?". That relates to my thoughts as if no one were there to take this photo, would we be where we are today in our nursing curriculums. The first thing you learn in nursing school is the history of those nurses such as Florence Nightingale. Pictures like this show how far nursing has advanced and they also make me appreciate where it all began.


Photo by: Unknown
Photo Source:https://www.rochesterregional.org/about/history/rochester-medical-museum-and-archives/digital-exhibits/the-nurse-practice-act/

Photographs can change the world, they save precious moments of time and history. The photograph below is a photograph I believe has changed the world. Lee Harvey Oswald the alleged shooter of John F. Kennedy is shown being shot by Dallas nightclub owner Jack Ruby. This photograph changed the world, it might have brought peace or violence depending on feelings about the death of JFK. Bob Jackson the photographer was present at both sites of history. It gave the public closure and information they deserved to be able to see and understand. It was the proof of action because during the shooting not everyone knew who Jack Ruby was, he was referenced as a man in a hat and long dark coat. This shows the importance and dangers of photojournalism. As Jonathan Klein explained in his TED talk, "Since the beginning of photography images have provoked reactions in people and those reactions have caused change to happen." So we must go back before to the parade and to the day JFK was shot and killed, that day was photographed, it was taped as well. Well this image below shows a reaction from that day. This shooting was only two days after the killing of JFK. All of this happened in Dallas Texas, it affected all of America.

Photo By: Bob Jackson 

Photo Source: http://all-that-is-interesting.com/influential-photographs

Now currently in today's world photographs do continue to change the world, citizen journalists capture crucial moments such as police brutality. As Dan Gillmor wrote in his article, "Video and pictures are an equalizer: they’re not the only ones, and most of the power remains with the state, but they can be essential tools to help restore some balance in a system that, in recent years, has tilted in favor of those who interpret “protect and serve” as license to act with impunity." Photographs in situations like these save the innocent and protect the people in our society. He described them as an equalizer meaning that they level out the playing field of what is fair and they are proof of actions currently happening in our world. In this world to get justice we always need proof and photographs tend to be a big part of that proof. I have personally seen footage of this same problem of police brutality on the internet without even searching for them because they have gone viral.

Ted Rall's article Censorship of War Casualties in the US really expands the idea that photographs change the world even further. He is right the public hasn't seen nearly as much as they should about the war currently going on, compared to what was shown during the Vietnam war. Some might argue it is for our protection, but is it? As Ted Rall stated, "Iraq and Afghanistan remain "real" wars in the traditional sense.Thousands of American soldiers have been killed. Tens of thousands have been severly wounded. But images from these "real wars have been studiously sanitised to the point that a well informed news consumer could be excused for thinking that their country's latest wars are virtually bloodless." So in summary to tie all these ideas together, we don't see these things or the government does not want us to whether it is about police or soldiers and war because they know it will make a change and people will voice and stand up for what they believe in. If society saw everything they protect us from we would take action because photographs do change our world. So we must take action and use our technology to our advantage and record this issues and post them for the public the best we can. We must advocate for ourselves and the information that we deserve to have, and citizen journalists face many dangers to do so.

Photojournalism:Past to Present
Photojournalism records history in a matter that appeals to the eyes and soul. According to the Icon Photography School, “Photojournalism is the process of story telling using the medium of photography as your main story telling device.”  Photojournalism has many different aspects and styles within it. As Professor Nordell explained, “It could be photos created to be published in journals”. Photojournalism was started long before the advances in technology, but those pieces of history are maintained and crucial evidence of the past.

The history of photojournalism is important when creating new photojournalism, the past must be known and respected in order to create and portray even current events. Photography was present before the publishing of photojournalism. As Ross Collins identified, "The beginning of modern photojournalism took place in 1925, in Germany. The event was the invention of the first 35 mm camera, the Leica.” This was the start of non-bulky materials to take photos with. With this 35 mm camera photos, could now be taken while on the move or during events.

It is pretty interesting how photojournalism evolved from just prints to being spread through papers, magazines, and now the internet. I personally never made the connection of how important photojournalism is, it represents that current time in a stand still. But the present becomes the past eventually and photos can say a million words. Before modern journalism came about around the 1920's photojournalism still existed just on a smaller scale when it came to reaching the public. Professor Nordell explained, “Actually it started with Mathew Brady’s photographs of the civil war, considered by many to be the beginning of photojournalism, and there was just exhibits of the photos people would just stand in line to view the photos.” Mathew Brady is often referred to as the father of photojournalism.

In today’s society, photojournalism has made a huge impact on sharing social and societal issues to the general public. Advertising and promotions were basically created by the ways of photojournalism. As Professor Nordell stated, “Later as technology developed you could print photographers in newspapers so they were much wider spread, and now today of course online newspapers, blogs, and multimedia presentations." Photojournalism is the key behind documenting history and much more. Photojournalism has expanded greatly since its beginnings, and it will continue to grow as our technology advances. 

Photo Image Source:https://www.archives.gov/education/lessons/brady-photos/

Photo By: Mathew Brady

Photo Image Source: http://journalismresearchnews.org/tag/photojournalism/

Photo By: Unknown