Photojournalism

Photojournalism 

Photojournalism is a form of journalism, but in photojournalism they create images to tell a news story. Usually it is referred to still images, but it can also be referred to video used in broadcast journalism. Like a writer, a photojournalist is a reporter but they instead of writing, uses images. They often make decisions instantly and they must carry photographic equipment, often while exposed to significant obstacles, for example; weather, crowds, danger and more.

Henri Cartier Bresson
(1933)

Henri Cartier Bresson is French photographer and well known as a godfather of photography. He is very popular because of 'decisive moment'. Bresson always liked to wait for a decisive moment that would complete his photo and make it just perfect. He believed that you can control most of the picture you are taking and those are buldings and things that don't move around, however small part of the picture are random element (humans, cars, animals) that moves around and you don't know at what time and what exactly will come in your photo. He always liked to set up his camera to make most of picture as perfect as possible and then he would sit down and wait till something will come and complete his picture. He believes that ''in to the space the time will come'' and that was what he always kept in his mind when he did his photos. He is very significant in photojournalism because his photos inspired a lot of photographers and the way he took his pictures started something new.

Bersson used Leica DBP camera that was designed in very interesting way. This camera had a little window in the side so you could see your picture you are about to take, but the other eye is free so you can see what is happening around.

Cartier-Bresson's first Leica


This is picture that Bresson took in France, Paris (1932). 

This picture shows French man jumping from stairs that are lying on the ground, over a huge puddle. This picture was taken couple years before WW2 and he happened to be in right time and right place. This picture has a man jumping almost like in to the unknown who describes WW2 very well because people didn't really know that that would happen and it was almost like unknown.

''The photograph itself doesn't interest me. I want only to capture a minute part of reality. '' - Henri Cartier-Bresson

Robert Capa

(1936)

Robert Capa is really known photojournalist because of his war photography. He was always ready to risk his life to capture reality with his camera. He liked to get really close to action to capture the best pictures. Capa took a lot of pictures of soldiers dying in front of his camera. After he came back from war with all of his pictures, the magazine he did pictures for rushed to get them done and to publish them as quickly as possible and because of some mistake his photos got destroyed and only some negatives were still left. Most of his pictures were for nothing and he took a lot of risk for them.
Robert Capa is really good photojournalist because he was ready to do what other people would never do and he was ready to risk his life to capture reality and to show the world what happens in war. He was ready to do almost anything to get his pictures as good as possible.

Unlike Vaccaro, Capa tried to capture only one side of the battlefield because he knew that it wouldn’t be good idea to take pictures of dying American soldiers. Capa's pictures showed only one side of the battlefield instead of both.

 

The falling soldier
Capa got known around globe because of this picture 'The falling soldier'.  This picture has soldier who has just got shot and he is falling to his death. This picture shows a lot of emotion and it really showed the realty of how horrible war is. I think this picture opened eyes for a lot of people and for those who just sat at home hoping for the best, while soldiers tried to change something.

Tony Vaccaro

(1945)

Tony Vaccaro worked for Army and he took some of the best pictures of World War II. Tony always carried his camera on a strip around his neck so he had easy and quick access to his camera. This way he was able to get his camera out as quickly as possible to capture some action or something that was going around. He always kept his camera close to him just like soldiers kept their guns close to them. Same as Capa, Vaccaro took pictures of dying soldiers, but the pictures he had was different. He took pictures of dying American soldiers and this is the reason why most of his pictures got censored.
Vaccaros pictures got destroyed because they had dying American soldiers and those where not the right choice for American public.
Some of his pictures he made himself in soldier's helmets and the negatives he hand on the nearest tree. Next day when he woke up those pictures where done and looked like normal pictures.
Tony Vaccaro is very good photojournalist because same as Capa, he did something that no-one else would like to do and he was ready to do whatever he had to do, to get those pictures perfect. He also was always ready to take a picture.

Unlike Capa, Tony Vaccaro was more about taking pictures of reality for all, not just for what he was asked to do. He was taking pictures of American soldiers dying and that is something that also happened in the war and he needed to take pictures of war so he tried to capture both sides of the war. He tried to show reality of war and how terrible it is.

Vaccaro pictures are really strong and they show whatever he saw when he was in war. He said: 'I wanted to collect evidence against the war, the futility, the destruction ... I said to myself, don't worry about how good the photo is. When the eye sees it, do it.' and i think he did his work very well. He did capture reality of the war and showed it to the world, so the people who thought that everything is fine at least would think about what a stranger would do to make sure that their country is safe to live in.   

This picture shows dead soldier lying in snow. This picture shows the reality of war which is that if you died, no one is going to try to get you back on their side and make sure that you will get buried like everyone else, instead you are left where you died. Also you can see that snow is over dead soldiers body which means that he is lying there for a long time. 

Photo documents real events? 

I think that photo can document real events however, pictures are really easy to change and if people change the picture, they can change the real meaning of the picture. In some way picture can document real events but not fully. Picture is what you make of it, for example: if you see a picture that you don’t know anything about and you haven’t read anything about it, you are going to make your own meaning to it, but you will not know if it is real, if what you made of it is true. Picture is what people make of it and what people think of it instead of real event.
Overall, I think that picture can’t really document real event, because people will make their own meaning for it when they will look at it. Without facts and story that support that picture, it will be what you will want it to be instead of what photographer tried to show you.