Impacting Society through Photography
If a single picture is worth a thousand words, a photo journalistic piece of several impacting images can speak volumes. In this segment, we'll explore a little bit of the news and photo-journalistic photography, and how images can be used to make an impact in society.
What do you think of when you hear the term "photo journalism?" Do you think of the newspaper photographer on the scene taking images to bring life to the words of a story? Someone like Superman's pal Jimmy Olsen? Or maybe it conjures up visions of the breath-taking beautiful photographs featured in the likes of National Geographic magazine.
Photojournalism is basically telling a newsworthy story through pictures, and the genre is usually relegated to the creation of images for publication or broadcast. In some circles, photojournalism is separated from similar branches of photography such as documentary photography-- being classified as a different category of photography, but for the purposes of this article, the reference is the same. Both generally employ the use of the photo essay, which is a series of photographs that tell a story with the intent to get the reader emotionally involved.
With a photo-journalistic mindset,you can capture images that can bring about a social conscious impact. Some famous images that made that impact include: Migrant Mother- photographed by Dorothea Lange in 1936 for the Farm Security Administration , and which became one of the icons for the Great Depression and for the the plight of migrant workers, putting a human face on the dismal circumstances of the poor and forgotten
Flavio da Silva- photographed by Gordon Parks for Life magazine. Parks essay covered the plight of the da Silva family who lived in the slums of Rio de Janeiro, and their 12 year old son, Flavio, who was dying of tuberculosis. After the essay ran in Life, financial contributions poured in to help the family, and Flavio was able to come to the United States where he was treated and eventually cured of the disease.
Napalm Girl Photo- photographed by Associated Press photographer Nick Ut, - the heart-wrenching, tragic image of a 9-year-old Vietnamese girl running naked and burned from a South Vietnamese napalm attack on her village during the Vietnam war. The photo became a banner for the peace movement.
A photographer from China recently won the $30,000 W. Eugene Smith Grant in Humanistic Photography for his documentary photo essay “Pollution in China.” View his amazing photographs here.
The images I've included (color) are from a missions trip to a migrant worker camp in Maneadero, Mexico. The abject poverty and living conditions cannot be described. . .the photographs attempt to say what words cannot. Through photography, those with no voice, can be heard. Here's a couple of resources you can check into if you're leaning towards the photo-journalistic route. I haven't personally tried any of them, so if you do, please share your experience. Also, if you know of similar sites, please share that information as well.
Wesay.com -is an online news site that focuses on news photography not only from mainstream media, but from amateur photographers,describing itself as a "citizen photojournalism" site where you can get paid for the images you post. They also have photo contests.
Photoshare.com- Photoshare is a service of Knowledge for Health (K4Health), helping international non-profit organizations communicate health and development issues through photography. Photoshare currently has a photo contest which will be ending November 15, so check it out to see if you have the goods to participate.
PhotoMission.com- this is an Christian online community of "photo-missionaries" with the mission to "offer an online community for Christian friendship,
to exchange information on the art of photography and to see God's
Kingdom grow through the talents and testimonies of our members." Members can also offer their photographs for sale
Until next time...
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