Photojournalism: what is it?

Photojournalism
What is it?

Photography + Journalism

Photography: Phos, photos = Light
Graphein = Writing
Photography = Writing with Light

Italian: Fotografia - Spanish: Fotografia
German: Fotografie - French: Photographie

Journalism
Latin = Diurnalem
Dies = Day
Alem = related to

Italian: Giornale - French: Journal - Spanish: Diario

To write a diary - To record

Selecting and delivering information - Looking for news
Reporting - Telling stories

Photography:
Visual Medium - Each photo is a message (file or print)
Communicating through images - A photograph is a communication tool
Communication:
Speaking – Singing – Writing - Body Language
Cinema and Video - Music

Visual Communication
Using the eyes only - Reducing everything to the visual aspect
Synthesising an event in one image - Telling stories with images

Ours is a visual age - How many pictures do we see every day?
Newspapers - Magazines
The Internet - TV - Cinema

How do you comprehend a text?
Reading

How do you read a picture?
To take good pictures it is necessary:
to be able to recognise a good image - know the rules of composition

The goal is to be able to see (visualise)
the photograph (file or print) before shooting

Taking pictures with a good camera
we look at the real scene through the viewfinder.
We do not think of the image

When using a point and shoot digital camera we look
at the display

Being small it doesn't allowed us to read the image clearly
We need to learn how to visualize the image

Photojournalism:
this term first came in use in the post war period,
due to Professor Clifton C. Edom
School of Journalism - University of Missouri

Press Photo
Covering events
Newspapers and weekly magazines

Breaking news , U.S., World, Politics, Business, Technology,
Life and Style, Culture, Science Health, Fashion, Media,
Sport, Celebrity, Local

Documentary Photography:
This expression was created to name the huge amount
of photos taken during the Great Depression (USA, 1930s)
by a group of photographers hired by the Public Administration
to document social conditions. The project, ruled by the FSA
(Farm Security Administration) was part of the New Deal
The photos taken (around 270,000) are at The National Library
in Washington, some of them are available on line

Documentary Photography:
Telling stories
Weekly and monthly magazines - Books - Developing projects
People - Traveling – Environment - Nature and Wild Life
Food - Science - Entertainment

“Documentary Photography:
A depiction of the real word by a photographer whose intent is to communicate something of importance - to make a comment that will be understood by the viewer.”

Documentary Photography, TIME-LIFE Books