Photo Journalism

Photo Journalism
Photojournalism is a form of journalism that involves collecting images and writing about them ready for publishing so the public can see them. If you are a photojournalist and you are writing about an image then you have to explain where the photo was taken, why it was taken, what is happening in the photo and why it is happening because otherwise the person looking at the photograph will not know the background information. For example if a picture was taken of someone dead in a war zone then the person looking at the image will want to know the location of where the war is. 

Henri Cartier Bresson
Henri Cartier Bresson is known for being called the godfather of photojournalism as he made the expression "The decisive moment". This expression means that you take the picture at a specific moment and the picture you have taken will show a story or an action which people can easily see. For this to happen it may have to be precise timing.

His work is very important to the future of photojournalism because his work helps and motivates a lot of modern day photojournalists. He gets the credit for this because he put constant hard work into his job so that he could produce the best result. He waited in the streets for hours on end so that he could get pictures different to anyone else. 

Some work of Henri Cartier Bresson's.

                                                                                   





You can see from these pictures that he had a lot of time on his hands because some of these pictures would be very rare to capture.



Techniques and Equipment used by Henri Cartier Bresson

Henri Cartier Bresson studied Art as one of his subjects at college and that helped to develop his creative imagination. He had the money to go out and by himself the best camera their was out at that time and this camera was a LEICA camera, this camera would let him capture photos in slit seconds and their was no others of its type at that time. Henri Cartier Bresson had a advantage over other photographers because once he had left college he didn't have to go and make a living for himself because he had lots of money all ready. With this money he went and bought his Leica camera and started to bring his creative ideas to life. He started to take photographs on the streets and he had all the time in the world because he wasn't working like most people was after they had finished college. Because he had all this time he could hang around in places for hours just so that he could capture what he wanted to and that is the advantage he had over other photographers and that is what made him the godfather of Photo Journalism.

Robert Capa and Tony Vaccaro 
Robert Capa and Tony Vaccaro had two very different roles in photojournalism during WW2. Robert Capa was employed by Life magazine and he had the freedom to go where ever he wanted. Robert Capa pretty much followed the army so that he could be as close to the action as he wanted to so that he could capture what was happening with his camera. Tony Vaccaro was very different to Robert Capa because Tony Vaccaro was a solider and he took his photographs as a solider photographer. These two photojournalists were almost in competition with each other to get the best photographs of what life was like during the second world war. Tony Vaccaro was closer to the action because he was a soldier any photographs he took rightfully belonged to the army and this could be a bad thing because any photographs that Vaccaro had taken and the army thought that the world was no ready to see yet would be destroyed. So in a way Robert Capa had an advantage there because any photos he took he could decide himself what was kept and what went. 

Some of Robert Capa's Work
 

Some of Tony Vaccaro's Work 


Eddie Adams Photograph 

This photograph was titled 'The Execution'. This photograph was taken just a few moment before this mans death. The thing that is powerful about this image is that by the time the photo had been taken this mean had a bullet in his head and was laying on the floor dead. The video that was recorded of this didnt capture the same feeling as the photograph did because when you look at this still image you can see emotion and you can realise how thought provoking this image really is.
This is a picture of the first leica camera.




Photo Journalism notes

Application

•  Henri cartier bresson was known as the god father of journalism. He started taking pictures on the streets in the 1930s. His pictures were about being in the right place at the right time so his pictures were very decision making. 
•  Robert Capa risked his life in the 2nd world war to take pictures.
• Tony Vaccaro was a soilder photographer. He developed his own photos in soilder helmets.
• Eddie Adams, photographer in the vietnamees war.

Context

• Photographs from D day had been taken back home to be published and most of them were destroyed.
• Robert Capa was employed by a magazine called life magazine and he was able to go where ever he wanted and that it why he was basically following the army so he could capture his photos. Any photos that Robert Kappa took belonged to him because he worked for laugh magazine and he was able to decide what photos he got to keep and get rid of. 
• Tony Vaccaro was different because he was emplyed by the army and he got given a large camera by the army but he decided to scrap that and use his own. But unlike Robert Kappa, Tony vaccaro was more close to the action as he was a soilder photographer and he was more involved in what ever happned but this could be a problem because he was employed by the army and any photographs Vaccaro took rightfully belonged to the army and thats why any photos that the army thought the world wouldnt be able to handle seeing them would be destroyed. 

Techniques

• LEICA Camera 
• Henri Cartier Bresson had this camera so that he could capture a photos within a split second.
• Argus c3 camera
• Technilogical Determinism