History of Photojournalism

In the early days of photojournalism, cameras were the epitome of novel but riddled with inconvenience. They could capture a likeness in a relatively short amount of time compared to an artist, but they required extensive preparation as well as sensitive and cumbersome equipment to accomplish that goal. According to the video by the Getty Museum titled "The Wet Collodion Process" , "From 1851, until about 1880, the wet collodion process became the dominant method for making photographs throughout Europe and North America". It was also the majority of what made photography in this time so unwieldy. Collodion was the main chemical used in order to make the image, but it had a time limit before it dried up and became unusable. This is especially relevant to photojournalists, as their profession means they won't always be in reach of an area with a dark room, which necessitated carting a portable version along with them. But, of course, innovation is inevitable. Wha...

  "Falling Man" by Richard Drew  "Falling Man" is actually a photograph I'd seen before many years ago, and it's stuck with me ever since at the back of my mind. It is incredibly striking imagery with the backdrop of the horrifying implication that this man preferred to die jumping off the World Trade Center as opposed to burning to death in it. This photograph has honestly haunted me for the many years between when I first saw it up to now where I encountered it again. There's no gore, not even a spot of blood or anything else like that that might warrant censorship or a content warning, aside from the incredibly obvious action the man is taking. At the same time, I couldn't look away because a man willingly falling to his death just isn't a type of photograph you run across often. Both because the occurrence isn't common and social propriety would discourage taking a photo of a scene such as this. But this photograph is always my go-to imag...

Why is it Important to Know Photojournalism's History?  What are the merits of understanding the history of photojournalism and why it is used?  Photojournalism is a medium through which to understand history and current events. It has helped bring issues to the forefront that people might not typically run across or have much reason to think about in their daily life. As a result, studying the history of photojournalism as well as what subjects photojournalists of the past chose to focus on in their time period helps to hone in on what issues they thought were most important at the time. The importance of this is highlighted in Marcus Garvey's quote, "A people without the knowledge of their past history, origin and culture is like a tree without roots", which lends itself to photojournalism because it seeks to expose people to their history, origin, and culture, especially when they might be ignorant of certain aspects of it.  What is an example of an instance photoj...

Photo by  Anzor Salidjanov          When I think of the word "photojournalism", it evokes an amalgamation of memories from my childhood of looking through the issues of Highlights magazine as they were sent to our house. Specifically the news articles they contained, because they were often accompanied by photos about the subject matter like the one above.      Unfortunately I don't remember enough to point out any specific examples of exceptional photojournalism from those magazines, but I believe that it was important it cemented an association of photos and storytelling in my mind, which I would postulate is the core of photojournalism. Though, given the "journalism" half of the word "photojournalism", I imagine reporting news stories is the type of storytelling photojournalism focuses on in particular as opposed to a staged narrative.     I chose the photo above as representative of photojournalism to me because I think it ...