Photojournalism-Notes

BYN 106/3 Photojournalism March 8, 2021
The notes explain the Powerpoint slides but the only way to appreciate photography is to look carefully at photographs. All the photos here
are meant to be studied. In histories of photojournalism, the same names recur: Szathmari, Fenton, Capa, Lange, Nachtwey, Cartier-
Bresson and, among theorists, Walter Benjamin. As usual, the worksheet gives you an idea of the sort of question you can expect in the
exam, but any of the material from the slides, the notes and the worksheet may appear. Two films are mentioned here. Please watch them.
1. The invention of the camera emerged from the study of optics and experimentation with light-sensitive chemicals.
The earliest photograph is dated 1825 – it required 8 hours of exposure. In 1839, the Frenchman Daguerre made the
first Daguerreotype, which was the first feasible commercial process. The first camera to use a roll of celluloid film
sent to a laboratory for development was the Eastman Kodak, in 1888. The Kodak ‘Brownie Box’ camera was the
cheapest and most popular camera of the first half of the 20th century. The Leica 1 (1927), was the first camera to use
35mm film and to resemble professional cameras of the pre-digital age.
2. The use of photography to illustrate news is almost as old as photography itself. The two pioneers of war
photography were Carol Szathmari, a Hungarian, and Roger Fenton who shot photographs of the Crimean (Krım)
War in the 1860s. Fenton drove his own horse-drawn carriage containing a studio for developing and printing.
3. Magnum: There has always been a strong element of ‘socio-political documentary’ among photojournalists. The
Magnum Agency was founded by Robert Capa to promote responsibility, realism and respect. Dorothea Lange, who
took the best-known photos of the American Depresssion in the 1930s, was a founder member. ‘The camera is an
instrument that teaches people how to see without a camera,’ she said.
4. According to Robert Capa: ‘If your pictures aren't good enough, you're not close enough’. His most famous photo
was ‘Death of a Soldier’ (1936). The Spanish Civil War was the first great conflict between fascism and republican
socialism. Writers, painters and photographers joined the struggle (see George Orwell: Homage to Catalonia).
5. War photography requires courage and detachment, making it a celebrated form of journalistic achievement.
A Thousand Times Goodnight (2013) featured Juliette Binoche as a photojournalist working in crisis areas in
Afghanistan and Africa. Do such films diminish real tragedies by ‘romanticizing’ the work of combat photographers?
6. One of the best-known war photographers is the American James Nachtwey, subject of a documentary film War
Photographer. Nachtwey took memorable photos in Vietnam, Rwanda and Bosnia. Of Rwanda, he said: ‘Every minute
I was there, I wanted to flee. I did not want to see this. Would I cut and run, or would I deal with the responsibility
of being there with a camera?’
7. Is Photography Art – or does it depend too much on mechanical processes? Frankfurt School theorist Walter
Benjamin argued that mechanical reproduction destroyed the ‘aura’ of the unique, irreproducible work of art. Some
critics claim that photography as an art has been killed off by the sheer volume of photographs taken every day.
Nothing new or original is possible. Do you agree?
8. A common statement is ‘the camera cannot lie’, but propagandists knew that this was not so. Stalin’s Russia altered
history by doctoring photographs (see disappearance of KGB chief from photo). In the present day, airbrushing and
‘photoshopping’ can create powerful fictions.
9. Henri Cartier-Bresson was the inventor of ‘candid photography’ or ‘life reportage’, in which everyday human life
was the subject – a genre of art photography centred on images of the street.
10. Many famous photographs are the result of being in the right place at the right time, for example, Tensing’s
photo of Hilary on Everest, the raising of the US flag on Iwo Jima, the best-known images of 9/11 and so on.

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BYN 106/3 Photojournalism March 8, 2021

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