Introduction to History of Photojournalism

Photo By: Jonathan Auch

Icon Photography School in the blog post What is Photojournalism?, gave me a great definition as follows: “Photojournalism is the process of storytelling using the medium of photography as your main story telling device.” This means that instead of using the typical paper and pencil to tell stories, you use a camera to capture the visual aspect of a story. I believe the theory behind photojournalism is that a photo is worth a thousand words. Photojournalists take photos that can be actually analyzed and have a story be depicted from it. These photos create some discussions and can control people opinions on them. Photojournalist are able to capture emotions and stir up feelings in their viewers that didn't even think they had. Photos can be as powerful to cause action to be taken and capture many different eyes. 

It's important to know the history of photojournalism because knowing the roots helps you really appreciate it more. From a post Remembering Old Marcus Garvey, it mentions one of his famous quotes about the importance of history as follows: “A people without the knowledge of their past history, origin and culture is like a tree without roots.” It would be very difficult to have an interest in photojournalism or understand the importance without having a knowledge of the history. I believe photojournalism is a huge aspect in our everyday life and we literally see it around us all the time. Since we constantly see photojournalism in the media, it would make sense for us to gain a better understanding of it by learning the history.

Another reason you should know the history of photojournalism is because it can help you understand the present better. It would be difficult to understand why things happen the way they do today if you didn’t know what the history behind it is. In the video, Why Study History?, it stated “Analyzing history strengthens our critical thinking skills. It trains us to gather evidence, and to find patterns and trends.” I believe it’s very true that when you know the history, you are able to find similarities and difference easily. You will notice how pictures have changed over time and the great length photographers go to in order to capture the perfect image. Knowing the changes over times helps you appreciate the growth better.

Knowing the history of photojournalism is understanding the impact of the news. Photojournalism is just the news and current events being reported through pictures. This means photojournalism is a part of everyone’s everyday life. It’s almost impossible not to go on your phone or computer and see photojournalism being reported. It has become the main source of news being reported. Most people, especially the youth, don’t read actual news articles anymore. If they want to find out what’s current, they can go on any social media platform and see a picture going viral. Whereas back in the earlier days, photos in the news were very rare to see. It comes full circle in the end and something so rare could easily be common now. It's just another way to prove how the past influences the present and future.

Photo by: Christian Fei