Ask a hundred photographers whose work they look up to the most, and you will likely get close to a hundred different answers. Chances are, though, that a significant chunk of the names you’ll hear will be those of photojournalists.
For generations, journalism and photography have been thriving in a sort of symbiotic relationship with one another. Photojournalism represents the pinnacle of both disciplines, fusing reportage and investigative techniques with the highest echelon of photographic skill and talent.
Perhaps this is why photojournalists have been for so long regarded and admired as some of the most beloved and famous of all photographers. But what does it take to be a professional photojournalist? What is photojournalism, really? And is it the kind of career path you could see yourself thriving in?
Today, let’s try to answer some of those questions by taking a good look at what makes photojournalism so unique. Eager to learn more? Let’s dive right in and look at one of the most exciting careers in photography.
Contents
What Is Photojournalism?
In a nutshell, photojournalism is a marriage between two fundamental disciplines, that of journalism (or reportage), and that of photography of course.
Journalists are not just reporters working for the news. They can be correspondents for NGOs working in all sorts of environments, volunteers covering the local art world, and millions of things in between.
Armed with a camera, the journalist’s job becomes far more far-reaching than without it. Sports photojournalists, for instance, can not just report on the state of a game or athletic performance (including all the inevitable subjective judgments that follow). They can also document it in images, leaving readers with a visual record of what it was like to witness the events.
Today, the role of the photojournalist has become so essential to modern newspapers that it’s almost unthinkable to imagine modern media without it. Photographs help to involve the audience in the stories they present, ultimately making even far-away events and foreign personalities seem intimately familiar.
With that said though, how much the photojournalist serves as a photographer and how much as an essayist is all relative. In many cases, photographs alone don’t make the story, and good writing skills are just as essential to the PJ’s success as a good eye for composition.
A Brief History of Photojournalism
It is convenient to think that photojournalism has been around for as long as photography has been, considering the huge presence that print media already had by the time of the invention of the modern camera. The truth, however, is a bit more complicated than that.
Beginnings of the Craft
When the earliest modern cameras were designed during the early 1800s, they were mainly seen as an alternative tool for visual artists – and hardly even taken seriously at that! It took some time to work through the prejudices and establish photography as a genuine artistic practice of its own.
But it would take even longer, until the turn of the century in many places, for newspapers and media to warm up to the idea of using photos for storytelling in reportage.
One of the first examples in the evolution, of what we would now call photojournalism arrived in 1848. A simply composed photograph, it depicted barricades that were put up during the June Uprising in Paris, France. The picture was republished in a French illustrated newspaper story, launching a legacy and birthing a new genre that continues to prosper today.
Ever since the core ingredients of photojournalism haven’t changed all that much. It still relies on raw images taken in the heat of the moment, showcasing monumental events with honesty, truthfulness, and visual composition as some of its core virtues.
Powered by developments in film (and glass plate) chemistry that were only accelerating and making more and more people pick up cameras for the first time, photojournalism would grow massively in scope as the 20th century drew closer.
The Rise of Modern Photojournalism
The following years of the late 19th and early 20th century are when photojournalism really took off.
The Crimean War and the American Civil War were among the first world conflicts that specifically attracted photographers, including many foreigners from faraway lands, to venture to the battlefields and front lines to document the fighting. In doing so, they spread awareness and massively popularized the use of the camera to document important world events.
Famous pictures that resulted from this include Valley of the Shadow of Death by Roger Fenton, one of the earliest and, to this day, one of the most famous photographs of war ever taken.
Over the course of the first half of the 20th century, advancements in technology really gave photojournalism another shot in the arm, propelling it to the forefront of the modern reporter’s toolkit.
Among these were fast focal-plane shutters, the rise of smaller cameras shooting longer rolls of smaller roll films, and more potent flash bulbs. All of these helped capture raw, detailed photographs of high-action scenes in an “up close and personal” style.
Eventually, camera manufacturers caught on to the significant demand this generated, and an entire breed of machines called ‘press cameras’ was born. Typified by the Graflex Speed Graphic which you may recognize from countless Golden Age Hollywood movies, these were large or medium-format cameras designed for rapid handheld shooting, usually by means of both a ground glass screen, a frame finder, and a rangefinder.
Wartime Photography and Its Aftereffects
Like in many other fields, the two World Wars also irreversibly changed the work of photojournalists in a big way. Never before had any conflict attracted so many photographers, including members of the press, military reconnaissance officers, and many others. Never before had any conflict been spread over such a vast area of the globe, either.
The annals of the most famous news stories and the photos that accompanied them include dozens taken by war correspondents during this period. Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima by Joe Rosenthal immediately comes to mind.
The prominence of photographers around the front lines during this era helped to cement the deep bond between photojournalism as a discipline and war photography.
This intimate relationship, making wartime photographers often synonymous with photojournalists, continues to this day. Ever since, breaking news of crises and conflicts don’t feel truly complete without candid images to go along with them.
Postwar Photojournalism
The postwar years were not just full of rapid technological progress and economic upheaval. They also further pushed ahead the already significant role of the camera in storytelling and public media.
From 35mm camera pioneer and Nikon proselytizer David Douglas Duncan, who covered the wars in Korea and Vietnam in harrowing and highly detailed pictures, to Robert H. Jackson who took the legendary photo of Jack Ruby shooting Harvey Lee Oswald, many of the most famous and admired photojournalists rose in prominence during this period.
You may also have thought of Jeff Widener’s immortal Tank Man, from the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989, or Steve McCurry’s sensational Afghan Girl as slightly more recent examples of postwar 20th-century photojournalism.
Bit by bit, especially with the rise of compact Japanese SLRs, the mainstay ‘press cameras’ that had served photojournalists so well since the early days went into retirement in favor of newer, faster, more compact machines. This didn’t just make photojournalism more fast-paced. It also helped erode some traditional barriers between photojournalism and other forms of photography.
No longer were press photographers shooting fundamentally different cameras than other professionals. Increasingly, they were even using the same format of film and camera as most amateurs!
This leveling of the playing field arguably contributed even more to the already huge growth of photojournalism as a whole.
Photojournalists Today
With the digital revolution and the continuing expansion of the photography market, not to mention the dizzying diversification of modern media, all of these trends have only accelerated to bring us to where we are today.
Where almost all successful photojournalists during the ‘Golden Age’ of the 1920s-50s were attached to either a reputable print publication or a governmental organization, today’s photojournalists are increasingly freelancers, paid per story and photo essay.
Where PJs of the past used highly specialized cameras tailor-made for the needs of the on-the-move reporter, today’s pros use high-end mirrorless cameras and full-frame DSLRs that pose as great all-rounders more than anything.
This is especially true due to one particular trend of the 21st century: the increasing integration of video and moving images into the traditional news story format of text accompanied by photos. Cameras that are equally good at stills and movies have become only more desirable because of that fact.
That’s not to mention the increasing demand for interdisciplinary skills combining the creative approaches of both photography and cinematography into photojournalism.
Types of Photojournalism (Genres and Styles)
Today more than ever, photojournalism appears in countless forms and approaches. Let’s take a look at some of the most widespread of these and see what differentiates them.
News
Arguably the most quintessential of all genres is news photography. That is, narrative photography which aims to explore and depict a major news story or world event and the people involved.
More than ever, news is full of variety. Pretty much every conceivable kind of story is covered by photographers and photojournalists these days. From traffic accidents to international diplomatic scandals, from dangerous conflicts to routine election coverage – you name it, photographers are out there documenting it in pictures.
Depending on their specialty, news photographers require strong nerves and sharp reflexes. They often need to work in very harsh environments and must be able to take pictures under heavy stress and with lots of distractions.
It’s also a real test on your gear! It’s not rare for front-line newsmen to come back limping home with shattered lenses or battered-up camera bodies after an assignment. Some take these as painful scars, others wear them as badges of honor.
Sports and Action
Photojournalism is also very prominent in the world of sports photography. From the local baseball club all the way to the Olympics, photographers have become a crucial component of the sports media landscape.
Sports photography usually has the photographer assume a stationary position, as the heavy super-telephoto lenses required for this task are impossible to shoot without a tripod. While that means it doesn’t involve a lot of movement on the shooter’s part, that doesn’t mean that sports photojournalism isn’t fast-paced. Far from it!
In fact, sports photographers require some of the quickest wits of all professional shooters, as they need to read tiny cues such as facial expressions and bodily gestures from far away to gauge when to trip the shutter and take a photo that conveys the state of the game to the audience.
Feature and Documentary
In press jargon, a feature is a heavily researched article that is not part of the regular news cycle and centers on a particular topic or issue. In the modern era, photojournalism has become indispensable for features as well as documentary work.
No feature is quite like the next, so photographers working in this niche need a lot of skills in a variety of styles and genres. An investigative report on illegal fracking might require totally different gear and shooting techniques than a personal story on the lives of banking executives.
It’s not particularly uncommon for a photojournalist researching such stories to pack a few camera bodies to have different lenses and even sensor formats on hand when it might be necessary.
Portraiture and Street Photography
Street photography and portraiture have always played an important role in journalism and for good reason. Just like creative writing, they combine a certain stylistic-aesthetic bent which is highly flattering to the audience with a capacity to tell a true real-life story with heartfelt sincerity.
From newspapers to high-culture magazines and journals, almost every kind of publication likes to run a certain kind of intimate, human-centered story from time to time. The ability to capture raw emotion ‘out in the field’ is a really crucial one in this kind of environment.
Because street photography in journalism tends to be rather portrait-centric, photographers who specialize in this niche tend to pack similarly to their studio portraitist brethren. Short telephoto lenses, flash, and a compact camera body are essential.
Ethics in Photojournalism
One of the things that forms the strictest dividing line between photojournalism and all other forms of photography, whether artistic or commercial, is its firm ethical grounding.
Every journalist goes through hours of training on the complexities of ethics and their importance. Since media has become the main means through which people interact with parts of the world far beyond their own lived experiences, how that world is conveyed to them has a huge effect on public perception.
Good photojournalism does not stray from these ideals. Photojournalists have a duty to be truthful, honest, and exacting in their work. Just like essayists and other reporters, they have to constantly question themselves to detect biases. They also have to navigate all sorts of legal and institutional hurdles to make sure their pictures see the light of day.
Though there are no official ethics frameworks that are valid for all photojournalists working across the globe, the National Press Photographers Association, the NPPA – one of the most important bodies representing photojournalists in the Western Hemisphere – maintains its own Code of Ethics which has become highly influential.
To get an idea of what kinds of ethical dilemmas photojournalists may have to face, you can read it yourself here.
How to Become a Photojournalist
Today more than ever, there is no one way to enter the ranks of professional photojournalists. There are still plenty of news outlets that hire their own staff photographers, such as the Associated Press. At the same time though, the vast majority of working photojournalists, even those covering world events for major publications, work as freelancers.
In such an arrangement, it is up to the photographer to individually pitch each photo essay and each of their stories to an outlet of their choice. And of course, it is up to the publication to accept or deny those pitches.
As you can imagine, this makes the life of a modern photojournalist full of unpredictability compared to a more traditional career. On the other hand, it provides a very broad and diverse selection of entry points to the hopeful beginner.
While it’s true that very few serious magazines will readily accept a first photograph taken by a newbie without credentials, building your portfolio doesn’t have to be a chore either.
Try asking around local organizations such as daily newspapers, organizers of local music festivals, and even places like museums. You’d be surprised at how much demand there may be for photographers even in your local area!
With time and luck, opportunities like these may eventually develop into your first real news stories – and these can then be leveraged to pitch to more serious, regional or national publications.
Soon enough, you may have a card and lanyard and the elusive right to refer to yourself as a member of the press!
Photojournalism’s Future
From its inception, photojournalism has consistently been in a state of rapid evolution. I don’t think that this will significantly change any time soon – just look at the crazy changes our media landscape has undergone in the past 10-15 years alone. And that’s not to even touch on the way photography itself has evolved!
Today, we are really at a precipice in the world of journalism. Candid images, and the camera phones that give anyone the means to take them, have already revolutionized media coverage. Some speak of the democratization of photography, even!
On the other hand, misinformation and fabrication runs rampant, both in traditional and newer forms of media. The public voices an ever-increasing distrust of the sources of journalism they consult.
It’s become commonplace to be skeptical of images you see in the news – after all, they could easily be photoshopped or AI-generated. I know I catch myself having these thoughts all the time!
What this means is that the importance of good photojournalism has only grown. In the modern age, society needs photographers who aren’t afraid to turn a real story into images that have a lasting impact. Likewise, magazines and newspapers desperately need to prove their own authenticity and truthfulness, which can only happen with ethical, smart photojournalists at the helm.
The future of photojournalism may be uncertain, but one thing is for sure: its destiny lies firmly in the hands of those behind the camera.
Take Away
There are about as many ways to practice photojournalism as there are photojournalists – it’s an incredibly diverse field that has evolved a lot with the passage of time. Nonetheless, photojournalism has always stayed true to its core tenets: utilizing the magic of photography to bring your audience closer to real-life events, documenting those events additionally by means of a personal, written account, and adhering to the utmost standard of journalistic integrity and ethics.
