Posts tagged photojournalism

Years later, when I put together a book about those events in Liberia, I included a photograph of one of the people who had been killed outside of the beer factory. I thought it was an important picture but didn’t dwell on what it might mean for the mother of that boy to come across it printed in a book. My thoughts about this resurfaced recently as I put together a new book about a group of American soldiers I spent a lot of time with in Afghanistan. They reminded me a lot of the young Liberian rebel fighters, and yet, when I came to selecting a picture of one of their dead in the battlefield, I hesitated and wondered if printing a graphic image was appropriate. It was an image I had made of a young man shot in the head after the American lines had been overrun—not dissimilar from the one in Liberia. My hesitation troubled me. Was I sensitive this time because the soldier wasn’t a nameless African? Perhaps I had changed and realized that there should be limits on what is released into the public? I certainly wouldn’t have been in that questioning position if I’d never taken the photograph in the first place… but I did, and perhaps these things are worth thinking about and confronting after all.

Tim Hetherington, from a chapter in Photographs Not Taken, a new book of essays by more than 60 photographers about times when they couldn’t, or wouldn’t, take a picture. Hetherington died from wounds suffered while covering the Libyan civil war in 2011. Via Time Lightbox.

If you’re in New York City there’s a panel discussion with the book’s editor and a few of its contributors at PS1 Sunday April 22 from 2-4pm.

Massoud Hossaini won the Pulitzer Prize in Breaking News Photography for this photograph that appeared in newspapers around the world last December. The image is from the aftermath of a suicide attack at shrine in Kabul attended by Shiites taking part in a religious ceremony. Via the New York Times Lens Blog, which spoke to Hossaini in December after publishing the photo: “Women were asking me, ‘Help, help, help,’” Mr. Hossaini said. “I couldn’t. I was recording and I was taking pictures.” One of the women who was holding a baby, called out for help — her other child had died. Another man lifted the child from the ground. But blood was pouring from its head. The man placed the child back on the ground and walked away. As Mr. Hossaini photographed, he realized he was weeping. When he looked down, he realized how badly his own hand was bleeding. He wrapped it with the cleanest piece of material he could find. Hossaini works for Agence France-Presse. It is the organization’s first Pulitzer.

Massoud Hossaini won the Pulitzer Prize in Breaking News Photography for this photograph that appeared in newspapers around the world last December.

The image is from the aftermath of a suicide attack at shrine in Kabul attended by Shiites taking part in a religious ceremony.

Via the New York Times Lens Blog, which spoke to Hossaini in December after publishing the photo:

“Women were asking me, ‘Help, help, help,’” Mr. Hossaini said. “I couldn’t. I was recording and I was taking pictures.” One of the women who was holding a baby, called out for help — her other child had died. Another man lifted the child from the ground. But blood was pouring from its head. The man placed the child back on the ground and walked away.

As Mr. Hossaini photographed, he realized he was weeping. When he looked down, he realized how badly his own hand was bleeding. He wrapped it with the cleanest piece of material he could find.

Hossaini works for Agence France-Presse. It is the organization’s first Pulitzer.

North Korea unveils statues of former leaders Kim Il-Sung and Kim Jong-Il on Friday. Pedro Ugarte, Agence France-Presse/Getty Images. Via the New York Times.

North Korea unveils statues of former leaders Kim Il-Sung and Kim Jong-Il on Friday. Pedro Ugarte, Agence France-Presse/Getty Images. Via the New York Times.

“The press bus took a wrong turn Thursday,” or, Western journalism’s first real look at North Korea’s capital While on a tour of Pyongyang, NK for the centennial of founder Kim Il Sun’s birth, AP journalists were given a rare opportunity to photograph something other than the elaborate, weird showcases they’re normally subjected to. The bus took a wrong turn and, for just a few minutes, took photojournalists somewhere new. from the AP report: A cloud of brown dust swirled down deeply potholed streets, past concrete apartment buildings crumbling at the edges. Old people trudged along the sidewalk, some with handmade backpacks crafted from canvas bags. Two men in wheelchairs waited at a bus stop. There were stores with no lights, and side roads so battered they were more dirt than pavement. But the biggest surprise was that it wasn’t that bad. It’s not clear why the regime hides places like the dusty, potholed neighborhood, which is just a mile or so from the center of town, across the trolley tracks and just off Tongil Street. It doesn’t look like a war zone, or even like a particularly rough New York City neighborhood. Many streets in New Delhi, the capital of one of the world’s fastest-growing economies, look far more battered and far poorer. FJP: What a sort of nice, unexpectedly humane look at the country. For more pictures, see this Atlantic Wire article.

“The press bus took a wrong turn Thursday,” or, Western journalism’s first real look at North Korea’s capital

While on a tour of Pyongyang, NK for the centennial of founder Kim Il Sun’s birth, AP journalists were given a rare opportunity to photograph something other than the elaborate, weird showcases they’re normally subjected to. The bus took a wrong turn and, for just a few minutes, took photojournalists somewhere new.

from the AP report:

A cloud of brown dust swirled down deeply potholed streets, past concrete apartment buildings crumbling at the edges. Old people trudged along the sidewalk, some with handmade backpacks crafted from canvas bags. Two men in wheelchairs waited at a bus stop. There were stores with no lights, and side roads so battered they were more dirt than pavement.

But the biggest surprise was that it wasn’t that bad.

It’s not clear why the regime hides places like the dusty, potholed neighborhood, which is just a mile or so from the center of town, across the trolley tracks and just off Tongil Street.

It doesn’t look like a war zone, or even like a particularly rough New York City neighborhood. Many streets in New Delhi, the capital of one of the world’s fastest-growing economies, look far more battered and far poorer.

FJP: What a sort of nice, unexpectedly humane look at the country.

For more pictures, see this Atlantic Wire article.

Foreign Journalists Photograph North Korea via The Atlantic: The government of North Korea recently invited dozens of foreign journalists into its secretive country to cover the 100th birthday celebration for founder Kim Il Sung on April 15. Among pageants and openings, the event drawing the most attention is the scheduled launch of a three-stage Unha-3 rocket carrying a weather satellite. The launch is already drawing criticism from Western governments: If successful, it could demonstrate North Korea’s capacity to produce an intercontinental missile capable of delivering a nuclear warhead. Despite their official invitation, foreign photographers are still restricted — escorted wherever they go and unable to photograph more than they can see within selected facilities or from the windows of buses and trains.  Click-through to view the set. Photo Caption:  North Koreans commute to work in Pyongyang on April 8, 2012. North Korea is counting down to the 100th anniversary of its founder’s birth on April 15 with top-level meetings and a controversial rocket launch scheduled in coming days to bolster his grandson’s credentials. (Pedro Ugarte/AFP/Getty Images) FJP: The photos are fascinating, illuminating, and a bit haunting. 

Foreign Journalists Photograph North Korea

via The Atlantic:

The government of North Korea recently invited dozens of foreign journalists into its secretive country to cover the 100th birthday celebration for founder Kim Il Sung on April 15. Among pageants and openings, the event drawing the most attention is the scheduled launch of a three-stage Unha-3 rocket carrying a weather satellite. The launch is already drawing criticism from Western governments: If successful, it could demonstrate North Korea’s capacity to produce an intercontinental missile capable of delivering a nuclear warhead. Despite their official invitation, foreign photographers are still restricted — escorted wherever they go and unable to photograph more than they can see within selected facilities or from the windows of buses and trains. 

Click-through to view the set.

Photo Caption: 

North Koreans commute to work in Pyongyang on April 8, 2012. North Korea is counting down to the 100th anniversary of its founder’s birth on April 15 with top-level meetings and a controversial rocket launch scheduled in coming days to bolster his grandson’s credentials. (Pedro Ugarte/AFP/Getty Images)

FJP: The photos are fascinating, illuminating, and a bit haunting. 

Valley City Frog Jumping Via Sports Illustrated: “Spawned by Mark Twain’s “Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County,” the Valley City, Ohio, event attracts 400 to 500 contestants annually. Trophies are given for the highest total and longest individual jump. In this photo, the boy’s hesitation at taking the frog is priceless — it reminds of Jack Benny telling a joke.” By Bill Frakes. Here at the mothership I’m researching sports photography. I loved this image since I first saw it but am trying to source when and where that actually was. From the image’s metadata I think it’s from 2008 but can’t confirm. — Michael

Valley City Frog Jumping

Via Sports Illustrated:

“Spawned by Mark Twain’s “Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County,” the Valley City, Ohio, event attracts 400 to 500 contestants annually. Trophies are given for the highest total and longest individual jump. In this photo, the boy’s hesitation at taking the frog is priceless — it reminds of Jack Benny telling a joke.”

By Bill Frakes.

Here at the mothership I’m researching sports photography. I loved this image since I first saw it but am trying to source when and where that actually was. From the image’s metadata I think it’s from 2008 but can’t confirm. — Michael

Photographing Greek Protests The New York Times Lens Blog profiles Angelos Tzortzinis, a 28-year-old Greek photographer who’s been shooting his country’s protests over austerity measures. His ideal shooting location, he says, is between the protestors and the police. Via the New York Times: Taking photos during demonstrations in Athens can be very difficult — tear gas clouds create a suffocating atmosphere, people without gas masks run in all directions, while protesters who have masks hurl stones and Molotov cocktails. To get his pictures, Mr. Tzortzinis says he must stand between the riot police and the protesters, every moment exposed to violence from either side. Many times photographers have been attacked by the riot police. But many times, too, they have lost their equipment after being attacked by angry protesters. Image: A riot officer after being hit with a Molotov Cocktail, by Angelos Tzortzinis. Via the New York Times. Tzortzinis’ work can be seen the Times’ link above as well as on his personal site.

Photographing Greek Protests

The New York Times Lens Blog profiles Angelos Tzortzinis, a 28-year-old Greek photographer who’s been shooting his country’s protests over austerity measures.

His ideal shooting location, he says, is between the protestors and the police.

Via the New York Times:

Taking photos during demonstrations in Athens can be very difficult — tear gas clouds create a suffocating atmosphere, people without gas masks run in all directions, while protesters who have masks hurl stones and Molotov cocktails.

To get his pictures, Mr. Tzortzinis says he must stand between the riot police and the protesters, every moment exposed to violence from either side. Many times photographers have been attacked by the riot police. But many times, too, they have lost their equipment after being attacked by angry protesters.

Image: A riot officer after being hit with a Molotov Cocktail, by Angelos Tzortzinis. Via the New York Times.

Tzortzinis’ work can be seen the Times’ link above as well as on his personal site.

Thirty years ago today, former President Ronald Reagan was shot by would-be assassin John Hinckley Jr. on what happened to be Ron Edmonds’s second day as a photographer for the Associated Press. The video above has Edmonds and former secret service agent Danny Spriggs discuss the events of that nearly-tragic day.

Edmonds, who won the Pulitzer Prize for the photos, comments on what it was like to be a photojournalist in the old days:

Today we are fortunate. We make a picture, we can immediately look at the back and — and sort through it to see if we’ve got it or not. In those days you had to wait, you know — you did the best you could with the abilities that you’ve got and you waited to see.

Elsewhere today, Time LightBox spoke with Edmonds about what it was like being so young and photographing something so important. 

Initially, Edmonds was convinced he had upset his employers because he had failed to get a picture of Hinckley. When Edmonds returned to the office, he was told to call the head of the AP, and he assumed the worst. On only the second day of his six-month probation as a new hire, he feared he would be let go. Instead he was told, “You nailed it, kid,” and “We’re lifting your probation — we’re going to keep you.”

A policeman strikes AFP photojournalist Patricia Melo during the Portuguese general strike in Lisbon March 22, 2012. Portugal faces a general strike by workers angered by austerity measures imposed as a condition of a 78-billion euro bailout last year but doubts remain as to whether Thursday’s stoppage will receive widespread support. REUTERS/Hugo Correia.

A policeman strikes AFP photojournalist Patricia Melo during the Portuguese general strike in Lisbon March 22, 2012. Portugal faces a general strike by workers angered by austerity measures imposed as a condition of a 78-billion euro bailout last year but doubts remain as to whether Thursday’s stoppage will receive widespread support. REUTERS/Hugo Correia.

I am depressed … without phone … money for rent … money for child support … money for debts … money!!! … I am haunted by the vivid memories of killings and corpses and anger and pain … of starving or wounded children, of trigger-happy madmen, often police, of killer executioners … I have gone to join Ken if I am that lucky.

-Part of the suicide note of Kevin Carter, a photojournalist and member of The Bang Bang Club.

I just finished watching the drama film The Bang Bang Club, about the real members, and started some research on what the journalists actually did. Kevin Carter took one of the most famous photographs in the world, that of a vulture preying on a starving girl in Sudan. Criticism for his inaction aside, it’s a powerful photo.

But what gets me is his suicide note. It’s just raw. I want to be a combat reporter, I want to try to cover things that Carter, Marinovich, and others have done. I just wonder how anyone can cope with seeing the horrors that humans inflict upon one another. I wonder if I can. I don’t so. (via nslayton)

FJP: Carter won the 1994 Pulitzer Prize in Feature Photography for this photo of a starving Sudanese girl with a vulture in the background. While he won photography’s top journalism award, he was heavily criticized for taking the picture and the image itself is seminal in debates surrounding journalism ethics. 

Carter killed himself in July 1994. He was 33. A New York Times obituary is here.

nslayton

Last week, photojournalist Jason Suder was arrested for taking photos of police brutality during a demonstration in Santiago, Chile. He tells the story in gripping detail here. Whether it’s for education reform or ending police brutality, Chileans love to demonstrate. No matter how peaceful a protest begins, the special forces arrive in their armored cars and Ninja Turtle suits, stirring a violent response from the encapuchados, or masked vandals. As the hooded youths throw rocks, the police launch tear gas and target journalists with water cannons, showering them with chemicals. At the end of these weekly showdowns, tattered and beaten teenagers are locked up and a public space is destroyed in the clash between the Carabineros, the impenetrable force of military-trained police left over from the Pinochet era, and their masked opponents. Photographing the events isn’t illegal in Chile, but evidence of police brutality is still undesirable and action is taken accordingly. Suder managed to save his photographs, one pictured above, by hiding his memory cards in his socks. He concludes: In a country trying to improve its press freedoms, I had obeyed the law. I had done nothing wrong. I had done nothing illegal. In Chile, you are allowed to take pictures freely in a public space. I was just being a moral person and a conscientious journalist. If documenting police brutality is enough cause to detain a person, then perhaps the country has not come as far from the dictatorship years as it might have hoped. Suder also notes that Chile fell 47 spots in the Reporters Without Borders Press Freedom Index 2011-2012, an international ranking that measures countries by their treatment of the media.  H/T: The Chilean Student Movement

Last week, photojournalist Jason Suder was arrested for taking photos of police brutality during a demonstration in Santiago, Chile. He tells the story in gripping detail here.

Whether it’s for education reform or ending police brutality, Chileans love to demonstrate. No matter how peaceful a protest begins, the special forces arrive in their armored cars and Ninja Turtle suits, stirring a violent response from the encapuchados, or masked vandals. As the hooded youths throw rocks, the police launch tear gas and target journalists with water cannons, showering them with chemicals. At the end of these weekly showdowns, tattered and beaten teenagers are locked up and a public space is destroyed in the clash between the Carabineros, the impenetrable force of military-trained police left over from the Pinochet era, and their masked opponents.

Photographing the events isn’t illegal in Chile, but evidence of police brutality is still undesirable and action is taken accordingly. Suder managed to save his photographs, one pictured above, by hiding his memory cards in his socks. He concludes:

In a country trying to improve its press freedoms, I had obeyed the law. I had done nothing wrong. I had done nothing illegal. In Chile, you are allowed to take pictures freely in a public space.

I was just being a moral person and a conscientious journalist. If documenting police brutality is enough cause to detain a person, then perhaps the country has not come as far from the dictatorship years as it might have hoped.

Suder also notes that Chile fell 47 spots in the Reporters Without Borders Press Freedom Index 2011-2012, an international ranking that measures countries by their treatment of the media. 

H/T: The Chilean Student Movement

Photojournalism v. Instagram, The Battle Continues? A few weeks ago, photographer Nick Stern expressed his grievances against Instagram, chiding its inauthenticity for eroding the value of professional photojournalism: Every time a news organization uses a Hipstamatic or Instagram-style picture in a news report, they are cheating us all. It’s not the photographer who has communicated the emotion into the images. It’s not the pain, the suffering or the horror that is showing through. It’s the work of an app designer in Palo Alto who decided that a nice shallow focus and dark faded border would bring out the best in the image. Yesterday, Heather Murphy, Slate’s Photo Editor, produced a rebuttal in which she pointed out the journalistic value app-driven photography actually creates: Instagram is not a threat to photojournalism. The real threat is that photojournalism professionals are refusing to engage with the platform. If they spent a bit more time with it, they’d see that Instagram is about much more than these faux-vintage-filters. It’s a community of millions of photo addicts, eager to embrace their work, journalistic standards and all.  The FJP: The app-photography v. photojournalism debate is not a new one and you can get the full breadth of Stern and Murphy’s arguments at the links above. At minimum, Murphy agrees with Stern that Instagram should not be a substitute for more formal outlets of presenting photographs. We agree too. Well, Michael did, back in October: The results produce very interesting documentation but I don’t think you can call it photojournalism. There’s just too much fabrication going on. But perhaps the debate sheds light on a more interesting trend. In that same post, Michael wrote of the iphone-as-camera as a tool. Nothing less, nothing more. And in the future-of-journalism light, tools are often fascinating means of creating new communication cultures. Murphy addresses this well. Not only does Instagram “help novice photographers get their feet wet,” but it creates an environment to aid transparency for journalism at large, much in the way that other social media outlets (like Twitter, Tumblr, and Facebook) do for news outlets, individual journalists, and writers. Murphy writes, Reporters like Parker are learning about photography while sharing behind-the-scenes tidbits. Campaigns, we all know by now, are big charades; little deconstructed moments like the directional tape on the floor help make them more interesting, accessible, and real. I can experience photos from photojournalists I admire (the handful who are on the platform), just a few seconds after they took them. I can leave them a question in the comments—and they might answer. They might even like my photos back. So, if we stray a bit from the need to defend the integrity of photojournalism, we can re-locate the debate hashed by Stern and Murphy in a larger conversation on the tools that allow journalism, particularly the process of journalism, to become more transparent, interesting, and accessible to its audience.  -Jihii (photo via Slate)

Photojournalism v. Instagram, The Battle Continues?

A few weeks ago, photographer Nick Stern expressed his grievances against Instagram, chiding its inauthenticity for eroding the value of professional photojournalism:

Every time a news organization uses a Hipstamatic or Instagram-style picture in a news report, they are cheating us all. It’s not the photographer who has communicated the emotion into the images. It’s not the pain, the suffering or the horror that is showing through. It’s the work of an app designer in Palo Alto who decided that a nice shallow focus and dark faded border would bring out the best in the image.

Yesterday, Heather Murphy, Slate’s Photo Editor, produced a rebuttal in which she pointed out the journalistic value app-driven photography actually creates:

Instagram is not a threat to photojournalism. The real threat is that photojournalism professionals are refusing to engage with the platform. If they spent a bit more time with it, they’d see that Instagram is about much more than these faux-vintage-filters. It’s a community of millions of photo addicts, eager to embrace their work, journalistic standards and all. 

The FJP: The app-photography v. photojournalism debate is not a new one and you can get the full breadth of Stern and Murphy’s arguments at the links above. At minimum, Murphy agrees with Stern that Instagram should not be a substitute for more formal outlets of presenting photographs. We agree too. Well, Michael did, back in October:

The results produce very interesting documentation but I don’t think you can call it photojournalism. There’s just too much fabrication going on.

But perhaps the debate sheds light on a more interesting trend. In that same post, Michael wrote of the iphone-as-camera as a tool. Nothing less, nothing more. And in the future-of-journalism light, tools are often fascinating means of creating new communication cultures. Murphy addresses this well. Not only does Instagram “help novice photographers get their feet wet,” but it creates an environment to aid transparency for journalism at large, much in the way that other social media outlets (like Twitter, Tumblr, and Facebook) do for news outlets, individual journalists, and writers. Murphy writes,

Reporters like Parker are learning about photography while sharing behind-the-scenes tidbits. Campaigns, we all know by now, are big charades; little deconstructed moments like the directional tape on the floor help make them more interesting, accessible, and real.

I can experience photos from photojournalists I admire (the handful who are on the platform), just a few seconds after they took them. I can leave them a question in the comments—and they might answer. They might even like my photos back.

So, if we stray a bit from the need to defend the integrity of photojournalism, we can re-locate the debate hashed by Stern and Murphy in a larger conversation on the tools that allow journalism, particularly the process of journalism, to become more transparent, interesting, and accessible to its audience.  -Jihii

(photo via Slate)



livelymorgue:

An archival photo from The New York Times shows news pictures being sorted in the newspaper’s photo “morgue,” which houses millions of images. Here they are — several each week — for you to see. Welcome to The Lively Morgue. Photo: The New York Times  

The New York Times has a new tumblr; The Lively Morgue.

livelymorgue

Honduras Prison Fire Kills Over 350 Image: A mother weeps after learning about her son’s death in a prison fire. Orlando Sierra, AFP/Getty Images via the Los Angeles Times Framework Blog.

Honduras Prison Fire Kills Over 350

Image: A mother weeps after learning about her son’s death in a prison fire. Orlando Sierra, AFP/Getty Images via the Los Angeles Times Framework Blog.