The advances in photography and photojournalism throughout history have been giant. At one point, it was revolutionary to not have to lug around your camera and all your equipment in a carriage like Roger Fenton and his assistant did as seen in this picture. At that point it time, it took minutes to even hours to set up, take a photograph, and develop the image. But that is only the first half of photojournalism.
The second half of photojournalism is exposure. Not the exposure of the image regarding shutter speed and aperture, but the exposure of your image to the world. Sharing your images with the world is what photojournalism is all about. In 1890, Karl Klic invented what the Rotogravure Process. Professor Nordell talks about the effects of Rotogravure in his video Before There Were Pixels - Part 1. In the video he mentions how, during the first world war, The New York Times would print a special Sunday edition of the paper that featured photographs. He says "It was the most read pages of the newspaper, or most looked at pages of the newspaper". The exposure of the war was able to inform the readers and captivate them with their images. This printing process was also able to bring more advertisers to the paper because of the exposure they would get with the imagery included.
Nowadays, we have the internet and newspapers are becoming more and more obsolete. The advances we have had in technology, and more specifically multimedia, have had a large impact on that. Multimedia, as defined by Merriam-Webster, is "using, involving, or encompassing several media". This includes online newspapers, social media, photographs, videos, and more.
During the tragic events that occurred during Hurricane Sandy, Time Magazine wanted to cover the devastation and well and as closely as possible. According to and article on Forbes.com, Kira Pollack, director of photography at Time Magazine, selected a handful of social media savy photographers and gave them access to the magazine's Instagram account. Their assignment was to photograph the Hurricane using only their cellphones and upload the images to Instagram. The article states "Using Instagram as the primary outlet for breaking news coverage was an experiment, Pollack says, but one motivated by necessity. "We just thought this is going to be the fastest way we can cover this and it's the most dirct route," she says ."It's wasn't like, 'Oh, this is a trend, let's assign this on Instagram.' It was about how quickly can we get pictures to our readers."
As seen in a promotional video for Snapchat, their "Discover" section offers news, images, articles, and videos from reputable brands and companies that inform users about events and happenings around the world. With the introduction of multimedia in the digital age some people see classic photography as a thing of the past. Tim Hetherington, a photojournalist, talks about this extensively in an interview seen here. He says "I'm taking about thinking. How does digital technology.. how is it changing how we think about images, about who we are as image makers, and what we can do with images.". Multimedia has changed the scheme of photojournalism drastically.
As you can see, many things have changed in photojournalism over time. The Rotogravure process, at the time it was invented, made exposure for photojournalists immensely easier. It also brought advertisers to newspapers and influenced the market in a positive manner. With the advances we have sen in multi media however, newspapers are on a decline. Social media, video, photography, and internet newspapers have taken over the industry. People are capturing images with their phones and using social media as a source for news, and even photojournalists, such as Tim Hetherington, see classic photography as a niche category.
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| New York Times April 12th 1914 Image Source: https://www.nytimes.com/1914/04/12/archives/realty-men-get-labor-law-relief-new-york-board-took-active-part-in.html |
The second half of photojournalism is exposure. Not the exposure of the image regarding shutter speed and aperture, but the exposure of your image to the world. Sharing your images with the world is what photojournalism is all about. In 1890, Karl Klic invented what the Rotogravure Process. Professor Nordell talks about the effects of Rotogravure in his video Before There Were Pixels - Part 1. In the video he mentions how, during the first world war, The New York Times would print a special Sunday edition of the paper that featured photographs. He says "It was the most read pages of the newspaper, or most looked at pages of the newspaper". The exposure of the war was able to inform the readers and captivate them with their images. This printing process was also able to bring more advertisers to the paper because of the exposure they would get with the imagery included.
Nowadays, we have the internet and newspapers are becoming more and more obsolete. The advances we have had in technology, and more specifically multimedia, have had a large impact on that. Multimedia, as defined by Merriam-Webster, is "using, involving, or encompassing several media". This includes online newspapers, social media, photographs, videos, and more.
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| Photo By: Ed Kashi |
As seen in a promotional video for Snapchat, their "Discover" section offers news, images, articles, and videos from reputable brands and companies that inform users about events and happenings around the world. With the introduction of multimedia in the digital age some people see classic photography as a thing of the past. Tim Hetherington, a photojournalist, talks about this extensively in an interview seen here. He says "I'm taking about thinking. How does digital technology.. how is it changing how we think about images, about who we are as image makers, and what we can do with images.". Multimedia has changed the scheme of photojournalism drastically.
As you can see, many things have changed in photojournalism over time. The Rotogravure process, at the time it was invented, made exposure for photojournalists immensely easier. It also brought advertisers to newspapers and influenced the market in a positive manner. With the advances we have sen in multi media however, newspapers are on a decline. Social media, video, photography, and internet newspapers have taken over the industry. People are capturing images with their phones and using social media as a source for news, and even photojournalists, such as Tim Hetherington, see classic photography as a niche category.
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