Introduction

Photojournalism, to me, is the art of telling real life, historical, important, and hidden stories through photographs. I believe this to be true because without photos civilians would never have been able to see images of war-torn countries, riots, the civil rights movement, and numerous other crucial events that have occurred over our time on Earth.

Photojournalism, as defined by Merriam-Webster dictionary, is “journalism in which written copy is subordinate to pictorial usually photographic presentation of news stories or in which a high proportion of pictorial presentation is used; broadly : news photography”. This definition goes along with my definition in a few ways. The most important being that it parallels my definition by stating it is news stories through pictures.

Now, photojournalists risk many things to get the perfect image and to tell the truest story possible. In fact, the art of photojournalism is one of the most dangerous, stressful, and taboo career paths anyone could choose. This is why it is important to understand the history of photojournalism. Just look at Zoriah, a humanitarian and war photojournalist seen in the documentary In Harms Way, as an example. In the documentary he is seen at a protest in Israeli where people were killed just the day before. In the documentary he says, “Everybody wants to get an image that will stop war, but I don’t think anyone has managed to do it yet.” Maybe, along with spreading the news of what’s happening in the world, this is one of the reasons photojournalists rick their lives.

Another example of the mental tole photojournalists endure is given by Jason Henske, a photojournalist. In this video he talks about the struggle of keeping emotion out of your job and separating your emotions and work. He says, “...it also presents problems when I photograph a young man graduating and celebrating his achievement. And then two years later photograph his coffin coming home from Iraq”.

Professor John Nordell parallels both my, and the actual, definition of photojournalism in a video where he breaks down the word “photojournalism” to further explain the meaning. He first separates it in to two parts; photo and journalism. He later dives deeper into the meaning by using photographer and journalist . He talks about how great photojournalists combine the art of these two occupations to create a perfectly skilled professional.