Photojournalism - The Power of the Photograph

The War Photo Limited Gallery based in Dubrovnik, Croatia, is dedicated exclusively war photography, keeping memories of the city's dark war-raged past alive.


Curator Wade Goddard, says that the gallery allows for a wider perspective of what really happened during the war, and that it offers something unique from the conventional television news segment. He said that the exhibits featuring works from 4 international photographers told a story of the lives of people affected by war.


The above example is an example of the power of the photograph, and its ability to tell a story through a simple picture. Walsh (2006) says that when it comes to images, we do not need to 'decode the words' as we do with text, but instead need to 'break the visual codes' such as color, position, angle and etc. to derive meaning from the overall picture.

Dark hues and colors would suggest a sombre mood as would an intense facial expression from the characters in the image draw in an audience (Walsh 2006).

The medium of photography has been popular for more than a century, and the increasing value of images and their role in telling a tale has never been more important. There have been many iconic photographs which are instantly recognizable as a symbol of an era or event.

Afghan girl (Source: westbynorthwest)

This picture, shot by National Geographic photographer Steve McCurry, features Sharbat Gula, then an afghan girl in a refugee camp. McCurry, seized the chance to shoot this rare photograph of an Afghan woman without her face covered.

Kevin Carter's Pulitzer Prize winning photo (Source: neatorama.com)

This photo was taken by Kevin Carter while he was in Sudan. The photo shows a Sudanese girl who collapsed on her way to a feeding centre about a kilometer away, and a vulture standing by in anticipation of its next meal. This photo was used as a metaphor for the country's situation at that time.

Murder of a Vietcong by Saigon Police Chief (Source: Neatorama.com)

Associated Press photojournalist Eddie Adams who shot the above photograph said "Still photographs are the most powerful weapon in the world." His 1968 photograph of an officer shooting a handcuffed prisoner in the head at point-blank range won him the Pulitzer Prize in 1969. It also resulted in Americans having a distasteful attitude towards the Vietnam war. The general shooting the gun, General Nguyen Ngoc Loan, was also haunted as he was refused treatment, faced a campaign to deport him when he migrated to the US, and his restaurant was shut down as people discovered his identity as the shooter.

Adams apologized for taking the picture, saying "the general killed the Vietcong; I killed the general with my camera."

Such is the power of the photograph in photojournalism. Check this link out for more on photojournalism : Genius of Photography

References:

Alex, 2007, 13 Photographs that changed the world, viewed 8 November 2008 http://www.neatorama.com/2007/01/02/13-photographs-that-changed-the-world


Walsh , M 2006, The Textual Shift: Examining the reading process with print, visual and multimodal texts, Australian Journal of Language and Literacy, Vol. 29 February

Heizmann S 2007, The power of the photograph, viewed 8 November 2008 http://www.abc.net.au/rn/mediareport/stories/2007/2051819.htm