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... great, talented photographers we would have a very boring media. Photojournalists cover all sorts of events, from simple everyday things to important meeting with politicians and wars. Carl Mydans was another great photographer of Life Magazine. He followed General Douglas MacArthur to the Philippines in January 1945 this was when America was at war with Japan. Mydans could have easily been killed by enemy fire, but he continued on, producing some great photographs that the public would later see in Life magazine.
Mydans began his career as a photographer for a New York newspaper. He then went on to work for the Farm Security Administration (FSA) whose job it was to photograph the lives of farmers and their families. This project emphasised rural life and the negative impact of the Great Depression. He went all over America documenting families whose lives had been changed by the very strong and harsh winds know as the Great Dust Bowl. As their farms stopped producing crops they were reluctantly forced to look for a new life, many migrated to cities. These photographs show the hardships of life and the problems that people have to overcome.
Starting in 1935 and lasting ten years until 1945 this project was extremely vast about 164, 000 black and white photographs were produced. They did not only cover the Great Depression, but also the mobilisation of troops for World War II. Another very famous photojournalist was Robert Capa, born on October 22 nd 1913 in Pest. He was a brave man who made very clear that photography was his main passion in life. He was a war correspondent (1936) in the Spanish Civil War and during this period he took some shocking and very realistic photographs. One of his most famous is of a soldier moments after he had been shot-he is suspended in mid-air and you are not sure what has happened.
He later worked as war correspondent in the Japanese-Chinese War in 1938. Capa was another great photographer who worked for Life magazine. He covered the Normandy invasion and was just like any other soldier, he went out from one of the first landing crafts and produced some of the best photographs of the Second World War. Capa himself said, If your pictures arent good enough, you arent not close enough. He clearly believed in what he preached. In 1948 he covered the fighting in Palestine and finally in 1954 he covered the French Indochina War for Life magazine, and while walking onto a field he stepped onto a landmine which almost instantly killed him.
The ironic thing about his death is that he volunteered to go and cover the war-thus sealing his own tomb. He was found still clutching his Leica camera when he died. With photographers as dedicated as Robert Capa photojournalism flourished and completely took over from just plain text newspapers and magazines. Photojournalist Margaret Bourke-White allowed people to see the true horror of the Nazi regime. She produced some very disturbing photographs of prisoners in the concentration camp of Buchenwald. This was something completely different form all the other photographs of the Second World War, as it was not actually soldiers but innocent people who had been made to look like the enemy of the Nazi regime.
Nowadays news-stands are full of magazines and newspapers all with photographs. They have become a thing, which is taken for granted people no longer see how important these images are. We still see today photographs that are very disturbing yet they are not only of wars but also from natural disasters like earthquakes and famines. Photojournalists have covered just about everything, from sporting events to political events and war. By looking at magazines like Life and Picture Post though the years we can see how photojournalism has evolved and how photographers have improved their skills and how photojournalism has changed over the decades.
The following series of photographs are taken from Life Magazine, they portray people and events of their time. This is Chief Petty Office Graham Jackson mourning the death of President Roosevelt on the 12 th August 1945. The photographer Ed Clark took this photograph to show how no matter what colour a person was they were all united in their grief and mourning for the President. This photograph taken by W. Eugene Smith was part of a pictorial essay of Spain. This photograph shows many emotions and the colour-black just emphasises the mood of the people.
J. R. Eyerman wanted to show with this photograph how people follow whatever is popular of the time. This photograph from the 1952 was taken in the Paramount Theatre in Hollywood; everyone is wearing the latest in movie viewing technology- 3 D glasses.
Eyerman tried to capture the popular things of the times before they rapidly died out and changed. The beauty about this photograph is the pattern formed by the audience, they all have suit and tie and these silly looking glasses. Photojournalism covers everything that is of interest to the public and without photojournalism we would not know about so many different things that go on in our world. Photojournalists are our eyes to the unseen events that go on- Fred J. Maroon provided an opportunity to examine the role of photojournalism in a difficult period of American political history.
Maroon photographed Nixon while he was in office, from 1969 - 1974. Maroon was one of the only photographers who were allowed to get up close to Nixon, he photographed him from his inauguration though to the Watergate hearings and finally his resignation. Photojournalists did not only show negative things such as wars and famines. With the Moon landing in 1969 the photographs showed the reader what the human race can achieve- good things for all of mankind.
Although the photographs were obviously not taken by photojournalists they are still part of photojournalism. The photographs were on the front page of every newspaper world-wide and also on the covers of magazines. But the special thing about the moon landing was that it was the end result of the great space race and from the beginning of the race to the end photojournalists were there to record it. Starting with the Russians, who were the first to successfully launch a satellite in October 1957, followed by the first man to orbit the Earth-Yuri Gagarin. This photograph shows the Russian people raising their new-found hero, who later received the countries highest medal-Hero of the Soviet Union. In America the atmosphere was completely different and the photojournalists showed this also.
The two men who are in the photograph (left) are astronauts who are obviously upset with the news from Russia. Photojournalists managed to portray many emotions into their photographs. The above photograph could be mistaken for other things rather than joy and happiness, but it shows how the country was brought together to celebrate the great achievement of Yuri Gagarin. The photograph below shows the enormous size of the rockets used to propel the spacecraft into the endless darkness of space.
And the end result of the space race- Buzz Aldrin standing on the moon. Neil Armstrong took most of the photographs, Nowadays photojournalism dominates all our newspapers and magazines. People no longer just read they also have the photographs to go with the story. There are endless amounts of photographs that help to tell a story. Many photographs even end up convicting people of secret affairs or meeting for illegal business. Free-lance photographers know as the paparazzi try to get as close up to famous people and any other people who may be in the public eye.
They may wait outside of the home of a star for hours until they can get a shot-which they then sell to newspapers or magazines. So photojournalism Bibliography:
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Research essay sample on Second World War Newspapers And Magazines
