“Intention is what distinguishes the photojournalist from
the artist.”
This chapter conveys the “camera as witness” in
photojournalism, which reminds me of a point made in ‘The Staged Document’ that
photography decides what is and what is not remembered. I feel as though these
two points can be contradictory at times. If photography determines the events
that are remembered, then there are cases in which the camera could portray a witness
with limiting or even false information. This essay begins by discussing the
different ways in which Time-Life and Magnum practiced photographic documentation
during the rise of photojournalism. Time-Life pursued images with “clarity of
subject matter, strong composition, bold graphic effect, and often, a touch of
wit.” This intention strays from the portrayal of certain ‘truths’ that artists
described in the previous essays were so devoted to unveiling because too much
attention to the aesthetic quality of a photograph can often distract the
audience from its deeper meaning. Magnum was created to give photojournalists more
control over the way in which their work was presented to the journal’s
subscribers. However, devotion to expressing the ‘truth’ relies on the photojournalist’s
intention in this case. Although this essay describes the core value of
photojournalism as an “unwavering adherence to fact” in its introduction, it
appears as though photojournalism became a tool that could either be used for
its original purpose or manipulated to disguise important information. This
essay does not take a definite stance on photojournalism, but rather it
describes the conflict between fact and interpretation that photojournalism
presents in an informative manner.
Page One: A Conversation with Philip Gefter, Picture Editor of the New York Times’ Front Page
In this essay, Véronique Vienne documents her interview with
Philip Gefter about his 1999 appointment as Page One picture editor for the New York Times. She conveys that this
title is simportant because it describes a job that will on the combination of
text and images that will be published for not only the general public to
peruse, but also for “the most prominent leaders and thinker” to analyze as
well. Vienne expresses that Gefter attempts to distinguish between photographs
that are “‘illustrative’ of a news event, and pictures that are ‘edifying’—that
is, pictures that are not merely additions, but illuminating in themselves,
integral to the report.” In other words, he searches for images that assist in
describing certain ‘truths’, and would change the meaning of a report if they
were not included. Throughout this article, Vienne asks Gefter questions about
the decision-making process as Page One picture editor and how he deals with the
challenge of creating a report that is as honest and informative as possible.
History’s First Draft
Looks Much Better With Pictures
This essay introduces the new book, Things as They Are: Photojournalism in Context Since 1955, as a
motion to strip away the false associations that have evolved around various
iconic images in a series of 120 photo-essays that were published in the latter
half of the twentieth century. This is a display of the manner in which photography
has dangerously altered our memories of the past. The motive is to display a
“fuller historic record” of the context in which the image was published. The
book also conveys how the technological advancements in photography and
printing affected the portrayal of significant historical events and the way
that they are perceived today.
Reflections of New
York’s Luckiest: Look Magazine
In this essay, Gefter describes New York as a place where
the people are known for their resilience and ability to cope under difficult
circumstances in pursuit of their dreams. The Museum of the City of New York
held an exhibition titled Willing to Be
Lucky: Ambitious New Yorkers in the Pages of Look Magazine that showed 130
photographs of the people who found a home in New York because they “ ‘didn’t
fit in anywhere else’”. New York was their place of good fortune. The essay
discusses how the work of many artists came to light because of a serendipitous
moment, and ended up changing their career paths for the better.
Reading Newspaper
Pictures: A Thousand Words, and Then Some
This essay expresses how the layers of meaning within an
image can distract from the photographer’s intended message: “A picture may not
be worth a thousand words, but a picture and a good caption are worth a
thousand and ten.” Gefter describes how—because an image opens the door to a
world of interpretation—a caption is what narrows down the meaning in an image
and makes it relevant to an audience. As a general population, language is our
primary method of communication and images are secondary, so it makes sense
that a caption would help to clarify a photograph’s meaning. The essay
continues to explain that the caption associated with an image is just as
powerful as the image itself.
Cornell Capa,
Photojournalist and Museum Founder, Dies at Ninety
This essay was written to commemorate Cornell Capa’s life
and work with Life magazine as well
as to describe his contribution to the world of photojournalism after his death.
Capa’s love for photography was fostered heavily by his father Robert Capa, and
Cornell Capa’s wife played a major role in his professional career as a
photojournalist. Upon looking back at his own life, Capa was most concerned
with the legacy that he would leave behind as a photojournalist and what would
become of his work after he died. This parallels the general concept conveyed
throughout the majority of this chapter—the reality that a photographer’s work
often evolves over time into something other than what it was originally
intended to be.
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