Impact of Photojournalism

There’s a unique ability to tell stories through photographs. No moving parts on a screen, few words if any, but the message may be just as, if not more, powerful than a piece of visual journalism. Capturing creativity, emotion, and feeling, all come together when shooting your shots.

This first example is of the ‘best’ photographs in Time Magazine in the year 2016. Time sent photographers all over the world, including places such as Syria, Iraq, Greece, Cuba, and Venezuela. The photos that were captured include a wide array of topics and subjects. In war-zones, photos were taken of people’s faces, gunfire, and the extremely harsh conditions that are present. The photos are more than just people, they tell a story. There’s Iraqi soldiers atop a hill, there’s a US soldier ready for battle, and there’s the civilians who are in the middle of all it. It tells the story of war. No one is happy in any of the photos, instead often struggling or praying. There were some very unique photos included, such as number seven. The photo is taken from behind Hilary Clinton, with a number of media personnel in front of her. The subject’s face isn’t even shown, yet we can all pretty much tell who it is. The photo wasn’t taken from the side, or in front, but from directly behind her; it helps show that she is the focal point of this photo. Photo number 14 also stands out to me. This photo captures a soldier sitting on a rock with rubble all around him. He’s taking off his helmet and looks exhausted. Exhausted from warzone he has been a part of, which is shown in the background of the photo. The very next photo shows the soldiers looking out onto the vast landscape of bombing and war; it helps to capture the immensity and emotion involved.

The next piece of photojournalism is one of the coolest ones I’ve seen. Walter Ioos Jr., a photographer for Sports Illustrated, has been to every single Super Bowl in history. Starting in 1967, Ioos has captured photos from every Super Bowl since then to now. It’s amazing to see the progression. There’s changes in where the games were played and who was playing in the games every year. Loos did a great job capturing the not only the setting, but failure and defeat that was involved. One of my favorites is photo number 21. The image is taken of one Giants player in the end zone, and the fans packed into the stadium behind him. It’s a great contrast between the one individual and thousands of fans behind him. All the photos that he took include a great amount of emotion.

And all in all, I believe that’s what it comes down to. Yea, there’s always a message that gets brought out with every photo, but more specifically there’s emotion. Happiness, sadness, hope, and devastation, and any emotion possible can be brought out in photos. The viewer’s ability to see and connect with what is visibly there, helps tremendously in telling the photo’s story. Photojournalism is something I'm pretty interested in; having the ability to make people feel a certain way through your pictures is pretty unique. Having the ability to actually be present in that environment while taking photos is pretty special as well.