The History of Photojournalism A picture is worth a thousand words. Who among us hasn t heard that said before. Butalthough overused, it s also very insightful. Pictures can be used to relay an infinite amount ofemotions to the viewers, and all without the use of a single word. In photojournalism, acombination of words and pictures is used to tell a story with more effect than any single mediumcould and photojournalism found it s peak during the twentieth century. It has had a profoundeffect on all of us this century, and still continues to. Photojournalism is taken for granted in ourculture. When something big occurs, we expect to see pictures. It introduces us to people we dnever meet, takes us places we d never go, and explains things to us that we d never understand. Photojournalism is all around us. Forms of photojournalism can be traced as far back as Ben Franklin s, PennsylvaniaGazette . Although not photojournalism in the true since of the word, the woodcut of snakechopped into pieces effectively conveyed the message of the caption, Join or die. The firstexample of picture used to help a story, comes from The Illustrated London News. Thepicture, a drawing, was of an assassination attempt on Queen Victoria on May 30, 1942. Theidea of pictures in the news was not widely accepted. Some felt that using pictures detractedfrom the important things , reading and writing. Among other problems that photojournalism faced were those of getting the picture ontothe printed page. The most popular means of the time was using woodcuts. Although it seemswoodcutting would not have much to do with photography, the two were associated for manyyears. After cameras came into more widespread use in the 1840 s, it was thought they wouldrevolutionize picture journalism, but this was not the case. With the technology, it was onlypossible to print full tones; solid blacks and blank whites. This made for very crude lookingpictures. Advances in technology would be needed before photojournalism could become themajor force which it is today, but this technology would not be introduced until the turn of thecentury. Respect for photojournalism also had to be cultivated. This cultivation was done inlarge part by one man, Joseph Pulitzer, grandfather of all sensationalists. In 1883, Pulitzer boughtthe failing New York World and turned into the most profitable paper ever published. Pulitzerfavored pictures of blood and crime, but also recognized that pictures of noncriminals may also beof interest to the public, so he began printing portraits of ministers, teachers, lawyers actors andpolitical figures. But Pulitzer went too far when he published an article called Ladies Who Graceand Adorn the social circle , which contained a gallery of pretty girls from Brooklyn. Thehusbands, brothers and fathers of these women were outraged. The paper received hundreds ofcomplaints, none of which were from the women who appeared in the paper. On January 21, 1897, true photojournalism began in the New York Tribune when thefirst halftone picture was published. It used thousands of tiny black dots to form the full picture,one of Thomas C. Platt, a New Yorker elected to the United States Senate. In the followingweeks, the paper deepened its commitment by giving people there first look in to New York sslums by publishing pictures of the cities bleak, dirty tenements. Halftone printing was not veryquick to catch on, however. Publishers thought they would be considered a cheap substitute forreal art. They also had a substantial investment in artists and engravers. But after a few years,halftones were embraced by the press, and by 1910, engravings had all but disappeared. Front page news was now covered with actual views of the most current events, includingpictures of Titanic passengers in 1912, American troops being sent to Europe in 1917, andWoodrow Wilson signing the Treaty of Versailles in 1918. Photojournalists also began to explorethe darker side of our culture. No one could stir more emotion than freelance photographer,
Lewis W. Hine. He showed the common people how millions of immigrants had to live inovercrowded slums working at under paying jobs. The National Geographic ran it s first halftonepicture in 1903; a picture of a Philippine women working in a rice field. The response wasimmense. The magazine had swarms of photographers ready to circle the globe and bring backpictures from exotic lands. But serious journalism could not hold peoples attention forever. In 1919, the firstword-and-picture tabloid appeared; the Illustrated Daily News. The first issue s cover wasgraced with a very large picture of the Prince of Wales proclaiming his upcoming visit toNewport. The back page was also covered with pictures of beauty contest entrants. By 1924 theIllustrated Daily News had a larger ciculation than any other American newspaper. The publicwas titillated with illustrated stories of marital problems, crime and sex. But no othersensationalistic paper of the time compared to the Evening Graphic , of New York. The paperspages were strewn with themes of sex and violence, taking it about as far as you could go in thosedays. It was nicknamed The Pornographic. The Graphics only important contribution toserious photojournalism was that of the composograph, which was a method pasting severalphotographs together to make one fake picture. As we all know, the tabloids will do anything to get a sensational photograph. This wasproven earliest when a New York Daily News photographer took a picture of the execution ofconvicted murderer, Ruth Snyder. The News sent him to the execution under the guise of a pencil reporter. He had attached a subminiature camera to his ankle which contained one glassplate smaller than a matchbook. He took the picture using a cable that ran up his trousers into hispocket and aimed it by pointing his foot. This tradition of sensationalistic photography is still carried on today in the form of abreed of Italian photojournalists known as paparazzi who make a living off of catching the eliteoff-guard. The name is taken from a minor character in the classic Federico Fellini film, LaDolce Vita, named Paparazzo. Fellini selected the name because, It suggested a buzzing,stinging, annoying sort of insect, which was the idea I wanted to get across. A favorite methodof the paparazzi for getting a good picture is to surround a celebrity and set off flashbulbs in hisface until he gets violent. A picture can make anywhere from $500 to $5,000 depending on theactions of the subject. The paparazzi raise an interesting question about the proper limits of photojournalism. When is a person s right to privacy more important than the public s right to be informed. Or isit? Today it is generally believed that any public figures; politicians, actors, athletes, are all fairgame for photojournalist at all times. How often do people look at pictures of celebrities at theirmost vulnerable times and think, This is inappropriate. But unfortunately for respectable photojournalists, one bad apple does spoil the wholebunch. When people hear photojournalist they think paparrazzi. People must not forget all theamazing work that has been done in the field of photojournalism during the late nineteenth andtwentieth century and the hardworking, brave and thoughtful men who worked to make it therespectable medium that it is today.
Bibliography
Hopkinson, Amanda; Yapp Nick. 150 Years of Photojournalism. New York: Konemann, 1998 Carlebach, Michael L. American Photojournalism Comes of Age. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1997 Hagaman, Dianne. How I Learned Not to Be Photojournalist. Louisville, KY: University of Kentucky Press, 1996 National Press Photographer s Association. The Best of Photojournalism 15. Durham, NC: Jostens, 1990 National Press Photographer s Association. The Best of Photojournalism 13. Durham, NC: Jostens, 1988 National Press Photographer s Association. The Best of Photojournalism 12. Durham, NC: Jostens, 1987 National Press Photographer s Association. The Best of Photojournalism 11. Durham, NC: Jostens, 1986
