An Eye Opener or a Horror?

You do not need to be an expert in photography to take good pictures today, as the emerging digital technology now pampers the amateurs with their user-friendly features. The digital era has encouraged a trend in journalism called photojournalism. It is not a completely new trend as during Vietnam War and Great War photojournalism had come up to surface, providing audience with tragic eye-witnessed pictures from the actual war.

A shot from the Vietnam War

(source : www.fromthefrontline.co.uk)

Being a photojournalist basically means you cover an event from an angle without having to write news about it (ABC Ballarat, 2007). To watch a video about photojournalism by National Geographic, click here. However, as many amateurs emerged today as photojournalists, concerns about what is ethical and unethical to show publicly arise. Photojournalism field in particular, and journalism in general, is believed to have turned into a merely commercial field that every company is competing to show dramatic and shocking pictures to grab audience’s attention (Zelizer, 2007). Besides creating a sense of fear in people’s mind, it could also ‘turn off’ people’s sympathy towards certain events, simply because they have seen too much of it.

Though some might challenged the existence of photojournalism, such as those who believe that it is not suitable for all audience as most of the pictures captured are violent pictures. A recent issue about this appears from pictures taken by American soldiers in Iraq capturing tortures in Abu Ghraib prison. However, we should also see that

photojournalism has taken us to places we have never been to and realizing us to daily things we might not notice by giving them extraordinary angles.

I believe that there is more to photojournalism than only commercial purpose by neglecting the fact that the photos might terrorize some people. It is more to capturing the energy and spirit of things happening around us in unconventional angles through the passion of the person behind the lens (Nichols, 2008). Making sense of visual texts, in this case photos, involves more senses than those involved in words-based text (Walsh, 2006). That describes how far a picture can impact a person. So, yes, the saying ‘a picture paints a thousand words’ would still be relevant. And as long as we still hold on to our sense of humanity in both producing and making sense of the pictures, photojournalism is a way to go.

Looking things from different angles through photojournalism

(source : www.robertsonmedia.com.au)