What is photojournalism?

I was recently interviewed for a student’s class project, and the interviewee asked an interesting question. The question and my answer are below, but

I want to open this up – if you feel so inclined, I’d love to hear answers from more people. What is photojournalism?

Question: If you had to describe what you do to someone who had no idea what photojournalism was, what would you say?


Answer: Hmm, that’s an interesting question. I would say photojournalism is the cross breed between two-dimensional, visual art and journalistic ethic. At photojournalism’s worst, photographs can re-enforce stereotypes and strip people of their dignity (and when photojournalists are at their worst, they can be self-absorbed, vulture-like, inhumane people). But when photojournalism is working at it’s best, it sheds light on important issues, acts as a visual-historic record, holds peoples/societies/governments accountable, demands answers, empowers people and speaks truth to the darkness. When photojournalists are acting at their best, they aim for this and recognize it is their job to strive for these things. Photographers should be as selfless as possible – recognizing that the events and people on the other side of the camera are far more important than they are.

Also – just found this frame from the Belmont Stakes from last June. The image is © 2011, Reuters.

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This entry was posted on Sunday, November 6th, 2011 at 8:27 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

  • Glenn Guy

    I’d say photojournalism is news-based photography evident in newspaper and magazine (e.g. National Geographic, Time, etc) articles. As a generalisation I’d classify photojournalism as commissioned work that, as a consequence, may have to reflect editorial policy of the publication in question.

    Documentary photography is usually based upon self-motivated and self-funded projects. Not limited to the usually tighter deadlines associated with newspaper and magazine publicaiton, documentary photography can also be seen in galleries and books. Free of potential editorial restrictions I believe documentary photography is more closer aligned to fine art photography.