History of Photojournalism - Essay Example

History of Photojournalism Since its invention, photography has been hailed by the masses as one of thebest means of bringing the rest of the world to the public, affording them views of far-away places and peoples they would never have known about otherwise. The public appearance of the photographic process in 1839 (Leggat, 2000) revolutionized the way people saw the world around them and introduced a concept of capturing images that was so true to life that only the best painters could duplicate the effects. “As an aid in the search for reality, the photograph offered an immediate, faithful and permanent record, a source of artistic exploration” (Brown, 1971: 31). In its earliest forms, due perhaps in large part to the fact that exposure times were lengthy as the technology was in its infancy, photography was used as a narrative form, but even this early in its history, technological developments were allowing for more creative expression than simply recording the ‘truthful’ image. “At the turn of the century [1900], a small group of serious photographers tried to rescue the art form from its low estate by turning their backs on the more blatant forms of narrative photography and its continued reliance on and subservience to painting. They sought a more independent poetic vision based on the camera lens and motivated by a concern with contemporary forms” (Brown, 1971: 31). Even this early, photo manipulation in the form of creative manipulation during exposure as well as in the darkroom was being explored. Thus, while it might be said that “The new malleability of the image may eventually lead to a profound undermining of photography’s status as an inherently truthful pictorial form” (Ritchin, 1990: 28), the truth is there is no point in its history that photography can be said to have been limited to merely ‘true’ forms of capturing images. Understanding some of the history of the camera helps to inform an understanding of the history of photojournalism from the invention of the camera to 1930. The first step in determining the progress of photojournalism in the early days of the camera’s invention lies in defining just what is meant by the term ‘photojournalism.’ This method of reporting the news differs dramatically from simple news reporting just as it differs from other forms of photography. Properly speaking, photojournalism refers to the use of images with the express purpose of highlighting important elements of a news story. There are three main ‘rules’ to photojournalism that marks it as different from other forms of photography. These include the concepts of timeliness, objectivity and narrative. Timeliness means the images should have meaning within the context of the present events rather than being images of events that have occurred in times long past. Objectivity refers to the concept that the images presented in association with a news report should fairly and accurately reflect the events being reported on. Finally, narrative insists that the images are combined with text or other news elements that help to explain their meanings and implications available to the reader, or viewer, from within their cultural perspective. Although a writer may be able to hide himself within the trenches or even behind the lines to write a story, the photojournalist, particularly the photojournalist of these early days, does not have the luxury of remaining safe if he wishes to get the image that accurately depicts the horror of battle. While some images might have been staged or otherwise manipulated even this early, ethics, have, of course, been an important consideration since photographs first began appearing in newspapers in the 1850s, shortly after the invention of the camera in the late 1830s (Barber, 2006). However, the issue of determining appropriate ethical theory to apply to this widespread medium of communication has been difficult to define. “The production, presentation, and consumption of visual messages in all manner of media can be justifiably sliced in separate technological, historical, cultural and critical perspectives. The requirements for theory building at each stage are different” (Elliott & Lester, 2002). And while it is recognized that “Photography is the only ‘language’ understood in all parts of the world, and bridging all nations and cultures” (Helmut Gernsheim cited in Elliott & Lester, 2002), it is also acknowledged that “photographs supply information without having a language of their own. Photographs quote rather than translate from reality” (John Berger cited in Elliott & Lester, 2002). The difficulty arises from the variety of social, political and cultural approaches that can be taken in the interpretation of an image. In the very early days of the camera, this difficulty was compounded by the bulky equipment, slow operation of the camera and consistently changing technologies, all of which can be better understood by understanding the basic operation of the camera itself. Traditional cameras work to capture the same colors we see by controlling the amount of light allowed to strike a light-sensitive film hidden inside. The camera itself is simply a light-proof housing for this film that has various means of controlling the wavelengths that enter it, exposing only a small segment of film at a time. A small shutter controls the length of time that the film is exposed while a tiny hole determines the amount of light allowed to enter at once (Hedgecoe, 1991). Once the shutter allows the light to enter, the light strikes the film causing a chemical change to occur on the surface of the film. “The chemical record is very stable, and can be subsequently developed, amplified and modified to produce a representation (a print) of that moment that … can be reproduced millions of times in various media” (Woodworth, 2006). This chemical record is then put through another chemical process to extract the image recorded and then print it in appropriate colors on paper or other media. As in human vision, the entire process begins with reflected light as it bounces off of objects within the camera’s field of view and enters the lens. Although a lens is little more than a piece of glass designed to be used to focus light on a specific point, this initial contact with the camera provides a great deal of possible effects to the photographer. The focal length of the lens is defined as “the distance from the lens to the point of focus when the lens is focused on infinity” (Wills, 2006). Differences in lenses and control mechanisms in early cameras provided a wide range of difficulties to overcome or benefits to their use. For example, in modern cameras, it is known that depth of field increases with a wide angle lens while sacrificing some focus and distorting the perspective somewhat. “Objects close to the camera will look much larger and closer than they really are and objects far from the camera will look much smaller and farther away than normal” (Wills, 2006). A telephoto lens further limits the field of vision but further throws off perspective through compression, giving it the least depth of field of all the options. Lack of standardization in the manufacture of early cameras often created slight differences in the ability to capture different types of images with any degree of accuracy. While the very earliest cameras were too bulky and the film was too technical to be used effectively in the field, by 1888 they had become much more transportable and easier to use with the invention of Eastman’s roll film camera (“History of the Camera”, 2008). However, this did not automatically mean images captured by the camera were easily and quickly incorporated into the newspapers of the time. Although the camera technology was available to allow the development of photojournalism, the printing technology remained lacking in bringing these photographs to the page. Until 1880, photographs were only reproduced within the newspapers through the lengthy process of having the photograph re-interpreted as an engraving and then printed (Chapnick, 1994). Early pioneers of this means of using the camera included William Simpson, Roger Fenton and Mathew Brady, all of whom used the photographic tools at their disposal to document the events of war. William Simpson and Roger Fenton used the camera to help them capture images of the Crimean War while Mathew Brady documented the events of the Civil War in America (Chapnick, 1994). Thus, these few early photography enthusiasts and newshounds can be considered the pioneers of the photojournalist. In spite of their efforts, it wasn’t until 1897 that the printing industry finally managed to catch up somewhat with the photography industry in attempting to combine text with images on the printed page. The first halftone image, printed in The Daily Graphic, appeared on March 4, 1880, but this process of printing images straight from the photograph was not fully developed until 1897 when printing presses were developed that could print halftone images on presses running at full speed (Chapnick, 1994). Halftone printing is a process by which the different tones of a photograph are converted into a series of dots that differ in size and spacing. “The eye has limited resolving power and, at a distance, is tricked into seeing these dots as continuous tone” (“Photographs in Print”, 2004). In order to create a halftone, a special camera was used that had a glass screen ruled with a grid pattern that helped to break up the image into the necessary dots. Smaller dots, giving the impression of being spaced further apart, would give the impression of lighter areas while larger dots, occupying much of their space on the grid, depicted darker areas of the image. Although the technology was available in the early 1880s, “photography simply supported the engraving process by replacing the initial artist drawn sketch of the scene. In 1891 in the USA alone there were 1,000 artists producing more than 10,000 drawings a week for the press” (“Photographs in Print”, 2004). Although the technology was available, the majority of publications opted not to update their equipment or to switch from the status quo for a variety of reasons, including the difficulty of getting the images to align properly on the page and keeping the presses rolling at an appropriate rate while still printing news stories. It wasn’t until the early 1920s that the printing presses throughout the country were finally updated sufficiently to support halftone printing, at which time new technologies in camera equipment was again redefining the ways in which photographers approached their work. At about the same time, wirephotos made it possible to transmit pictures in much the same way that news stories were transmitted, although the process was somewhat slower (Chapnick, 1994). All of these innovations planted the seeds for the “Golden Age” of photojournalism that began with the 1930s. Photojournalism, for all its straightforward-seeming definitions, is actually a relatively complicated subject involved questions of ethics, morality, civic responsibility, timeliness, accuracy and narrative. In attempting to convey to the public the serious events that were taking place in the world, photographers from the earliest development of the camera faced numerous difficulties in attempting to depict the world to the public using limited technology in their hands and further restricted by the limited technologies available to the newspapers and journals trying to print the images they sent back. As cameras became more portable and flexible, an increasing number of photojournalists entered the field, hoping to help illustrate the news of the world with images that would help the public understand. Unfortunately, while the images were readily available, the technology to print these images was not so available. Printing presses equipped to print in black and white only were not able to duplicate the numerous shades of gray required to accurately reprint the images submitted. Even after the development of the halftone print, photographs continued to be re-interpreted for print by vast numbers of artists and engravers who would convert the image into their own interpretation of the scene only as it could be portrayed in simple line drawings. It wasn’t until the development of the halftone print that photographs could be printed at all and it wasn’t until the mid-1920s that this technology became widely available. Although the steps taken in this early period of photojournalism were essential in forming the backbone of the field, the widespread developments in the industry prior to 1930 were not fully realized until after 1930, now considered the ‘Golden Age’ of photojournalism. Works Cited Brown, Milton W. “The History of Photography as Art History.” Art Journal. Vol. 31, N. 1, (Autumn 1971), pp. 31-32 + 36. Chapnick, Howard. Truth Needs No Ally: Inside Photojournalism. Missouri: University of Missouri Press, 1994. Hedgecoe, John. John Hedgecoe’s Complete Guide to Photography. New York: Sterling Publishing, 1991. “History of the Camera.” (2008). May 4, 2008 Leggat, Robert. The Beginnings of Photography. (2000). Retrieved May 3, 2008 from “Photographs in Print.” Ted’s Photographics. (2004). Retrieved May 4, 2008 from Ritchin, Fred. The Critical Image: Essays on Contemporary Photography. C. Squiers (Ed.). London: Lawrence & Wishart, 1990. Wills, Keith. “Lens.” Photography Lab. (May 22, 2002). Retrieved May 2, 2008 from < http://www.scphoto.com/index.html> Woodworth, Charles. “How Photographic Film Works.” How Stuff Works. (2006). Retrieved May 2, 2008 from Read More