In Chapnick's "Truth Needs No Ally: Inside Photojournalism", he discusses photographic essays and picture stories. He walks us through the development of the two, from the first paired images to more extensive bodies of work that work together to compose a story. One thing that struck me was in his section on Eugene Smith. He noted that Smith's country doctor and Spanish Village were innovative, first-of-their-kind works that took the photographic world by storm. But what were they about? They were not topics that were terribly difficult to access. They were not issues or ideas that people knew nothing about. They were stories about common, everyday experiences of people. And they were powerful for that.
I appreciate that Chapnick does not dismiss these simple story topics as the humble beginnings of a growing form of documentation. Instead, he notes that photographic essays and stories do not necessarily need complex subject matter, or even a particularly exciting one. What a solid story or essay needs most is an element of truth. Viewers will be drawn into a story that they feel is real. They can relate to real.
Another note that I appreciated was in Chapnick’s section on Donna Ferrato. In describing her application of photojournalism, he refers to it as her “weapon.” I was immediately reminded of Woody Guthrie and Arlo Guthrie, who are both folk singers. They attempted to use their music to encourage social change, and they bandied no words about their intent. They had a habit of writing on their guitars “This is my weapon.” I think this similarity between music and photojournalism is one worth considering. They both appeal to the senses. They both aim to tell stories that ring true to the consumer. They both have the potential to inform and to elicit change. In short, I think describing Ferrato’s use of photography as a weapon is incredibly accurate. Weapons are not always destructive, but they are always used deliberately for some purpose. Photojournalists who can’t find reasons for their stories are going to have a difficult time telling their stories.
In Langton’s “Photojournalism and Today’s News,” he discusses the development of photojournalism as a news force and in its technological progress. When discussing the various topics that news consumers are drawn to, Langton pointed out the extreme interest invoked by war. He also discussed the start of the controversy between journalists and government institutions like the military. Interestingly enough, he suggested that WWI, was perhaps the most tightly controlled access to any conflict. Photographers had extremely limited access, to the point that they were driven to fabricate images or limit themselves to portraiture and camp life. In the first large-scale instance of citizen journalism, the best coverage of the war was discovered later, after soldiers returned home and developed the film they had illegally exposed on the front lines. Where journalists were denied access, the soldiers who had to be there were compelled to document their own life experiences.
I find this significant because no matter the technological barriers and the logistical nightmares of access, people find ways to photograph their life. The ability to visually document life and to show people and say “this is the way it is” is a fundamental human longing. Photojournalism survived its tumultuous birth, and it will survive its current growing pains because people will continue to make it happen. It’s in our nature.
