The Amar Jyoti Rehabilitation and Research Center in New Delhi accommodates 540 children. In 2002, more that 80 percent of all new polio cases worldwide occurred in India. Photograph from the book “The End of Polio” (Bulfinch) 2003 Sebastião Salgado/ Amazonas - Contact Press Images
March 30, 2010
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Visual Journalism
Photojournalism is changing, propelled by newsroom budget cuts, multimedia possibilities, and the ubiquity of digital images. In Visual Journalism, photojournalists write about emerging digital business strategies and their efforts to expand the reach of their photographs online and on gallery walls. They also share ideas about how to fund projects of personal passion and societal value. Their words tell vital stories about how they do their work; slideshows of their photographs—exclusive to our Web site—and multimedia presentations convey their visual stories. Read and watch as the future of photojournalism unfolds.
RELATED ARTICLE "Documentary Photographers Have Their Say in Words and Pictures" - Glenn RugaGlenn Ruga, the director of SocialDocumentary.net, spoke about photography during a conference examining the coverage of trauma held at the Nieman Foundation for Journalism in February 2009. In explaining how his Web site is used by photojournalists today, he traveled back in time to offer an abbreviated history of documentary photography and how its practitioners used imagery to inform people about events they couldn’t see for themselves. He spoke, too, about the impact their photography had in inspiring change. Edited excerpts from his talk follow, alongside photographs he used to illustrate his points:
RELATED ARTICLE Other excerpts from Ruga's presentation appear in the Winter 2009 article "Visual Storytelling About the Human Condition"These examples just skim the surface of the rich history of documentary photography and its uses. In the world of human rights, there are perpetrators and survivors, there are journalists who inform us about these violations, researchers who give us data and analysis, advocates who work for policy change to prevent violations and support the victims. There are artists, filmmakers and writers who document and help us understand the abusers and the abused; there are lawyers, judges and lawmakers who provide the legal context. And there are photographers who document the abuses, honor the victims, and tell their stories of abuse, survival and justice.
Moving on in the history of photography, we have Lewis Hine, a very influential photographer who documented the plight of child labor at the beginning of the 20th century, mostly in New York. It’s his work that really changed a lot of laws related to child labor. Not only was he a fantastic photographer, he used this work in a very deliberate way. Hired by the National Child Labor Committee, he created a portfolio and sent it to lawmakers in New York to influence policy on child labor. Eventually laws were passed almost directly due to his photographs.
Addie Card, 12 years old. Spinner in North Pownal, Vermont. 1910. Photo by Lewis Hine.
Sudan, 2001. With only one polio case in 2001 and none in 2002, Sudan, Africa’s largest country, has now been declared polio-free. Photograph from the book “The End of Polio” (Bulfinch) 2003 Sebastião Salgado/ Amazonas – Contact Press Images
Now we have photographers such as Sebastião Salgado documenting polio throughout the world. He uses his work very deliberately to effect policy change by making sure people in power see it.
The Amar Jyoti Rehabilitation and Research Center in New Delhi accommodates 540 children. In 2002, more that 80 percent of all new polio cases worldwide occurred in India. Photograph from the book “The End of Polio” (Bulfinch) 2003 Sebastião Salgado/ Amazonas – Contact Press Images
Visual Journalism
Photojournalism is changing, propelled by newsroom budget cuts, multimedia possibilities, and the ubiquity of digital images. In Visual Journalism, photojournalists write about emerging digital business strategies and their efforts to expand the reach of their photographs online and on gallery walls. They also share ideas about how to fund projects of personal passion and societal value. Their words tell vital stories about how they do their work; slideshows of their photographs—exclusive to our Web site—and multimedia presentations convey their visual stories. Read and watch as the future of photojournalism unfolds.
As governments and mining companies push to extract minerals from the deep sea, conservationists — and nature — warn us of the potential long-lasting ramifications
