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.
Arleen White struggles to cope after the judge accepted a plea of manslaughter in connection with the murder of her 15-year-old son. Photo by Nuri Vallbona/The Miami Herald.
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- Nuri VallbonaWhen I started working on a documentary piece about teen violence for The Miami Herald, Arleen White, the mother of a murdered child, called me and asked me to attend a court hearing where her son’s murderer was to take a plea bargain.
“He may be getting out,” said a tearful White. The reporter and videographer were out of town working on other projects so the storytelling was left to me and my still camera.
The hearing turned out to be a very dramatic event with White condemning her son’s killer and chastising the court system for failing her family. Then she fainted at the podium when her son’s killer accepted a plea deal that would release him from prison. He had served only four and a half years.
Videographer Candace Barbot incorporated my still images into her video to complete the story. In doing this, she said, “I’ve come to understand that a still photo does something that video can never do and that is that it allows us to peer into the eyes and soul of the subject in a very different way. We can linger more on it whereas video is always moving.”
In addition to running in the print edition, the story and photos were posted online along with a slideshow and video. “It’s all adding value whether it’s a still image or a moving picture image. If they’re both powerful, then they both carry the story,” said Barbot.
