Nieman Reports

Summer 1998

Photojournalism Dead? It's Just Changing With the Times

In the next 50 pages Nieman Reports take stock of photojournalism today. While problems are noted, the report is positive. The articles and the photo essays by 10 Nieman Fellows demonstrate the special value of pictures to news. As noted photographer Edward Steichen summed it up at the dinner celebrating his 90th birthday in 1969: “The mission of photography is to explain man to man and each man to himself. And that is no mean function.”

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Photojournalism

Summer 1998: Photojournalism Introduction

By Robert H. Phelps• Visual Journalism• June 15, 1998

It's Just Changing With the Times In the next 50 pages Nieman Reports take stock of photojournalism today. While problems are noted, the report is positive. The articles and the photo essays by 10 Nieman Fellows demonstrate the special value of pictures to news. As noted photographer Edward Steichen summed it up at the dinner celebrating his 90th birthday in 1969: “The mission of photography is to explain man to man and each man to himself. And that is no mean function.” Read more

Changing With the Times

By Vincent Alabiso• Visual Journalism• June 15, 1998

Working in a More Subdued World, Photojournalists Produce Outstanding Pictures Reflective of the Times Read more

AP’s Policy Banning Photo Manipulation

Visual Journalism• June 15, 1998

In 1990, as The Associated Press made its transition to digital processing of its images, Vincent Alabiso, Executive Photo Editor, released its unequivocal internal policy regarding photo manipulation. “The straightforward guidelines must be met by AP’s wordwide staff,” he wrote. Read more

Hard Times Abroad

By Otto Pohl• Visual Journalism• June 15, 1998

Time magazine sent Chris Morris to Albania last summer to get pictures of the election there. Everything worked out fine, they had the page all set and laid out. At the last moment, the editors pulled the article, opting instead … Read more

The Best Picture I Never Took

By David Turnley• Visual Journalism• June 15, 1998

In 1986, during the state of emergency in South Africa, South African photographer Peter Magubane and I had been hidden under the seat of a taxi-combi that took us into a black township off-limits to the press. We went there … Read more

Trials With Editors

Visual Journalism• June 15, 1998

Stan Grossfeld, a 1992 Nieman Fellow, has an enviable job as a photojournalist. An Associate Editor of The Boston Globe, he is free to go wherever his creative instincts lead him—and they have led him all over the world. The … Read more

Get the Picture

By John G. Morris• Visual Journalism• June 15, 1998

A Personal History of Photojournalism Read more

The Web Waits for the Photographer, Too

By Fred Ritchin• Visual Journalism• June 15, 1998

The World Wide Web has been heralded as a medium that provides new ways to explore the world and communicate what one finds. Unfortunately, very little of the anticipated paradigm shift from conventional journalism to an alternative, multimedia practice has … Read more

The Best Picture I Never Took

By Stan Grossfeld• Visual Journalism• June 15, 1998

In the mid-70’s there was a big press conference at the Waldorf Astoria in New York to announce that Raquel Welch was named an honorary spokesperson for the American Cancer Society. The New York press started asking her some nasty … Read more

Roy DeCarava Retrospective

By Lester Sloan• Visual Journalism• June 15, 1998

“Bill & Son, 1962,” from ”Roy DeCarava: A Retrospective.” Roy DeCarava doesn’t occupy a space, he blends with it. But to say that his approach to photography is stealth-like is to attribute … Read more

The Best Picture I Never Took

By Steve Northup• Visual Journalism• June 15, 1998

I was in Alaska on a Time assignment on the building of the Trans-Alaska pipeline and had been working like a dog in terrible conditions for a few weeks. I had scheduled a helicopter to pick me up from a … Read more

Feminine Touch

By Mary Lou Foy• Visual Journalism• June 15, 1998

Growing Number of Women Photographers Are Making a Difference Read more

The Best Picture I Never Took

By Stanley Forman• Visual Journalism• June 15, 1998

It was about 1:30 a.m. on a day in 1982 when I awoke to a second alarm of a fire on Newbury Street in Boston’s Back Bay. I was racing to the scene when another call came over one of … Read more

The Role of the Picture Editor

By John Loengard• Visual Journalism• June 15, 1998

Georgia O’Keeffe holds her favorite stone from her rock collection. Abiquiu, New Mexico. 1966. She confessed that she stole the stone. © John Loengard. It is not important if photographs are … Read more

The Best Picture I Never Took

By Frank Van Riper• Visual Journalism• June 15, 1998

It was in the 1972 campaign, during a George McGovern rally in a city long forgotten, that I saw a photograph I ache to have made. In shirtsleeves, the Democratic presidential candidate was addressing a sun-drenched crowd from a … Read more

Inner Eye

By Bill Kuykendall• Visual Journalism• June 15, 1998

A Life-Long Strategy for Learning Photojournalism Read more

Honest Emotion

By Torsten Kjellstrand• Visual Journalism• June 15, 1998

Photo by Torsten Kjellstrand/The Herald. Emotion is the language of documentary photography. Without it, a picture has little value, except possibly as evidence in court. Most of us look for a … Read more

Interaction

By Mary Beth Meehan• Visual Journalism• June 15, 1998

Mary Beth Meehan/The Providence Journal-Bulletin. As a documentary photographer, I am most interested in using the medium to describe the relationships that people have—with their environment, with each other. I’m fascinated by … Read more

People Without People

By Alan Berner• Visual Journalism• June 15, 1998

Alan Berner/The Seattle Times. What is “People Without People?” For me it is the sense of people without them being there. It’s the part representing the whole. It’s the significant detail giving … Read more

Pictures Dominate, Words Come Second

By Sherry Jones• Visual Journalism• June 15, 1998

In editing our documentaries, the picture leads. Writing the narration is literally the last thing I do. That doesn’t mean I don’t have concrete ideas about the story, especially since I’ve usually spent a year reporting it. And it doesn’t … Read more

‘Secret’ Behind TV Station’s Photos

By Manny Sotelo• Visual Journalism• June 15, 1998

By getting down to eye level, a KUSA photographer gives a sense of the action and the emotions of wheelchair athletes. Denver’s KUSA-TV has been named Television News Photography Station of the … Read more

Photo Essays

Micha Bar-Am

Visual Journalism• June 15, 1998

These photographs are from “Israel: A Photobiography, The First Fifty Years,” by Micha Bar-Am, a 1986 Nieman Fellow (Simon & Schuster, 1998). The photos shown, all © Micha Bar-Am/Magnum, are taken from the chapter, “Daily Bread.” … Read more

Stanley Forman

Visual Journalism• June 15, 1998

I was on vacation from my job at WCVB-TV Boston in September 1986 and had spent the early evening playing cards. At 11:30 I quit to pick up a friend RELATED ARTICLE … Read more

Stan Grossfeld

Visual Journalism• June 15, 1998

RELATED ARTICLE “The Best Picture I Never Took” – Stan GrossfeldIt’s a familiar refrain: kids having kids. There’s an unexpected twist here, however. Christina and Allan “are white kids in a nice town,” says Holly Mangum, … Read more

Michele McDonald

Visual Journalism• June 15, 1998

Alabanians show reports of beatings by Serbs in Kosovo. These photos were taken in August, 1993 in Serbia, Bosnia and Kosovo for The Boston Globe. Reporter Sally Jacobs and I were sent from … Read more

Steve Northup

Visual Journalism• June 15, 1998

These pictures were made in November of l972, about the time Nixon was getting re-elected. The Indians, marching as part of the American Indian Movement, went to Washington and simply took over the Bureau of … Read more

Eli Reed

Visual Journalism• June 15, 1998

A girl poses at the Benaco refugee camp, Tanzania, 1994. The Benaco refugee camp was set up in Tanzania in late April or early May of 1994, one of the first settled by … Read more

Nancy Rhoda

Visual Journalism• June 15, 1998

The simplest outing can turn into a nightmare for Alice Williams. Her son Joey’s fantasy life takes over as he demands a haircut like that of the Statue of Liberty. His mother tries … Read more

Lester Sloan

Visual Journalism• June 15, 1998

These photos are of men who attended the Million Man March on Washington in 1995. The event was defined by the media in terms of numbers, but to me it was as much about individuals and singular acts of rededication … Read more

David Turnley

Visual Journalism• June 15, 1998

Frank Van Riper

Visual Journalism• June 15, 1998

RELATED ARTICLE “The Best Picture I Never Took” – Frank Van RiperIn combining my talents as both a writer and photographer I am doing something unusual and, I think, important in … Read more

Watchdog Journalism

Summer 1998: Watchdog Journalism Introduction

By Robert H. Phelps• Watchdog• June 15, 1998

Here is a report on the first Nieman conference on watchdog journalism, which was held on May 2, 1998, at Harvard University. The Spring 1998 edition of Nieman Reports laid the basis for the foundation’s drive to reinvigorate … Read more

How to Keep the Watchdogs Watching

Watchdog• June 15, 1998

First Nieman Conference on Aggressive Reporting Produces Scores of Ideas, Some Conflicting Read more

CNN’s Tightened Check On News Breaks

By Eason Jordan• Watchdog• June 15, 1998

A news organization that parrots somebody else’s reporting has to feel as badly, if not more badly, when the original report is wrong than the originating news organization. There are news organizations that say “well, gee, yeah, we did pick … Read more

The Journalist's Trade

How VOA Reported Sex Charges

By Mark B. Lewis• Journalist’s Trade• June 15, 1998

The Voice of America newsroom in Washington. RELATED ARTICLE “CNN’s Tightened Check On News Breaks” – Eason JordanWhat have listeners abroad been hearing … Read more

Legacy of Diana and the British Press

By Peter Almond• Journalist’s Trade• June 15, 1998

In July 1991, the editor of The Daily Telegraph hauled me into his office for a severe dressing down. My offense? I had written to an aide of the Duchess of Gloucester suggesting she had … Read more

Dramatizing a Story Through ‘High Density’

By David Halberstam• Journalist’s Trade• June 15, 1998

At a February 20, 1998, seminar with Nieman Fellows, David Halberstam was asked how he combined research with interviews and how he avoided becoming overwhelmed by the record in writing his books. Here are edited excerpts from his response: Well, … Read more

Progress by Washington Post Copyeditors: 1966

By Philip M. Foisie• Journalist’s Trade• June 15, 1998

CONFIDENTIAL March 11, 1966 Memo To: Ben Bradlee Ben Gilbert From: Phil Foisie Re: Copyreading 1. I define copyreading as the fastidious and methodical word-by-word check of copy for spelling, grammar, syntax, conformity of style, ascertainable factual … Read more

Progress by Washington Post Copyeditors: 1997

By Geneva Overholser• Journalist’s Trade• June 15, 1998

Readers are not sleeping through August, but they sometimes ask if copy editors are: “I want to register dismay about the errors in the July 30 lead story [on the budget agreement] on the front page. There’s a sentence that … Read more

Nieman Reports

Summer 1998

Photojournalism Dead? It's Just Changing With the Times

Photojournalism

Photo Essays

Watchdog Journalism

The Journalist's Trade

Curator's Corner

By Bill Kovach

Letters to the Editor

Technology

By Tom Regan

Books

By Harold M. Schmeck Jr.

By Molly Marsh

By Robert Lenzner

By Wilson Wanene

By Lois Fiore

Nieman Notes

By Philip Cunningham

By Valerie Hyman

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