Photojournalism

Photojournalism Chisinow – 28 of November, 2010

Particularity • Photo + Journalism : Take a picture in order to report an event or to tell a story • Differences with other photography (artistic and documentary ones) : • Timeliness/well-timed : The image makes sense in the context of an event, in our time • Narrative : It shows facts relatable to a particular event and subject • Obejectivity : As a journalist, the photojournalist shows a fair representation of reality. To moderate ?

Differentkind of photojournalism Photojournalisme is often linked to war photography, but that’s not all • War photography • Illustration photography For agencies (AFP, Reuters…). Often only one at the end • "Investigative reports" • "Geo","Nature" reports. Often landscapes, nice pictures to let you escape

Caption • Goal: Report what may be ambigious in the photography • Tell another thing than the only picture • A good caption should include « the 5W’s rule » (Who, where, when, what, why). Exceptions

Bad caption : A curly hair guy, shooting a wall. Better caption : Peo Gaumin, participant of Chisinow photo workshop, shooting an abandonned building of Chisinau. On 7th November, the theme of the workshop was « Architecture ».

Rules • Artistic/compositions rules • Tell the truth, don’tmodifyyourpictures • Don’t invente informations in yourcaption • If thereis an ambiguity in yourpicture, undo it in the caption • Talk to the personyou shoot, quotehim in the caption • Do not put two times the samesubject/picure in the same report • Prepareyourwork : at least, think about some of the picturesyouneed for your report. If you have time, startgoingat the place you’ll do your report without camera, to speakwith people in a more confortable way • But after all, rules are sometimeshere to beforget, originalitycanmake a report good

Whichsubject do I choose ? • If you want your photoreport to be published, choose someting actual • An event • Find an "excuse" to make it actual • Without this obligation, everyting is a subject • A place • A person • A working occupation • …

Internet possibilities • Photographers are not limited to magazines no more • Huge reports with 50 pictures or more • Big pictures on the all screen • Easy to edit yourself, making a blog/flickr/picasa album • Web documentary • Pictures with sounds, videos, texts… New possibilities

Let’swatchsome reports Elections in Burma : http://www.panos.co.uk/stories/2-13-1178-1684/Adam-Dean/Election-Week-in-Burma/ Women at War : http://www.viiphoto.com/showstory.php?nID=1196 Bangkok : la vie sous l’autoroute : http://www.collectifargos.com/Bangkok---la-vie-sous-l-autoroute,1,279,1

Bibliographie • A BriefHistory of Photography and Photojournalism : http://www.ndsu.edu/pubweb/~rcollins/242photojournalism/historyofphotography.html • Reports about Moldova and Transnistria: http://tomasvanhoutryve.com/reportage/moldova/moldova_slide01.html http://tomasvanhoutryve.com/reportage/moldova/transnistria_slide01.html • A photojournalist approach to writing your caption : http://news.deviantart.com/article/24929/ • Somewebdocumentaries: http://www.honkytonk.fr/index.php/webdoc/ http://prisonvalley.arte.tv/?lang=en http://www.thanatorama.com/ • Interestingwebsites: http://www.jamesnachtwey.com/ http://picturetank.com/ http://www.panos.co.uk/ http://www.viiphoto.com/ http://www.collectifargos.com/ Short film “One hundred of a second” http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-7467000047467727357# (in Russian : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JhH5iD1TzoI&feature=related ) WarPhotographer, a film by Christian Frei et James Nachtwey, 2001, 96‘.

Summary for today report • Think about the global report • Choose different kind of pictures • Some billboards/campaing posters • A portrait of a voter • A portrait of a non-voter • A polling station (post office) • People entering a polling station • Buildings of political parties • Events organised by political parties • … (there are hundreds of subjects  ) • Take some notes, if you need, to make better captions

Photojournalism