Saturday, October 3, 2009

Photo technology's impact on media, society

It is safe to say that photojournalism forever changed media. Very few people can fathom magazines before pictures.

However, that time existed and it was a groundbreaking moment for the magazine industry when photographs separated the magazine and newspaper aspects of media.

Today, photography not only benefits magazines in the way of providing visual news stories, it is how magazines are known, compete with each other, and advertise. The idea of seeing the story appealed to audiences because it gave media a realistic and emotion-evoking dimension. Magazines without photography would have lefta large, crucial gap in our media industry.

Until the 1860s the most efficient way of capturing an image was by using daguerreotype developing. This was a slow and tedious process was the idea of creating a silver plate for the image combined with mercury vapor whose chemical reaction made the photo last.

Eventually, this technique became dated and they were able to use dry plates (as opposed to chemical with metal plates); however, creating these plates was a hassle. In the 1880s, gelatin substances solved the problem.

All of these inventions formed a solid foundation for the first hand-held camera that came out in 1888 thanks to Kodak. It was a relatively large box camera, but nevertheless, portable. After all of this, photography definitely took off, and in the 1920s, the newly popular combination of text and photos became known as photojournalism.

Along with the popularity of photojournalism came the desire for faster cameras. Brand names in cameras were coming out with faster shutter speeds, aswell as cameras that were capable of producing better quality. In 1925, flashes for cameras were introduced; however, they were not typically built-in to the camera since they were one-time use flashbulbs. Kodak made color photos possible in 1936 with Kodachrome.

After this, underwater cameras were developed and of course, the digital camera. Today, we have cameras that can record, that have different effects, and can even put cartoon mustaches on a face. This incredible moment-capturing invention has revolutionized our lives by ways of news, memories, and so much more. Cameras will never stop improving and they will never stop benefiting society.

PHOTOGRAPHY

Setting the stage for the role of photojournalism in magazines, Timothy O’Sullivan introduced the power of true human element through the groundbreaking “Harvest of Death” image following Gettysburg in 1963.

Documenting the first shots of the aftereffects of Union and Rebel soldiers, the image conveys the disturbing truth of war engagements. O’Sullivan’s work has been noted as “one of the most famous war photographs in American history” as it instigated the technique of dark reality transmitted through visual communication. (source)

Imagine seeing a young women, age thirty-two, and a few younger children around her. You see no noticeably healthy food other than birds that these young children had killed to eat. The shelter: a tent. This is exactly what Dorothea Lange saw as she approached Florence Owens Thompson with her small children during the difficult times of the Great Depression in the spring of 1936. Walking up with her Graflex camera, Lange made five exposures, eachtime getting closer.

Lange was able to to capture such realistic shots because the woman “seemed to know that [Lange’s] pictures might help her, and so she helped [Lange]. There was a sort of equality about it.” (Popular Photography, Feb. 1960) This photograph was published twice in one month in San Francisco News. (source)

Marines raising a flag: a symbol of strength, courage, and teamwork, but also to keep up and raise the morale as the US Marines continued in battle for their thirty-six day invasion. The first of two flag raisings was captured on film by Staff Sergeant Louis R. Lowery. The flag that was raised in the first photograph however was feared to be too small, thus a second flag was posted on Mt. Suribachi later that day. This is the famous photograph taken on February 23, 1945 by Joe Rosenthal, Associated Press photographer and Pulitzer Prize winner.

The men in the photograph have their own story. Three were killed and the fourth was injured. The photograph was first published in March of that year. (source)

Nick Ut -- world famous photographer for Associate Press, Phan Thi Kim Phúc -- world famous for a photograph. How are they related? It is quite possible that he is the reason she is alive.

At just twenty-one years old, Nick Ut was able to not only capture a photo that later would earn him a Pulitzer Prize, but also a friendship that would last forever. When phoning with Ut I was able to speak with him about the events that occurred that day in Trang Bang, South Vietnam from the napalm attack. He said at the time he took the photograph he knew “she was going to die in minutes.”

That’s when he knew he had to do something. He transported Kim Phúc and the other injured children to a hospital in Saigon. Kim Phúc spent fourteen months there, where throughout this time Ut visited her often. Now the nine year old is forty-six, married with two kids, and is living in Toronto, Canada. Ut still keeps in contact with her regularly; the day before I spoke with him, he had spoken with her on the phone. Ut, whose original Nikon camerais now on display in the Newseum in D.C. says of Kim Phúc, “we are like family.” (source)

Her sea foam eyes instantly send a striking image that enrapt the senses, an image so powerful that it has become one of the most well known across the globe. In 1985, National Geographic magazine revealed Steve McCurry’s staggering image of the “Afghan Girl,” documenting the trying times of Afghanistan and Soviet Union warfare.

McCurry’s image supplied the world with an exclusive view into the pain and hardship of the Afghan people, expressing the expansive reign of photojournalism as it opened visual intimacy to the masses. When McCurry initially snapped the photo of the shy schoolgirl, he didn’t realize that he had captured a timeless image into the elegance of photo communication. (source)

Rolling Stone’s 1994 tribute cover to Bob Marley fully expresses the magazine industry’s ability to continue lasting impressions for the masses. After Marley’s death in 1981, the media industry continued promotion for his music, elevating the reggae artist to legendary status. As Marley was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in ’94, the famous jammer was the central focus of Stone’s February issue, thus appealing to Marley fans across the nation.

The image captures the easy-going joy projected through Marley’s smooth rhythms while still retaining the natural element characteristic to Marley’s persona. While the photo seeks to entice his fans for media purpose, it still engages timeless photojournalistic quality in capturing the ideal Marley. (source 1; source 2)

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Excellent article. It really captures the power the photographs have had in the increasing sophistication of journalism.