Chapter Nine

What Motivates Photojournalists
Photojournalist #1:

Image of photojournalist

Photo By: Mikko Lagerstedt

Image taken by photojournalist

Photo By: Mikko Lagerstedt

Mikko Lagerstedt has a very interesting article, How to Keep Yourself Motivated and Take Better Photos?,  in this article I learned that focus, planning, and positivity is a big deal in photojournalism. As Mikko mentions, The thing that I have found out to be one of the keys to my success and for the other photographers I spend time with is perseverance. For those who don't know what perseverance means, on the Merriam-Webster website it states, Perseverance is a continued effort to do or achieve something despite difficulties, failure, or opposition. By knowing the definition, it is understandable that there is both failure and difficulties within photojournalism. Not everything comes easy. In the article, The Gordon Parks Foundation, it states allowing him to break the color line in professional photography while creating remarkably expressive images that consistently explored the social and economic impact of racism. As a photojournalist you have to be motivated to do strive and become who you want to be in life and make yourself known.

Photojournalist #2:

Image of photojournalist

Photo By: Alex Webb

Image taken by photojournalist

Photo By: Alex Webb

Every photojournalist has a different story behind what motivates them. As I was reading the article, 35 Magnum Photographers Give Their Advice to Aspiring Photographers, I learned a little of what motivates Alex Webb and the advice he gives to others. Alex Webb mentions, Photograph because you love doing it, because you absolutely have to do it, because the chief reward is going to be the process of doing it. Other rewards — recognition, financial remuneration — come to so few and are so fleeting. What I take from what Webb says, it's that what should be motivating you is the fact that you love doing it not because of the amount of money you can earn from it. As a photographer, or photojournalists you should love to take images, edit, go out to search for something different, something that may be in your interest. In reality money is never guaranteed. A photojournalist should focus on their work and be happy with their end results in order to show it to the world. And they should be happy with the audience and remember that it all takes time, the money or fame comes afterwards but it shouldn't be the main focus. They have to work hard and focus on what motivates them to get to that level. On the article, Ed Kashi describing "Advocacy Journalism" it is stated that he aims for his photography to, "inform viewers but also inspire them to find activist solutions to social problems" This shows that the motivation for photojournalist should not come from money or recognition, it should come from wanting to create change in the social work. As Alex Webb says, Take photography on as a passion, not a career.

Photojournalist #3:

Image of photojournalist

Photo By: Mattias Leppaniemi

Image taken by photojournalist

Photo By: Eric Kim

Not every photojournalist cares about capturing the perfect images. Eric Kim has a blog in which he captures many different images. When I say, "they don't care about perfect images" it's because I read a blog from Eric Kim in which it's titled, Have the Courage to Share Bad Photos. I found this blog very interesting because that's not something you see a lot. In this blog Eric shares many random pictures that are really different and not perfect. Eric Kim is a photographer that has a super informative blog about street photography and he has been writing about the subject for years. I learned that what motivates Eric to capture images is anything he feels like photographing at the moment. Eric mentions, I feel that true liberation and freedom in photography is to be free of any sort of labels or genres. You are a unique, idiosyncratic, and one-of-a-kind human being. The way you see the world is unlike anything else. As a photojournalists you are not obligated to capture certain images, you capture images that have meaningful messages to you and you are able to share it if you feel like it. On the video Lewis Hine- A Progessive Reformer it states, photographs would encourage people to exert the force to right wrongs." I completely agree with Lewis opinion, but you an also capture images of what truly means something to you, or what interests you. 

Photo By: Nahiomy Martinez

Here is a map of what motivates me. Having to compare what motivates me and what motivates photojournalists has a few differences. Many photojournalists are motivated in different ways depending on who the person is, to some it's money, peace, fear, or passion and drive in order to show the world the clarity in this world with images and their stories. In similarities all of the photojournalist I chose want to inspire and motivate others through photographs. What motivates me? In the image above, I drew that what motivated me is: family, love, friendships, my happiness, money, enjoyment, etc.. One of my main motivator in life is my mother, she pushes me to keep going and to not give up. My mother is someone I look up to, she always supports me and is always there to help and guide me. I am very grateful and thankful for that. Also, I mentioned failure as something that motivates me. What I mean by that is that, failure motivates me in a way that if I fail at doing something, I do not give up. When facing with certain situation, it makes me go harder and push myself even more.

Chapter Eight

Photojournalism and Bias

Photo By: Ed Clark

Year Created: 1945

Principle #1: Keep It Simple

This image is cluttered. There are a couple other people in this image in which they all have different facial expressions. The trees in the back and the big white poles were making it seem a bit cluttered. 

Principle #2: Is the image black & white or color?
This image is black and white. The image was taken at a time were color images were not as easy to get unless you had the right amount of money. The impact of this image was to be captured when there were strong feelings being seen in order to catch people attention or to emotionally connect to others.
Principle #3: Background compliments or detracts from composition
In my opinion, for this image there is a little of both. In this image, there is a female to the bottom right of this image that shows the same feeling as the officer in the image. But on the other hand, there are other people in the background of this image that compete for attention. In the image, there are multiple females that are looking at the main object (the officer) , with serious faces as if they are not feeling the same type of hurt as he is or they are upset. It brings a confusion to the image. The background is out out focus, they are slightly blurred out. 

"Going Home" Image

This image shows a strong attention to the males feelings. This image is showing, tears streaming down the cheeks of a Chief Petty Officer as the President Franklin D. Roosevelt's flag-draped funeral train leaves Warm Springs, Ga. In this image, I see an officer feeling completely upset. He seems to not be holding in the pain. I feel like this image was captured to show the emotional feelings of this officer towards the President, as if they might have had a close relationship. It's very hard to handle a loss of someone you know and everyone griefs differently. As I was writing this, I came across what was mentioned in the article, to symbolize not merely a nation’s grief, but black America’s acknowledgement of Roosevelt’s efforts on behalf of civil rights. Asking myself, what does this image mean to me? Well this image shows that you can gain emotional feelings knowing that the world might change to that person because of having to deal with another president or that the nation had lost such a beautiful and understanding soul. That is what the image is shows personally to me but everyone has their own meaning to images and connections.

Image A Truth

Photo By: Carla Kogelman

Year Created: 2014

Principle #1: Obvious main subject

The main object of this image is this young girl calmly looking at the bird. The main object is not crowding the edges. If the impact of the image and certain object of this image were left out, the image wouldn't be as interesting. If the photographer had blurred out the young girl and only took a picture of the bird, it wouldn't be as interesting or as adorable as the picture was taken at first.

Principle #2: In or out of focus

This image is in focus. I say this because the background is all blurred out and the soft focus is mainly on the bird and young girl. This helps create the overall feeling because by looking a the image you can picture yourself being the girl looking at the bird with so much interest or also you could probably see yourself telling the girl "hey hey, hold on let me take a picture" and the young girl trying to stay completely still.

Principle #3: What feelings does the image create?

The calm facial expression of this young girl created the interesting feeling to this image. The image captured my attention because it reminded me of a time when I went to a butterfly museum, the way the butterflies would sit on my shoulder and I would have the same the interesting look, looking at the butterflies.

In his image, there is a young girl calmly looking at this bird sitting on her chest. While reading the article, What are the four Ways of Knowing (WOKs)?, I noticed the way I figured and knew this image was real was by using my sense perceptions; You know certain things because you can see and perceive them yourself. Empiricists consider sense perception so important that they will say that all knowledge comes from the senses. The image was more so captured in the "moment". What do I mean? For example, no matter what way this image could have been taken, it would still capture the same expression and the same truth to the image. As professor Nordell mentions in the Photojournalism and Bias Video - Part 2, "The decisive moment a photojournalist striving to capture the peak action". In my opinion, I love to look at images that are so natural were you don't have to do too much to capture a great moment. As it is mentioned in the Yellow Journalism article, "Some of the Journal's most notable exclusives came close to home.

Image B Not Truth

Photo By: Vogue Korea

Year Created: 2014
Principle #1: Depth of field
In my opinion, the right amount of area was not in focus. This is because there's a male in this image were there is also a background that seems to be water but isn't. This image uses the shallow of water. This directs my attention because you question yourself for a second. This picture looks so perfect to be an image that is intended to look like it is under water.
Principle #2: Contrast Appropriate
This image has a little of both very bright and dark areas. The overall images is very bright, it allows it to sort of have a shadow. On the other hand, it's not as bright, it has dark areas. When it comes to his eyes, the light is dark, nothing is brightening the eyes.
Principle #3: Quality of Light
I would say the light is engaging. The direction of the light impacts the image. This is shows that the point of the image was to make it believe that he was underwater and with the right amount of light this came out perfect. The bright light reflecting the water made it all seem very engaging.

For Image B, I decided to include two images to further show the "scene" behind the image, to show actual the truth. The image taken of this male is made believe he is under water. As it is mentions in the Vantage article, Just because a photo looks like photojournalism, doesn’t mean it’s Photojournalism. At least that's what it seems like they are trying to show. In the video, Photojournalism and Bias - Part 2, Professor Nordell mentions, "Their goal is opening doors, opening minds that is open doors for the photographs and ideas of you point of photographers from developing nations while at the same time opening the minds of individuals from other nations to see the world in a different way" This might be the goal of the Vogue Korea magazine. To show different ideas and make the image more interesting for everyone to look at. To have the face of a different person that comes from a different culture on a magazine. For this image, this male must have agreed to taking the picture as long as they made him look very well presented and have an interesting background that everyone will be interesting in. And I feel like this is what photojournalists do, to try and capture the perfect image. As professor Nordell mentions in Photojournalism and Bias - Part 1 video, "The rule that I wouldn't want to photograph somebody in a way that I myself would not want to be photographed so true can change your outlook your biases can change over time". As I was reading the article, What are the four Ways of Knowing (WOKs)?, When I took a quick glance at this image at first, I noticed this image was not the truth by using my logic, "You know certain things because you can apply logics and reasoning. Rationalist consider reason and logics so important, that they say that all sources of our knowledge comes from our ability to use reasoning.

Photo By: Vogue Korea

Chapter Seven

The Ethics of Photojournalism

Photo By: Nahiomy Martinez

In the image above, is what I drew to be my personal ethics. The six principles into reaching my personal ethics/values, they are; Truth, Honestly, Caring, Companionship, and lastly, Self Worth (me). Within each of the main principles there are two words describing how I will reach my ethics. To further explain, in order to receive and give "TRUTH" I will focus on my leadership and guidance. With "HONESTY" I will focus in trust and faithfulness, "CARING" will focus on kindness and empathy, "COMPANIONSHIP" will focus on my appearance and my knowledge, and lastly, Me, "SELF WORTH" will focus on my own personal trust and fairness. In my opinion, these all focus on my personal ethics in all for example, it covers my business ethics, my ethics for family, etc... The words on the petals will strive me to move towards my ethics.

Photo By: Charles Porter

In the image above, I choose this picture because it's showing professional ethics. The definition of Professional Ethics is, Professional ethics are principles that govern the behaviour of a person or group in a business environment. Like values, professional ethics provide rules on how a person should act towards other people and institutions in such an environment. This firefighter is showing respect and accountability. It's a firefighters job to rescue, and respond to fires and accidents.  Why do I believe this? Well, in the article 'I struggled a long time': Oklahoma City firefighter in iconic photo retires', Pawlowski states, The firefighter who tenderly cradled a baby girl killed in the Oklahoma City bombing is ending his tour of duty. The male firefighter does not show his own sad personal emotions towards holding a dead baby. For example, to understand what I am trying to say, there are many people who don't know how to act professional in tragic situations. Yes, this of course hurts and is very tragic but he is showing respect by still cradling a child and not just holding it like a toy. He walks out and holds the child and still looks at it with respect. With situations like this, it affects peoples life. In the article, Pawlowski states, It took counseling for post-traumatic stress disorder and years to process the events, but Fields says he’s finally in a good place.


Now, we can talk about ethics that are being broken. For example, HONESTY. Many photographers are editing their images were it changes the real meaning behind certain images. In the article, Documenting Tragedy: The Ethics of Photojournalism, Folkenflik the media correspondent NPR talks about an image that was taken, "The New York Post published this chilling image on its cover. The photo shows a man in the path of an oncoming train with the headline: "Doomed: Pushed on the Subway Track, This Man is About to Die." The entire horrifying episode has sparked a conversation about how we capture and share images of tragedy. In the conversation Folkenflik states, The person identified by police as Davis pushed the man, and he tumbled into, you know, the tracks themselves. He, as the photograph showed that you described, is literally trying to get himself back up onto the platform and cannot do it. And the train strikes and kills him. Onlookers pull him back up afterward. Could they have done more and also whether the photographer himself should have done more rather than trying to take that picture. This shows a breaking in the trust and honesty ethics. For a photographer to not be trustworthy and capture an image instead of helping a person is very un-honest. You can't trust a person like this. They would rather watch a person get hurt instead of helping. It does not matter if you can't make it, at least you know they tried. But for a person not to try and help someone out, it's a photographer I will not trust. This can change a story because say if the photographer was to lie about the situation in the image, it will spread different rumors to what happened in the image.

Photo By: Nathan Weber

Once I saw this image, I was so heartbroken. In my opinion, these are photographers who are not professional at all.  They don't have fairness and respect. For someone to see a young girl laying on the floor, the least they can do is call for an ambulance, look for help, try to get this young girl up from the floor. Instead, these photographers are taking images of the girl and looking at her like she's a piece of artwork. In the article, Is This Photo Ethical?, you should click the link and take a look at all the different images. At the end of the article, you can see two images. These two images are both different. For the images that were captured to be different shows that you cannot trust all photographers.