(Second Draft) PURPOSES and STYLES of PHOTOJOURNALISM

Target Audience

This assignment aims to introduce photography students who are contemplating a career as photojournalist to the basic processes and commissions undertaken by two different types of photojournalists, a general news photographer working under permanent contract with the national broadsheet newspaper, The Daily Telegraph, and a freelance photojournalist to highlight the most important commercial and ethical factors that influence the way they work.

 

Introduction

It wasn’t until the evolution of the lighter 35mm cameras of the 1920s that a ‘Golden Age’ of photojournalism occurred. Before that an image was only there to enhance the text, not lead the story.

The demand of the photo-essay, Vu and Picture Post, led to a greater need for images of stories published in the news and resulted in photojournalism blossoming. Better inks and papers meant a full-page image spread was possible, allowing images to tell the story.

 

A General News Photographer under contract with The Daily Telegraph 

 

Types of Commission

The conditions a photojournalist may work under with a permanent contract with a broadsheet newspaper could well be more demanding than those of a freelance photojournalist. Matthew is a full-time employee photographer working for The Telegraph. He might work longer hours and must be ‘ready to go’ when news stories break. Tight deadlines, multiple projects and unusual working conditions are the states that may greet him at any time. I will highlight some factors that influence the way he works.

The Telegraph is a relatively trusted and respected media brand, committed to providing journalism of the highest quality and integrity. The ability to provide high quality journalism depends to some degree on commercial success and its principles outline standards of good practice which are to be observed and maintained by all employees including Matthew as a photojournalist. The use of social media to promote a company’s product or services must be clearly marked as commercial content and must comply with the CAP Code and TMG protocols.

 

Editorial Processes

“Behind every great photo story is a photographer—and their editor”

“One plus one equals so much more than two”, says marine wildlife and underwater photojournalist contributing to National Geographic Magazine since 1998, Brian Skerry.

Photo editors are much more than photo editors when it comes to working on stories for magazines and for the photographers. There is an involved partnership between Matthew and his editor. An editor is pushed to refine stories to make them better. They need to honour an agreed Code of Practice in a way which not only interprets the rights of the individual, but also the fundamental right to freedom of expression.

 

Code of Practice and Legislation

Accuracy: The editors’ Code of Practice administered by the Independent Press Standards Organisation (IPSO) stipulates that the press must take care not to publish inaccurate, misleading or distorted information. When reasonably called for an inaccuracies, it needs to be corrected, and where appropriate an apology published.

Privacy: This is an issue that rarely affects commercial photography, but it is important in the world of editorial photography. A reasonable expectation of privacy needs to be met. In considering an individual’s reasonable expectation of privacy, account will be taken of the complainant’s own public disclosures of information and the extent to which the material complained about is already in the public domain or will become so. With regard to children, they must not be approached or photographed at school without permission of the school authorities.

Discrimination: The press must avoid prejudicial or pejorative reference to an individual’s race, colour, religion, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation or to any physical or mental illness or disability.

 

Commercial Consideration

It is entirely appropriate, and indeed essential, that editorial staff understand and contribute to the commercial success of the Telegraph. However, editorial independence must always be maintained. Also, there should be a clear distinction between editorial and commercial activities. Commercial staff should not influence editorial’s story judgments in connection with any advertiser’s or potential advertiser’s interest. The final decision on all editorial content is the Editor’s. Any commercially paid content beyond traditional advertisements must be clearly and appropriately marked as per protocols.

 

 

A Freelance Photojournalist

 

Types of Commission

For Sara as a successful freelance photojournalist there are several fields of interest including sports, weddings, fashion, and nature and war/conflict photojournalism. To make it in the world of freelance photojournalism, she may want to choose a niche that best suits her shooting abilities which is still in demand. Because of the risks involved, there are far fewer freelance war photojournalists in the world than sports freelance photojournalists. Therefore, Sara is a multi-faceted photographer and doesn’t mind working in dangerous environments. She contacts photo editors of the local weeklies or small daily newspapers to market herself. To succeed in the world of freelance photojournalism Sara needs to be persistent. Getting a ‘foot in the door’ is essential in freelance photojournalism. It can be harder for Sara as a freelance photographer to stay motivated with problems like waiting months to get paid, and editors disappearing when she attempt to check in.

 

Ethical Consideration

“When I do my work and I am exposed to the suffering of others – their loss or, at times their death – I feel I am serving as a witness; it is my role and responsibility to create a record for our collective memory. Part of this, I believe, has to do with notions of accountability. Perhaps it is only in their moment of suffering that these people will be noticed, and noticing erases our excuse of saying one day that we did not know.” Paolo Pellegrin.

An important aspect of photojournalism is being faced with different human situations. The ethical question of how much a photojournalist should intervene with a situation, when they start putting their camera down and helping or when they don’t. When they stop being a photographer and when they continue being a photographer.

According to an article from the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Journalism Ethics for the Global Citizen website, there are three major ethical concerns for photojournalists: manipulation of digital images, intrusion into policy and graphic or shocking images.

Most photojournalists are innately curious people and they have an excuse for their curiosity. Sara met a couple Shane and Maggie at a fair and maintained contact with them. The man had been released from prison and Sara wanted to make a story of an ex-prisoner’s life back in society. She didn’t expect that Shane would be aggressive towards Maggie and her two children from her previous husband. One day he became angry and as we can see in the photos starts to fight with his wife in front of the kids. In this case the photographer had two choices of putting her camera away and trying to stop the conflict and keeping the kids away from the situation or continuing taking photos as her job is to document such events. Sara decided to leave her emotions behind and focus on photo shooting and it resulted in having some documents the police could use after the event.

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Commercial Consideration

Sara as a freelance photographer with a wealth of experience could regularly be booked in an event or conference and portrait photography as a corporate & commercial photographer. She has photographed for global organisations and company websites and loves working with charities and youth development organisations. She takes photos of a vide range of themes such as merchandise, models, buildings and so examples which are going to be used for promotional purposes in advertisements and catalogs and so on. Her photos of this kind are mostly used entirely in the retail sectors. She needs to use latest tools and technology and remains up do date on what corporations are using in their presentations and sales campaigns to remain competitive. This includes having a good zoom lens and a fast, wide-angle lens necessary for a broad array of photo shoots which give her better creative control. need to keep up do date on what corporations are using in their presentations and sales campaigns to remain competitive. Unlike landscape and other forms of photography, commercial and advertising photography requires nearly perfect images achieved with the touch-up features in photographic editing software. Commercial and advertising photographic images must enlarge effectively to a poster or billboard size for promotional purposes.

Editorial Processes

When Sara gets to a story either it’s posed to her by a publisher who’s asked her to tell a story from a point of view or just she has come across to a subject to show a story out of it, she has got to editorial. In most cases, it’s a documentary in its nature meaning she is following a subject, and it can be challenging in a way that she needs to figure it out how to make it. For her to market herself it’s literally essential to achieve to the editorial process of her chosen subject. She may spend a year or more to photograph a group of war soldiers or surfers or any other subject which has something to tell about.

 

Codes of Practice and Legislation

Commissioning a photo shoot is usually a very creative and fulfilling process, but there is a fair few legal obligations and industry codes of practice that it’s important to be aware of.

Shooting People: Generally the act of taking pictures of people is not illegal, but, if the images are to be reproduced, especially for commercial purposes, Sara needs to be aware of additional legal issues. The Human Rights Act protects people with regard to photography, for example if they are portrayed in a false light or in a demeaning light that is untrue. For example, when Sara shoots professional models, she confirms the exact usage in writing with the agency before the shoot, and keeps these details on file.

Regarding children, aside from getting a model release form signed by the parents, according to U.K law, a child is of school age until the last Friday in June of the academic year in which they turn sixteen. To protect children’s welfare, a performance licence is required in the U.K when a child is required to work on a shoot as a model. Depending on the age of the child, hours of work need to be restricted and kept between certain hours of the day. Most councils insist that a qualified first aider is present on shoots involving children.

Shooting in a Public Place: If the shoot might cause an obstruction to the public, a permit needs to be obtained from the local council. Most commercial shoots do cause an obstruction it has to be said, say by a tripod or a crew for example. A location permit is different to a location or property release, the former allows Sara to shoot in a place, the latter allows her to use the images. There are some locations that are complete no-go areas. It is a criminal offence to photograph anyone in a court of law for example. Also sensitive government buildings, like military bases and nuclear facilities, can prohibit photography if it is deemed a threat to national security.

Shooting Things: Particularly for the commercial market, permission might need to be sought from the copyright owner when photographing an object that might be copyright protected. Failure to do so might result in copyright infringement. Objects like paintings, sculpture, illustrations, and of course photography.

Section 52 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 (“CDPA”) contains an exception which limits copyright protection for artistic works which have been industrially manufactured. This applies, for example, to photographs of much designer furniture, jewellery and other items and limits copyright protection to 25 years from when the item was first marketed, instead of the normal 70 years after the lifetime of the artist. Section 52 has now been repealed, but this will not take effect until 6 April 2020.

I hope you will find my article both helpful and informative.

 

Evaluation:

By the start of photojournalism course with Valentina, I had no idea of the differences between photography and photojournalism. During the course, we covered good materials of different aspects related to definition and concept of photojournalism in our sessions and it helped me to have good references for writing my article. I tried to have a thorough look at both freelance and contracted photographer regarding their conditions to do the job. After my first draft, I was given a good feedback by Valentina. She asked me to add some more information to make it more clear to the target audience. I found her feedback very helpful and it made me myself to learn more about photojournalist’s challenges and situations. Although I’m not going to take photography as my major field of interest or occupation, for me as I’m going to go through film production and post-production, I believe the most important aspect of photography, position, and framing will be of fundamental knowledge to know.

 

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