Photo Journalism

Photojournalism is a unique part of photography, this is because this is all about capturing the moment; instead of taking pictures that are controlled by the photographer it is about "capturing reality". Even though the photopgraphs are through the photographers eyes and their point of view, it is still said that this type of photography captures a truth.


Henri Cartie - Bresson. - was described as a big game hunter, as his style of photography was unusual as he would set up a scene and then he would wait for something to happen; the decisive moment. "Into the space life will come". Henri's choice of camera was the Leica camera that was made in 1925, this was because other than being quite wealthy this camera allowed you to see around you while taking the picture because of the design and it was alot faster than normal cameras. Henri became famous for his style of photography, he took alot of photos of well known events and people which became quite known and he was usually refered to as the father of photojournalism. Bresson's style of photojournalism was effective because after he had set up the scenes, he then waited for something to fill his background. Even though this sometimes could've been a long process it was definitely worth it as you can see by Bressons stairway bike photographs, the structure of the picture and the layout with stairway look unusual and the by Bresson waiting you can see that it gives the picture more life.

Robert Capa found an unkown love for photgraphy after finding work in berlin; he wanted to be a writer but after finding work as a photographer he became interested in it. Robert Capas style of photojournalism was up close "If your photographs aren't good enough, you're not close enough." this style can be shown through Capa's photographs as you can see that most of them are in the action and not just long shots. This can be seen in Capa's war photograph "The Falling Soldier" 
While Capa was in the war taking photographs, he was also working as a photojournalist for Life magazine. Alot of his most famous pictures were taken in WWII, which include "The magnificent Eleven" these eleven pictures were the remaining photographs out of 106 that Capa had taken during a dangerous period in the war; the reason only these 11 pictures remained was because there was a mistake that was made at Life magazines Lab that had destroyed the rest. "The war correspondent has his stake - his life - in his own hands, and he can put it on this horse or that horse, or he can put it back in his pocket at the very last minute"


Tony Vaccaro's style of photograph was unique as he truly believed in capturing reality in his photographs, apart from being photojournalist he also took portraits where he would try to mix the two types of photography together. An example of is when Vaccaro took Picasso's portrait; he tricked him into thinking he had already taken the pictures so afterwards Picasso could relax and then Vaccaro took his picture when he wasn't ready for it. I think this was a very effective style as it can almost show how a person truly is by there photographs, it also gives the photographs more meaning and in a way more truth.