History Of Photographic Journalism

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History of Photographic Journalism


My name is Rebecca Docherty and I’m 20 years old. I am student at Leeds Metropolitan University, studying photographic journalism. I love photography and have been interested in it for around 5 years and got even more into the subject when I studied it in Sixth form. My dream job would for working for the National Geographic as one of their photographers. I would love to be able to travel the world and have that feeling of excitement of not knowing where my next job would be. I’m originally from a small town called Great Yarmouth which is in Norfolk and I’m also the eldest of four children. In my spare time I like to cook and go out with friends.


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What is a myth Timeline Surrealism Frozen image

• • • •

Propaganda Social Comment Once upon a time Journey


what is a myth The dictionary description of a myth is; ‘A traditional, typically ancient story dealing with supernatural beings, ancestors, or heroes that serves as a fundamental type in the worldview of a people, as by explaining aspects of the natural world or delineating the psychology, customs, or ideals of society: the myth of Eros and Psyche; a creation myth.’ There are many different types of myths that belong to all different types of cultures. Some myths have been around for hundreds of years. The word myth comes from the technical phrase mythology. These are different types of mythologies: • Celtic mythology • Egyptian mythology • Greek mythology • Japanese mythology • Mayan mythology • Mesopotamain mythology • Norse mythology • Roman mythology All of these mythologies have different myths within them. Myths are stories and teaching that have been pasted one from generation to generation. They can also be said to be answers to unanswerable questions for example Pandora’s box and why there is evil in the world. Although there is no scientific evidence to myths they still play a huge part in all different religions and cultures teachings. Over time the shaping of myths have been shaped into different versions, different things may have been added onto the story but still the same values and morals stay the same.

The myth of the Loch Ness Monster started in the seventh. The story is told by a man named Columba who caught sighting of this. The Story begins with a man swimming in the River Ness, then he was brutally attacked and killed but something described as a ‘water beast’. To Columba’s amazement and disbelief of this attack he sent one of his men in the River to bring forward the ‘water beast’. Columba the held the sign of the cross to the beast and ordered it to stop. Since this myth was told there have been few claimed sightings of this creature known as the ‘water beast’. This myth is now commonly known as the Loch Ness Monster and has become a huge part of Scottish identity. Nicknames have also been given, for example ‘Nessie’. More modern stories have been updated after the time the myth was originally told. Sighting of the last recorded accusation of seeing the beast was in 1933 but a married couple who said that they saw a large beast move across the lake, whilst sitting in their car. Another gentleman named Arthur Grant claimed that he nearly collided with the beast whilst riding a motorcycle; this allegation was also made in the year 1933.


Pandora’s Box The story of the Greek myth Pandora’s box. Pandora was the first woman on earth and was created by Hephaestus, who was ordered to make her by the Greek god Zeus. When Prometheus stole fire from heaven, Zeus took revenge on him by giving Pandora to Epimetheus, who is Prometheus’s brother. Once Pandora was presented to Epimetheus she was given a box and was under strict instructions to never open the box under any circumstances. As time pasted Pandora’s imagination began to wonder and curiosity came into her mind of what was in the box. Pandora opened the box and all types of evil spirits and evil things came out of the box. For example War, illnesses, Diseases, unhappiness and much more, but one thing lay inside the box which was something that wasn’t evil. It was a small but powerful spirit which was Hope also known as Elpis.


Photography Timeline This is the Daguerreotype camera made in 1839 and is now one of the most expensive cameras in the world.

This was the 1st ever branded camera released in 1900 and called the Brownie. This camera was on sale until the 1960’s and sold for $1 per camera.

This was the 1st ever Kodak film camera. Made in 1885 and invented by George Eastman. This box camera was very cheap and simple to run.

This was the 1st ever point and shoot camera, called the Jasupin and released in 1978.

This was the 1st 35mm film still camera. Made in 1914 this camera would now become the standard shape and model for all film camera and was a revolutionary step for the photography world.


This was the 1st ever digital camera produced in 1991 by Kodak. This camera was called the Nikon F-3 camera with a 1.3 megapixel sensor.

This was the world’s 1st ever digital camera made in 1981 and produced by Sony. The pictures where recorded onto a mini disk then viewed on a TV monitor or colour printer.

2000 In Japane Sharp’s J-SH04 introduced the world’s first camera phone.

2005 The canon EOS 5D, this is first consumer-priced full-frame digital SLR with a 24x36mm sensor


surrealism This is a photograph by the photographer Christopher Thomas, this particular picture is from his series in New York called ‘The city Sleeps’. This is a photograph of an amusement park. The colours of the picture are very dark and gloomy. This would also be from the fact that he used a large format camera to take his picture. I find it strange yet very interesting as to why he decided to photograph such a fun, colourful and joyful place in black and white. I suppose he has done this to open our minds and give us a different outlook on such a fun place. The picture looks as if the life has been taken out of it and this is all that remains. The park could be out of business and this is why he has done this. You can tell that the place is old because of the vintage 1970’s signs and also that the main focus in the picture is the rollercoaster and it is made from wood, which is very unusual to see in this century. Looking closely at the image you can see that it isn’t actually that big, I say this because the only thing that looks to be in the park is the roller-coaster and usually there are more attractions in an amusement park. So I think that some of the park has been knocked down, so that also adds to the idea that the park is shut down. You can also see this from the spear pieces of work frame scattered long the limp uneven fence around the cyclone roller-coaster. This park looks as if at one time it was a fun and thrilling place to go. The textures in the picture come from the wood, metal, glass and concrete that the park is made up from. The detailing of the picture is remarkable you can see everything right down the pattern that the wood structure makes to the cracks in the road. This would be due to the large format camera and also the long exposure Christopher would of used. The skis also add impact and drama, it also looks like a HRD photograph. I think that this picture represents reality in term on you can have everything going well, then next thing you know it’s gone and shut down. I think that the border around this photo also adds to the fact that this image was meant to look old and worn out. All together I think that this is a very interesting piece by Thomas and that the more you look at it the more you will discover in the photograph. I think that this piece links in well with the series ‘The city sleeps’ because it literally looks as if the park is sleeping.



frozen image

This was a photography taken myself. It was taken in Leeds city centre; I was walking though the city taking pictures as apart as our ice breaker for our course and this small woman caught my eye. She was standing behind the public toilets; she was very old, frail and looked very vulnerable. I wasn’t going to take a picture of her until I saw her pull out a big of seeds to feed the pigeons. The woman you could say looked ‘crazy ‘because it’s not every day that you find someone wanting to feed the pigeons. Even though the quality of the picture isn’t great because it was taken on an IPhone, but taking this into consideration I love this photo. The lighting in the picture goes extremely well with the mood its dark and quite depressing, which kind of reflects on the woman. The pigeons didn’t even seem scared of the woman which makes me think she most do this on a regular basis. The shadows in the picture from the woman’s face shows that woman’s wrinkles and old completion which could suggest that she could have had quite a hard and tiring life. I also like the shadow’s that the pigeons create on the floor. The fast motion shot has also been taken of the two pigeons about to fly away, I like the fact that both of the pigeon’s heads are both in focus but the wings are out of focus I think that these are both key factors of the photo that gives it that dramatic edge. I did upload this image to go it does have a HDR filter added to it. I felt that this made the picture much darker and add drama to the photograph. I also think that this type of photo goes well with the photographic journalism course that I am taking.


war propagander

War propaganda is an advertising technique used to help gather recites to joint army’s to fight for their country. Propaganda has been used in many countries especially in Germany, America and Britain in the Great World Wars. Americans and the British would often use the enemy as a key target on the posters to try and brain wash people to hate the enemy which at the time was Hitler. The posters where put up on every street corner, lamp post and shop to show how important and honorary it was to step forward and fight. The propaganda even got introduced to TV and during the World War, Walt Disney even aided to encourage people to fight for their country by adding some persuasive sketches to their TV show mocking the enemy to encourage younger people to fight.


social commntary

Dorthea Lange was a photographer whose work was all based around political issues in the news and media at the time she was documenting her photographers. This particular collection of images was taken in 1936 which is the time that the great depression was happening. The Great Depression was a period in time where there was no money in anything and everybody was struggling to live. All crops, wheat and vegetables where dying because there was a drought so no farms could make money to live and there was no food to eat. These images show a mother that looking hopeless, whilst holding her three children that look rather dirty and deprived. These narrative images tell us the viewers that these times must have been extremely difficult for families to deal with. You can tell this just by looking at the pain in the mother’s eyes and how the children are clinging on to their mother in hope that she can feed them. I think the aim of this picture was for Lange to document history and how sad and depressing this period in time was.


Once upon a Time


This is a picture taken by the photographer Sally Mann. Documentary and Tabeau photography is the type of photography she mainly focuses on. All of the pictures from this particular series ‘immediate family’ are all of her children and taken at her family home. Most of Sally’s images caused a lot of upset in the public eye due to the very explicit and striking images of her children. She was accused of producing ‘child pornography’ in the late 1980‘s that made people very sceptible of her work. These images are just stories from her children’s childhood. This particular image was taken in the families garden, her children where simply playing with toys and using the family car as a prop for their games. Sally tried to capture them ‘naturally’ hence why the children are naked. You could tell hundreds of stories from this image and perceive it to be wrong in many ways, so I can understand why some people would have an issue with some of the images from her work.



The journey of a photograph can be either physical or a metaphorical journey. It can also be either be a social message or a personal message. Personal messages can be the journey made thought out your life shown though a series of images in a slideshow presentation format or images stitched together. An example of this could be a family’s photo album and looking at the journey of say a child’s life.

Time lapse photography shows a physical journey of someone or something. This types of photography is usually done by a using a high speed camera capturing each stage of the journey, then the images are stitched together and the end result is something like the examples above.


The Wizard of Oz is a metaphorical journey that represents the American economic politics in the early 1890’s. Written by L. Frank Baum and released in 1939, The Wizard of Oz is one of the most successful and famous fantasy novels ever written. The story about this magical land is very creative and heart-warming, when in reality the actual true meaning of the story is a very hard, depressing and miserable period in American history. This period was called the ‘Great Depression’ The opposite page is a flow diagram of the hidden messages behind the fantasy land. The pictures are cinematography from the film and also film stills to explain the journey from Kansas to Oz.


Released in 1939 in parrell of 1890’s American Economic politics Based in Kansas – Kansas is directly in the middle of America

The symbolisms

Pain stripped house, dead dry land and set in black and white represent America in the 1890’s Dorothy represents a role model for the American people Good witch of the West represents the voters of west America, trying to fight for justice Tornado represents the crashing of the American stock market and how the bankruptcy and Great Depression is making people ‘Dizzy’

Munchkins represent the mid-western farmers

Dorothy killing the wicked witch of the East represents the of crashing of the East American banks

The red slippers where in actual fact meant to be silver but Hollywood changed them to red for glam effectiveness. The ‘silver’ shoes are there to represent the actual unknown value of silver, because Americans had a lot of silver but didn’t know it has actual value.


of the Wizard of Oz Land of Oz represents America because of its diverse landscape and huge population Emerald city represents Washington DC the city where all the questions will be answered

The scarecrow with no brain represented the farmers who knew nothing else other than farming and didn’t know what to do when the drought stuck

Wicked witch of the West represents the plans and the destruction of nature. This being the drought that forced farmers out of business .Water being thrown over the wicked witch of the west represents rain water that ended the drought

The tin man with no heart represented the unemployed factory workers who would work long hard hours. The representation of the tin man not being able to move is linked to the factories being shut down. Then once Dorothy oils the tin man making him move this represents the factories reopening again.

The lion with no courage represents the democratic president at the time of the ‘Great Depression’ William Jennings Bryan. He was best known for his roaring words which had no power or bite. Yet he fort for farmers and the freedom of people from industrialists

The oil represents money being put back into factories


I have very much enjoyed gathering the information this project. I feel that this has been quite a time consuming task due to gathering pieces of information and researching. I think that this has been a real eye opener to how disciplined I have to make myself to get my work done and to a high standard. My favourite part of this assignment was going to the Bradford media museum it was by far the best museum I had ever been to and I really enjoyed myself.


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