Photojournalism as Art?

"There has been a number of different takes on this: 1) the two are separate things, an example of which is when Capa counselled Bresson to leave his didding with surrealism behind and take up photojournalism; 2) the two are intertwined, as instanced by Dorothea Lange's statement: 'There is no real warfare between the artists and the documentry photographer. He has to be both." 3) or the rather more subtle if not coy position taken by Salgado, which is simultaneously separates and unifies the two: 'I can be an artist a posteriori, not a priori" (Unknown, 2006, Light Stalkers)

After having a discussion with Les about how my work is not perceived as photojournalism, as they are classed as good looking photographs and do not have enough information in them, I thought back to when I was taking the photographs with the journalist who is writing the feature. I thought that because of the feature, that my photographs would be self explanatory. I never thought that a passerby might just look at the photographs and not think twice about what they represent.

The two photographs that I captured before were the only two that Les commented saying they were typical photojournalism. In the top image, we can clearly see that the person who is drawing must be an illustrator, and we can see that his work is representing someone in space. We can then read on in the article and find out that Paul Hallows studied physics at University before becoming an artist and his passion falls within his art. In the second image, we can see that Andrew Brooks is working on his iMac on a photograph of his. We can see that the iMac represent an artists, as artists typically use Apple products, and the photographs and canvases in the background represent his artist background.

I then looked into this photograph that was taken by Eddie Adams in 1968 in Saigon during the war. In this photograph, we can clearly see that a person is being shot by someone who looks to be of the same ethnicity. At a first glance, it looks like this person is being executed for no other reason than that he has done something wrong, however, when you look deeper into the image and see the person with the gun is of the same ethnicity, we start to ask is this a fair trial? Is this person being shot for no reason, or just because he has been accused of something? I like to think that although my photographs do not follow the typical line of photojournalism, they all contain a hidden meaning like this one, and if you read the feature alongside the images, then you gain a clearer understanding of what is within the image.

"Photojournalism doesn't appreciate questions... Photojournalism suffers from the narrows, and denying the art of photojournalism helps narrow it. Photojournalism will get stronger through expansion of concepts, not contraction. Photojournalism has gotten so narrow that anyone with a digital camera can do it... photojournalists haven't concentrated on creating an art that goes beyond what the digital camera can do" (Tom Hubbard, 2005, Digital Journalist)

In the article I read about, Tom Hubbard challenged the views of Peter Howe in whether photojournalism could be classed as art. I found the article interesting, as he said that what was once considered as being war photography is not being shown on gallery walls, but back when they were being produced, they were used as news images and not classed as artistic in any way, shape or form. After looking at references, I have decided that after Christmas I am going to re-shoot my journalism so it is suitable for an art gallery, I plan to collaborate with 3 more artists so I have a total of 5 artists and take more photographs of artists within their work spaces inside Islington Mill. I have emailed Jamie who is the press and marketing manager, and she is hopefully going to put me in contact with some more artists so I can put together a well informed, interesting and engaging series of images suitable for both gallery space and newspaper print. 

References: Unknown. (2006). Photojournalism as Art?. Available: http://www.lightstalkers.org/posts/photojournalism-as-art. Last accessed 12/12/2013.
Hubbard, T. (2005). Is it Art? A Response to Peter Howe by Tom Hubbard. Available: http://digitaljournalist.org/issue0506/hubbard.html. Last accessed 12/12/2013.