Photojournalists across the world are accountable for the abundance of powerful images we see in the news that inspire people to make a difference every day. As the years go by, more and more people reach the point in their life where they must choose their life-lasting career. Thousands of jobs are available, ranging anywhere from business executive to world-famous musician, and photojournalism is one of the least recognized. I am writing to shed light on this often forgotten but very valuable career. We see pictures taken by photojournalists nearly every day. Their images are attached to news articles, online recipes, textbooks, magazines and advertisements.
Out of the ten types of journalists, photojournalists produce what is possibly the most viewed media out there. Take the phrase “a picture is worth a thousand words,” while a sports journalist or newspaper reporter can write about a topic, the article would be incomplete without a moving image to go with it. That is where a photojournalist comes in. Though they are not always immediately discernible, photographers are everywhere.
If you look hard enough, you will find them at every football game, every state fair, and most likely every competition or party that is open to the public. Anything and everything is newsworthy, and it is a photojournalist’s job to capture the story. When asked about the importance of his career, Mark Wallheiser quoted that “photojournalism is a career that signifies freedom.”
When asked to further explain what he meant, he added that “there is more to the job than simply taking a picture of something. You could take a thousand photos and only a handful of them will send the message you’re trying to capture for the audience, and once that photo is out there, the world can see it and get a good look at what you’re trying to prove.”
What is the one thing you see next to nearly every headline when scrolling through the news app on your cell phone? A picture. Photojournalism takes photography to a higher level. Generally, online news articles contain a few images of whatever the article discusses. Stories in newspapers and magazines are not very different. When people see a picture, it connects with them in a different way than words. Words are just symbols strung together to form a sentence, and in news writing especially, these words are meant to contain no signs of emotion or opinion. However, the whole purpose of a picture is to send a message. You want people to see what is going on, but you leave the majority of the story for them to figure out on their own.
By going out there and photographing the world around them, photojournalists are making a difference. Not only do their images reach eyes across the globe, but they spread their unique messages to millions, possibly even billions, of people. For example, the man I interviewed- Mark Wallheiser- was nominated for a Pulitzer prize because of the moving images he took surrounding the crack cocaine crisis in Tallahassee, Florida during the 1980s. A simple photo, taken at the right moment, can change someone’s entire point of view on a topic, and maybe even cause them to reach out and make a difference.
