A Few Thoughts About Photography.........
The Rebirth of Photojournalism
23/06/2018
There has been much written over the past several years about the demise of photojournalism and the significant decrease in the quality of images used in much of the world's print media. All too often now picture editors will use images already online, regardless of their quality and the days of sending a photographer off to take images have largely gone. If you do need a photographer, you can just use the internet to find one who is already at the required location. And of course, there are lots of wannabe photographers out there willing to work for very little.
Now, of course, we are probably seeing the demise of print media itself as more & more people are getting their news online. Yet could this be an opportunity for a rebirth in photojournalism? In the days of print not all stories carried images and in fact, some newsprint did not use images at all. It is all very different of course online with every story now using images of some form and those images are of course important in attracting the reader's eye. One would, therefore, expect an increase in demand for quality images.
At present, there is not much to suggest this is happening. The trend seems to be towards the use of stock images that simply illustrate the story rather than add to it. Generic stock photos that illustrate the words rather than the story. All too often stories are illustrated with low quality social media images captured on smartphones, probably obtained without payment because the person who took the image is either not aware of their value or probably more interested in the vanity value of their image.
I also believe that the dumbing down of photography, largely due to social media and the widespread use of smartphones, what I call I-phoneography, has a significant part to play. We are simply all too ready to accept low-quality images as being the norm, all too often being wowed by boring, mediocre and average images simply because they are different from the mass of imagery we see every day. Being different does not make it a good photograph.
Yes, a demand for images to illustrate online news may have the potential to drive up image quality, but I for one will not be holding my breath.
Now, of course, we are probably seeing the demise of print media itself as more & more people are getting their news online. Yet could this be an opportunity for a rebirth in photojournalism? In the days of print not all stories carried images and in fact, some newsprint did not use images at all. It is all very different of course online with every story now using images of some form and those images are of course important in attracting the reader's eye. One would, therefore, expect an increase in demand for quality images.
At present, there is not much to suggest this is happening. The trend seems to be towards the use of stock images that simply illustrate the story rather than add to it. Generic stock photos that illustrate the words rather than the story. All too often stories are illustrated with low quality social media images captured on smartphones, probably obtained without payment because the person who took the image is either not aware of their value or probably more interested in the vanity value of their image.
I also believe that the dumbing down of photography, largely due to social media and the widespread use of smartphones, what I call I-phoneography, has a significant part to play. We are simply all too ready to accept low-quality images as being the norm, all too often being wowed by boring, mediocre and average images simply because they are different from the mass of imagery we see every day. Being different does not make it a good photograph.
Yes, a demand for images to illustrate online news may have the potential to drive up image quality, but I for one will not be holding my breath.