Photographs provoke a variety of emotions in human beings. Although, there are many technicalities such as Quality of Light, Rule of thirds, and Contrast, there are instances where people ignore all these technicalities and concentrate solely on the content. The reason is simple – the content is strong and evokes a constant emotion. Let us consider the photo taken by Professor Nordell in South Korea. The main character in the image was out of focus. The publication would have been unlikely if one only looked at the technicality of the photograph to rate its quality. However, the content of the photograph powerfully showed the brutality of war and the values of humanity. It was strong enough to cause an impact on the editor’s emotional perceptions of the content.
Alex Webb said in his interview, “My understanding – of course, I’m not a philosopher or a scientist – of an aspect of Goethe’s theory of color is that he felt that color came out of tension between light and dark.” Although most of the photojournalistic history revolves around black and white photographs, we cannot deny the fact that color plays a significant role in photography. For instance, there is a colorful photograph taken by Alex Webb in 1979 with a few Mexicans arrested while trying to cross the border into the United States. We could not appreciate this picture if the yellow color of the mustard plants did not add depth and contrast to the darker colors in the image. Similarly, the scattered blue among the clouds that are a mix of wispy white to darker, stormy colors also added significance to the beautiful sky. In essence, these colors added value to the photo, which a black and white photograph could not achieve.
I believe we should measure the balance between content and form. As said in the article-A Snap History of Photojournalism, Photojournalists occupy two roles. One who creates a composition and manipulates the light, angles, and position of his or her subject and the other who creates a composition and manipulates the light, angles, and position of his or her subject. The photograph of the Coal Mining in Dhanbad, Bihar, India was taken by Salgado in 1989 and illustrates a combination between these two aspects of photojournalism. I think while accessing a photograph we should consider the content as well as the technicality involved along with the emotional reaction caused by the photograph.
I have a two-year-old daughter who is always jumping and playing around. I am always in search of the perfect moment to take her photo because within a fraction of a second the decisive moment vanishes; I could never regenerate that moment. As said by Henri Cartier-Bresson in the video-The decisive moment, Life is very fluid and some pictures disappear and I could do nothing about it. In other words, I cannot tell my daughter to repeat that gesture or move. The 1932 photograph of a man behind the Gare-Saint Lazare mentioned in the video by Henri Cartier portrays the decisive moment. The photographer waited for the perfect time when both of the man’s feet were in air. The photograph may not be in perfect form, but remains an iconic artistic image.
Photojournalism is a form of art. It is the art of finding that decisive moment for the perfect click, of searching and creating news. Photographers look at things differently than other people do and make it compelling to others as well. Let us take a look at 2000 Frank Fournier-New Millennium, New York. The selected image depicts the first second of the third millennium in New York.
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