Photojournalism

By- Ashfakul Ashekin

What is Photojournalism?

A journalist tells stories. A photographer takes pictures of nouns (people, places and things). A photojournalist takes the best of both and locks it into the most powerful medium available – frozen images.

What is the difference between Photography and Photojournalism?

“Verbs!”Photojournalists capture

"verbs." 

Although photojournalists can take properly exposed and well composed photographs all day long, they hunt verbs. They hunt them, shoot them and show them to their readers.

Then, they hunt more.

A photojournalist has thousands of pairs of eyes looking over his shoulder

constantly. The readers are insistent: "What are they

doing?" "What did you see?" and "What happened?".

It is all about telling a story, PJs tell stories with their

images. Also, words are always used in conjunction with photojournalist's images.

CUTLINE

The words below a photo are called a cutline.

To be a PJ, we must understand the relationship

between the image and these basic elements of language (all

languages - worldwide)..

  The girl hits (or misses) the ball. There are no other

options.

The girl is easy to photograph. The ball is easy to photograph.

The verb is the hard part.

There are no excuses. It's hit or missed. Some photographers don't care. They have a picture of

the bat. "Hey, that's what tried to hit the ball." They just don't get it.

A PJ is a visual reporter of facts.

The PJ simply wants to hang around, be forgotten and wait for the right moment. Then,

the hunt begins anew.

What makes a photojournalist different from a photographer?

Photographers take pictures of nouns (people, places and things). PJs shoot

action verbs ("kicks," "explodes," "cries," etc.). PJs do shoot some

nouns. These nouns can be standard photos of people (portraits), places

(proposed zoning areas or construction sites) and things (name it). However, the nouns we seek still

must tell a story.

Assignments and image holes

PJs have "holes" to fill each day. They track events in our community and

anticipate what readers expect to see.As a general rule, many daily newspapers

expect three Page 1 news images, and one to four inside B&W news/business

images, as well as two to nine Lifestyles images, and two to five Sports images.

Metro papers expect more and have additional sections.

Primarily, editorial news judgment is applied to image priority (murder is more

important than other planned occurrences). However, unlike text-based

reporters, visual reporters must be on location when events occur. Therefore,

events with flexible times fall lower on a fixed priority scale, but have a greater

overall editorial priority (and may bump other items under time restrictions). 

Shooting priority:Breaking news (murders, hostages, natural disasters, major

wrecks, etc.)General news (funerals, courts, perp walks, dignitary visits,

etc.)Photo essays

Major feature eventsSporting events

FestivalsEducational events

Feature photosAdvertising (non-spec.)

IllustrationsMug shots

Spec. items"Photo ops" and other garbage to make a singular reader

happy

Breaking News

Breaking News

Perp. walks

Sports

Sports

Festivals

Advertising

Illustrations

Mug shots

Spec. items

Photo FeaturePhotography by Stephanie Sinclair

"Whenever I saw him, I hid. I hated to see him," Tahani (in pink) recalls of the early days of her marriage to Majed, when she was 6 and he was 25. The young wife posed for this portrait with former classmate Ghada, also a child bride, outside their mountain home

in Hajjah.

After celebrating with female relatives at a wedding party, Yemeni brides Sidaba and Galiyaah are veiled and escorted to a new life with their husbands. "Some rural girls see marriage as saving themselves from the control of their families," says an activist in the capital, Sanaa.

This group of young brides in a village in western Yemen were quiet and shy—until talk turned to education. Most of the girls, who were married between the ages of 14 and 16, had never attended school, but all say they still hope for an education.

Asia, a 14-year-old mother, washes her new baby girl at home in Hajjah while her 2-year-old daughter plays. Asia is still bleeding and ill from childbirth yet has no education or access to information on how to care for herself.

Nujood Ali was ten when she fled her abusive, much older husband and took a taxi to the courthouse in Sanaa, Yemen. The girl's courageous act—and the landmark legal battle that ensued—turned her into an international heroine for women's rights. Now divorced, she is back home with her family and attending school again.

Kandahar policewoman Malalai Kakar arrests a man who repeatedly stabbed his wife, 15, for disobeying him. "Nothing," Kakar said, when asked what would happen to the husband. "Men are kings here." Kakar was later killed by the Taliban.

Long after midnight, five-year-old Rajani is roused from sleep and carried by her uncle to her wedding. Child marriage is illegal in India, so ceremonies are often held in the wee hours of morning. It becomes a secret the whole village keeps, explained one farmer.

Rajani and her boy groom barely look at each other as they are married in front of the sacred fire. By tradition, the young bride is expected to live at home until puberty, when a second ceremony transfers her to her husband.

How to write a cutline

A cutline is the caption near a photograph in a newspaper. It informs the reader of who, what, when, where, and why or how about the photograph. Because photographs depict events frozen in time, the first sentence of a cutline is always written in the present tense. Additional sentences can be written in present or past tense depending on a publication's style preferences(prefer past tense for explanation).

A standard cutline is written as such:

(Noun) (verb) (direct object) during (proper event name) at (proper noun location) in (city) on (day of the week), (month) (date), (year). Why or How.Example:

Dallas firefighters (noun) battle (present-tense verb) a fire (direct object) at the Fitzhugh Apartments (proper noun location) near the intersection of Fitzhugh Avenue and Monarch Street in Dallas (city) on Thursday (day of the week), July (month) 1 (date), 2004 (year). 

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