Entry 5 – Photojournalism

Since the rise of photography in the1880s, news has been presented more vividly through real life images. Other than the purpose of informing local events and supporting storytelling in news, I had never given more thoughts to photojournalism until September last year. I accompanied a friend to the World Press 2013 Photo Contest exhibition, which turned out to be an eye-opening experience for me.

I not only discovered that there were many categories to photojournalism, but I also realized that a picture is really worth a thousand words or even more. It was the last day of the exhibition, and the showroom was filled with spectators. I could hardly hear any conversations, because each and every one of us was stunned by the graphics and the captions which detailed how these images came about.

As I was walking through the crowd from a display stand to another, a cluster of photographs captivated my attention. They were portrait images of two severely disfigured people. At first, I thought they were war victims, but after a scrutiny on the caption, it revealed that they were victims of love – only it was the wrong kind of affection.

Ebrahim Noroozi

Victims of Forced Love, 2012

Although there were other photographs of sport, nature and daily lives at the showing, but none of them marked me as much as the images of man-caused injuries and deaths. Most of the photographs appeared to be disturbing, but inexplicably I find some of them beautiful even though they are accompanied with deep sadness.

Dominic Nahr

Sudan Border Wars, 2012

I finally recognized the significance of photojournalism after attending this exhibition. They uncover the realities of humanity, despite good or bad, and share them to the world. They tell stories and raise consciousness of the happenings and issues that we do not often see nor think about in the advanced counties.

Javier Manzano

Siege of Aleppo, 2012

References
Manzano, J. (2012). Siege of Aleppo [Photograph]
  Retrieved from URL (http://www.worldpressphoto.org/photo/2013-javier-manzano-sns3-ll?gallery=6096)

Nahr, D. (2012) Sudan Border Wars [Photograph]
  Retrieved from URL (http://www.worldpressphoto.org/awards/2013/general-news/dominic-nahr?gallery=6096)

Noroozi, E. (2012) Victims of Forced Love [Photograph]
  Retrieved from URL (http://www.worldpressphoto.org/awards/2013/observed-portraits/ebrahim-noroozi/05?gallery=6096)