A WRITE UP ON PHOTOJOURNALISM, ITS HISTORY, ETHICAL ISSUES AND THE NIGERIAN PERSPECTIVE

"A picture is worth a thousand words" should be the motto of the photojournalist. It certainly is

what they are all about. Who can ever forget some of the most memorable photos of the 20th

century? It was the photo journalist who brought us the horror of the holocaust, the joy of the

sailor who returned home and the faces of the world. We have been a part of history through the

eyes of a camera lens”.

The practice of illustrating news stories with photographs was made possible by printing and

photography innovations that occurred between 1880 and 1897. While newsworthy events were

photographed as early as the 1850s, printing presses could only publish from engravings until the

1880s. Early news photographs required that photos be re-interpreted by an engraver before they

could be published. Train wrecks and city fires were a popular subject in these early days.

According to Okoye (2007) Photo journalism is a particular form of journalism (the collecting,

editing, and presenting of news material for publication or broadcast) that creates images in order

to tell a news story. It is now usually understood to refer only to still images, but in some cases

the term also refers to video used in broadcast journalism. Photojournalism is distinguished from

other close branches of photography (e.g., documentary photography, social documentary

photography, street photographyor celebrity photography) by complying with a rigid ethical

framework which demands that the work is both honest and impartial whilst telling the story in

strictly journalistic terms. Photojournalists create pictures that contribute to the news media.

However just like a writer, a photojournalist is a reporter but he or she must often make decisions

instantly and carry photographic equipment, often while exposed to significant obstacles (e.g.,

physical danger, weather, crowds).

BRIEF HISTORY OF PHOTOJOURNALISM

The practice of illustrating news stories with photographs was made possible by printing and

photography innovations that occurred between 1880 and 1897. While newsworthy events were

photographed as early as the 1850s, printing presses could only publish from engravings until the

1880s. Early news photographs required that photos be re-interpreted by an engraver before they

could be published. Train wrecks and city fires were a popular subject in these early days.

In 1847, an unknown photographer took daguerreotypes of the U.S. troops in Satilo, Mexico,

during the Mexican-American War. The first known photojournalist was Carol

Szathmari (Romanian painter, lithographer, and photographer) who did pictures in the Crimean

War (between Russia and Ottoman Empire, 1853 to 1856). His albums were sent to European

royals houses. Just a few of his photographs survived. William Simpson of the Illustrated

London News and Roger Fenton were published as engravings. Similarly, the American Civil

War photographs of Mathew Brady were engraved before publication in Harper's

Weekly. Because the public craved more realistic representations of news stories, it was common

for newsworthy photographs to be exhibited in galleries or to be copied photographically in

limited numbers.

On March 4, 1880, The Daily Graphic (New York) published the first halftone (rather than

engraved) reproduction of a news photograph. In 1887, flash powder was invented, enabling

journalists such as Jacob Riis to photograph informal subjects indoors, which led to the landmark

work How the Other Half Lives. By 1897, it became possible to reproduce halftone photographs

on printing presses running at full speed.

Photo-journalism is almost as old as the camera itself. The first photo journalist was Carol

Szathmari who did documentary photos of the Crimean War in the 1850's. It was Matthew Brady

who really should have the title of greatest photojournalist of the 19th century. His photos of the

Civil War were made into engravings and published in Harpers Weekly. They are no less

poignant today than they were when he took them over 150 years ago. He brought to life the

main players in the Civil War. If it wasn't for him we would not have seen the care worn face of

Abraham Lincoln or the meeting of the great generals.

It took until the 1880's for photographs to be published in newspapers. The invention of the flash

powder allowed photography to go indoors added a whole new dimension to the ability of the

photojournalist to tell his story with pictures.

It wasn't until the flash bulb was invented along with the 35mm camera that photojournalism

really took off. The period between the 1930's and the 1950's is called the Golden Age of

photojournalism.

Henri Cartier Bresson is called by many the Father of modern photojournalism. He isn't the only

one who has been given this title but he certainly deserves. His photos have taken us from Africa

in the 1920's, to the Spanish Civil War, Gandhi just hours before his assassination and the

liberation of Paris.

During the 1920's Germany was at the forefront of photojournalism through its magazines

Munchner Illustrated Presse and Berliner Illustrirte Presse. They began printing candid photos of

politicians and other people of interest to the public. Cameras had become small enough to be

sneaked into places they would never have been able to go before.

In American Look and Life picked up the cue and dished up full page photos to bring the world

to their readers. It took a while for America to catch up with the idea of the candid shot but

eventually it became the norm.

The 1950's saw one of the most famous roving photojournalist of all, Jackie Bouvier. She could

be found roving the streets of Washington DC looking for an interesting photo, story or

handsome senator.

Today the word paparazzo has replaced the photojournalist in the common jargon. It has also

come to be considered an invasive and frightening occupation. These celebrity seekers have

placed a cloud over what has been a long history of exemplary work, often under dangerous and

trying conditions. It is time that magazines and newspapers refuse to buy these photos and that

readers refuse to purchase publications that print them. They cheapen the work of the great

photojournalists who follow the real stories around the world.

In France, agencies such as Rol, Branger and Chusseau-Flaviens (ca. 1880-1910) syndicated

photographs from around the world to meet the need for timely new illustration Despite these

innovations, limitations remained, and many of the sensational newspaper and magazine stories

in the period from 1897 to 1927, (see Yellow Journalism) were illustrated with engravings. In

1921, the wire photo made it possible to transmit pictures almost as quickly as news itself could

travel. However, it was not until development of the commercial35mm Leica camera in 1925,

and the first flash bulbs between 1927 and 1930 that all the elements were in place for a "golden

age" of photojournalism.

In the "golden age" of photojournalism (1930s–1950s), some magazines (Picture

Post (London),Paris Match (Paris), Arbeiter-Illustrierte-Zeitung (Berlin), Berliner Illustrirte

Zeitung (till April 1945) (Berlin), Life (USA), Look (USA), Sports Illustrated (USA)) and

newspapers (The Daily Mirror(London), The New York Daily News (New York)) built their huge

readerships and reputations largely on their use of photography, and photographers such

as Robert Capa, Romano Cagnoni,Alfred Eisenstaedt, Margaret Bourke-White and W. Eugene

Smith became well-known names.

Henri Cartier-Bresson is held by some to be the father of modern photojournalism, although this

appellation has been applied to various other photographers, such as Erich Salomon, whose

candid pictures of political figures were novel in the 1930s.

Soldier Tony Vaccaro is also recognized as one of the pre-eminent photographers of World War

II. His images taken with the modest Argus C3 captured horrific moments in war, similar to

Capa's soldier being shot. Capa himself was on Omaha Beach on D-Day and captured pivotal

images of the conflict on that occasion. Vaccaro is also known for having developed his own

images in soldier's helmets, and using chemicals found in the ruins of a camera store in 1944.

Until the 1980s, largest newspapers were printed with turn-of-the-century "letterpress"

technology using easily smudged oil-based ink, off-white, low-quality "newsprint" paper, and

coarse engraving screens. While letterpresses produced legible text, the photoengraving dots that

formed pictures often bled or smeared and became fuzzy and indistinct. In this way, even when

newspapers used photographs well — a good crop, a respectable size — murky reproduction

often left readers re-reading the caption to see what the photo was all about. TheWall Street

Journal adopted stippled hedcuts in 1979 to publish portraits and avoid the limitations of

letterpress printing. Not until the 1980s had a majority of newspapers switched to "offset"

presses that reproduce photos with fidelity on better, whiter paper.

By contrast Life, one of America's most popular weekly magazines from 1936 through the early

1970s, was filled with photographs reproduced beautifully on oversize 11×14-inch pages, using

fine engraving screens, high-quality inks, and glossy paper. Life often published a United Press

International (UPI) or Associated Press (AP) photo that had been first reproduced in newspapers,

but the quality magazine version appeared to be a different photo altogether.

In large part because their pictures were clear enough to be appreciated, and because their name

always appeared with their work, magazine photographers achieved near-celebrity status. Life

became a standard by which the public judged photography, and many of today's photo books

celebrate "photojournalism" as if it had been the exclusive province of near-celebrity magazine

photographers.

The Best of Life (1973), for example, opens with a two-page (1960) group shot of 39 justly

famous Life photographers. But 300 pages later, photo credits reveal that scores of the photos

among Life's "best" were taken by anonymous UPI and AP photographers.

Thus even during the golden age, because of printing limitations and the UPI and AP syndication

systems, many newspaper photographers labored in relative obscurity.

However the, the emergence of photo agencies started In 1947 a few famous photographers

founded the international photographic cooperative Magnum Photos. In 1989 Corbis

Corporation and in 1993 Getty Images were founded. These powerful image libraries sell the

rights to photographs and other still images.

PHOTO JOURNALISM ISSUES IN NIGERIA

Photo journalism in Nigeria is just developing, though it is healthy, in the sense that there is a

relatively free press, and practically all the newspapers use photographs. There is also a

burgeoning celebrity magazine market with ample use of personality shots. Remuneration

however, leaves much to be desired. A few of Nigerian photographers either prefers to work or

string for international agencies, and one in particular, George Osodi, is a recognized master in

this field. A lot have been analysed about this emerging field in Nigeria, there are barrage of

criticism, issues, surrounding photojournalist and photojournalism in Nigeria. However constant

attacking, harassing/assaulting photo journalist in Nigeria had established high rate of job

insecurity on the part of the journalist. (Akinbode 2003)

Media critics and viewers question the use of gruesome images, dozens of photographers

hounding celebrities, picture manipulations that present misleading views, visual messages that

perpetuate negative stereotypes of individuals from various multicultural groups, and images that

blur the distinction between advertising and journalism.1 What is happening? Nothing that hasn't

been a part of photography since its invention in 1839.What is new, however, is the spread of

computer technology that allows practically anyone to produce and disseminate visual messages

in massive numbers for a world-wide audience. So indirectly we can as well assume that the

photo journalism is filed is being compromised for financial reasons. Because images are

designed almost immediately to evoke emotional responses among viewers, pictures have

tremendous impact. With well-chosen words, visual messages combine to educate, entertain and

persuade. But the flip side to such visual power is that images can also offend shock, mislead,

stereotype and confuse.

Nigerian photo-journalist had lived with the orientation that the best picture they could take is

from victim of violence, for example, after a gruesome image of dead or grieving victims of a

tragic event is presented to the public in either the print or screen media, many viewers are often

repulsed and offended by the picture. Nevertheless, violence and tragedy are staples of American

journalism. "If it bleeds, it leads" is a popular, unspoken sentiment in many newsrooms. The

reason for this obvious incongruity is that a majority of viewers are attracted and intrigued by

such stories, apparently they are producing picture that injures. Photojournalists who win Pulitzer

Prizes and other international competitions are almost always witness to excruciatingly painful

human tragedies that nevertheless get published or broadcast. It is as if viewers want to see

violent pictures, but through gaps in the fingers in front of their face. Editors need to be sure that

images of murder or automobile victims are really necessary to tell the story. Journalists often

cite the reason for using such visual messages as a way to warn others of the dangers of modern

living or to urge drivers to watch the speed limit. Another, perhaps more honest reason, is to

avoid being scooped by a rival media organization. Despite well-rehearsed explanations,

sensational images of victims of violence are shown as much for economic as utilitarian reasons.

The media concentration on criminal activity creates an exaggerated perception of crime in the

minds of viewers. Rather than focusing on bloody body bags, journalists need to explain the

underlying social forces that cause such tragic events to occur. Cameras and the images they

produce are naively thought by many to never lie.

But because humans operate the machine, technical, composition and content manipulations are

unavoidable. Computer technology did not start the decline in the credibility of pictures, but it

has hastened it. Photographic darkrooms are quickly being replaced by computer workstation

light rooms. But as long as photojournalists do not subtract or add parts of a picture's internal

elements, almost any other manipulation once accomplished in a photographic darkroom is

considered ethical for news-editorial purposes. Two factors may guard against a further erosion

of credibility in visual messages: Reputation of the media organization that publishes or

broadcasts images and the words that accompany the manipulated picture. Credibility is not an

inherent quality of a particular picture, but a concept based on tradition, story choices, design

considerations and reader perception of the company or individual that produces the image.

Photography is undergoing an exciting and challenging time in its history.

Currently, the photographic medium is in a hybrid or transitional period between traditional film

and computer technologies, But no matter how the tools of journalism change, fundamental

ethical concerns still apply. Displaying violent, sensational images for economic reasons,

violating a person's privacy before the judicial process can function, manipulating news-editorial

pictures to alter their content, stereotyping individuals into pre-conceived categories and blurring

the distinction between advertising and editorial messages were journalism concerns in 1895, are

important topics in 1995 and will be carefully considered issues, no doubt, in 2095.

Professionals, academics and students owe it to their readers to be sensitive to unethical practices

that demean the profession and reduce the credibility of journalism. Therefore, it is imperative

that whenever and wherever possible, ethical issues be discussed by all those concerned about

the journalism profession.

Three problems present themselves to anyone who argues that hard-hitting photojournalism is

important in the daily press. The first concerns the compromised nature of photography as a

foundation for authentic eye-witness reports. Photography, even in its most realistic style, is no

absolute guarantee or proof of events. The second problem derives from the poor state of the

newspaper industry as a source of reliable public record. News has become more entertaining

and trivial than concerned or controversial. The third problem, which is the main point of this

essay, relates to how effective hard-hitting documentary record might be, given that readers are

supposed to be quickly bored by images of suffering unknown strangers. The argument stresses

that photographs might be used in evidence; the press does not have to be trivial; shocking

photographs are a measure of the press's contribution to debate in a civilized society.

ETHICS IN PHOTOJOURNALISM

Merriam-Webster defines “ethics” as, “the code of good conduct for an individual or group,” and

lists synonyms as, “morality, morals, principles, [and] standards. In terms of ethics in

photojournalism, the National Press Photographers Association's Code of Ethics reads, in part:

 

Photographic and video images can reveal great truths, expose wrongdoing and neglect, inspire

hope and understanding and connect people around the globe through the language of visual

understanding. Photographs can also cause great harm if they are callously intrusive or are

manipulated.

 

The Code of Ethics goes on to detail what is and is not acceptable in professional

photojournalism.  Though the standards may seem fairly crystalized, every day there are

challenging borderline cases.  Considering that photography itself is barely 150 years old, one

might wonder how these particular ethical guidelines came to be, and how they may be evolving

over time. As a topic, 'ethics in photojournalism' is difficult to approach, or even to define.  In

order to ask questions such as, "What were photojournalistic ethics in the past," "what are

photojournalistic ethics today," and "what will photojournalistic ethics look like in the future,"

one must first carefully define the concepts of both ‘ethics’ and ‘photojournalism.’  

 

What exactly qualifies as photojournalism?  The answer is somewhat hazy.  If photojournalism is

photography plus journalism, what is journalism?  Princeton University's WorldNet defines

'journalism' as, "The profession of reporting or photographing or editing news stories for one of

the media." Under that definition, someone who fakes an image of Bigfoot for the Weekly World

News is as much a journalist as the man who took the Pulitzer Prize winning photograph of a

firefighter holding a baby after the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing.That man (Charles H. Porter

IV) was employed as a utility worker and not as a newspaper photographer at the time.  

 Ethics is an inherently subjective field.  In his seminal textbook, Photojournalism, the

Professionals’ Approach, author and photojournalism professor Kenneth Kobré writes,

“Photojournalism has no Bible, no rabbinical college, no Pope to define correct choices.”8 There

is no sole arbiter of what is or isn't ethical, and even if there were, the line isn't always black and

white.  Most texts regarding ethics in photojournalism focus on the issue of what might be

termed “photographic truth” - whether a particular image accurately represents the subject or

whether it misleads the viewer.  The National Press Photographers Association Code of

Ethics states that the “primary goal” of the photojournalist is the “...faithful and comprehensive

depiction of the subject at hand.”  Can a photographer pose a news photo?  Can he alter it, in the

darkroom or otherwise?  Are the results of these actions “faithful and comprehensive

depictions?”  While myriad texts attempt to answer these particular questions, the scope of

photojournalistic ethics extends significantly beyond them.  

 

For example, the distinction between ethics and taste is constantly up for debate, especially in

relation to violent or sexual imagery.  While some see sex and violence as issues of taste, others

include them under the heading of ethics.  Additionally, photojournalistic ethics might

encompass the choices an individual photographer makes while shooting.  For example, should a

war photographer put down his cameras in order to help an injured soldier?  If someone asks that

his or her photo not be taken, is it ethical to photograph that person anyway?  If ethics in

photojournalism is about being “faithful and comprehensive,” is intentionally underexposing or

poorly focusing unethical?  Some of these questions sit on the line between journalistic ethics

and professionalism.

According to Professor Paul Martin Lester In his book Photojournalism: An Ethical Approach,

California State University Fullerton outlines six ethical philosophies intended to help

photographers and editors answer questions like those outlined above:  

 

1. The   Categorical Imperative  is a distilled version of Kant’s notion that what is acceptable for

a single person should be acceptable for everyone, almost like a theoretical “nondiscrimination

clause.”  For example, suppose a newspaper editor is trying to decide whether to publish an

image of a partially nude young woman fleeing a house fire.  That editor should consider

whether he would publish the image under different circumstances - if the subject was male, or

elderly, or obese.  The Categorical imperative says that what goes for one should go for

everyone.  

 

2. Utilitarianism as a philosophy attempts to weigh positives and negatives of a situation, and

maximize the good for the greatest number of people.  For example, if gruesome photos of a car

crash offend the victims’ families, but shock the community into driving safely, then by

Utilitarianism the taking and publication of those photos is deemed to be ethical.  

 

3.   Hedonism  represents the “do what feels good” school of thought, and might be used to justify

printing explicit photos simply because they are titillating.  Publishing a provocative front page

photo simply for the sake of selling newspapers would be an example of hedonism.

 

4. The Golden Mean philosophy concerns compromise.  If there is a less intrusive, offensive, or

disagreeable photo that still tells the story, which is the better option.  The emphasis is on finding

middle ground rather than an all-or-nothing approach.

 

5. The Veil of Ignorance asks the photographer or editor to consider how they would feel if they

were the subject.  If they would not feel good in the subject’s place, it would be better to look for

a different image.

 

6. The Golden Rule is sometimes phrased “love thy neighbor as thyself.”  As an ethical

philosophy it requires that a photographer or editor treat his subjects as he would treat

himself. This, of course, leaves decisions subject to the photographer’s, editors, or institution’s

ethics. Which also mean respect for others to avoid injuries or ethical imperative.

However Berserk D (2006) divides ethics into two categories - institutional ethics and

photographer-centric ethics.  The policies of a particular newspaper or magazine would fall

under institutional ethics.  For example, if a newspaper chooses not to publish an image for fear

it is too graphic, that is an issue of institutional ethics or taste (and I will discuss the differences

between the two later in this thesis.)  Photographer-centric ethics have to do with photographers’

choices at the time news photos are captured up until the photos are handed off to an editor.

Whether or not to pose a subject, the question regarding what to do with a wounded soldier in

combat, and how a photographer treats an image in the darkroom (or in the computer) are all

matters of photographer-centric ethics.  Scott Baradell 2005 opines that Pictures Must

Always Tell the Truth There’s an old saying that there are no atheists in foxholes. When

threatened or under fire, people inevitably cling to something certain to guidet hem through

uncertain times. In life and death situations, this something is often a Bible. Today, the

profession of photojournalism as we know it is threatened by technological transformation, by

the rise of video, by fragmentation of the media. It’s under fire from a suspicious public—

watchdog bloggers, cable and radio pundits, and other critics who question the profession’s

credibility and authority to bring us an accurate picture of the world .For photojournalists, it

would be a great time to have a Bible—in the form of a uniform, enforceable code of ethics—

handy. Unfortunately, photojournalists have no such thing. There is no established set of rules to

see news photographers through this storm.

r u t h ”

While ethical decisions have long played a central role in the business of newsgathering,

journalists have never been governed by formal ethical standards. This is a key reason that

journalism, by definition, is actually not a profession. You can’t be disbarred or lose your license

as a journalist. However, as with the incremental emergence of the English common law,

journalists have gravitated over time to a handful of general ethical principles that are widely

recognized. In the United States, these principles are designed to enhance journalism’s authority

by ensuring that reporting is accurate, comprehensive and independent.

Conversely, Photojournalists create pictures that contribute to the news media. They must posses

Timeliness — the images have meaning in the context of a recently published record of events.

Objectivity — the situation implied by the images is a fair and accurate representation of the events

they depict in both content and tone.

Narrative — the images combine with other news elements to make facts relatable to the viewer or

reader on a cultural level.

 INTERVIEW ON NIGERIAN PHOTO JOURNALIST

SEUN IJYKELLY.

Seun is a video journalist, currently working with Channels Television for the past two years. He

believed, that Nigerian photo journalism is just evolving to meet with the international standards,

he opined that ethics in photo journalism is not meticulously monitored, unlike others media

sectors in the country thus it has paved way for those who will use the profession to either crate

pictures that injures through the modern technology or manipulate various photos to evoke

audience emotion or for yellow journalism. In his words “you know economy is at the base of

every society, anybody can just pick up a camera take a picture manipulate them for yellow

journalism and false statement will be therein, and before you know it is on the news stand”.

He also appealed the government to strategize a structural body which will be saddled with the

responsibility to certify photo-journalist, which will bar imposters from using the professions

wrongly.

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