Have you ever thought about who are the people that illustrate a newspaper or a magazine? Did you realize how impactful these photos are on your understanding of the news? Olympic Games, current conflicts and brand new movies are making society rethink and give more attention to that.
“Journalists do team up in vehicles, partly because of costs, limited fuel or for safety. And there are many times you have to sleep in the car, which has happened to me when covering several hurricanes. There’s a scene where all the cars have been abandoned on the freeway. I saw something similar covering Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans”, says Carolyn Cole to the Los Angeles Times newspaper about how realistic the movie Civil War is, when it comes to the social value of a photojournalist work.
The film exposes, among other things, how photojournalists cover conflicts and, even between all the chaotic scenarios, are still able to let the world know what is happening there. However, this “background effort” is not always valued by the ones who see the final result. Generally, people don’t take notice of this, giving more ear to the texts it is followed by.
Photojournalists and its importance was also reminded during the recent Olympic Games in Paris, France. This discussion came to light again, especially because of the Brazilian surfer photo, Gabriel Medina, taken by Jérôme Brouillet, of France Presse. The photo received more than nine million likes and turned into THE register of this Games’ edition.
But… who is Brouillet? Did you know about him and his job before this click? Or even further, did you ask yourself about how it was done? Did you meditate on the importance of this type of professional? If your answer was no for any of these questions, that’s why the headline of this article makes much sense and it needs to be constantly discussed.
HOW IMPERIOUS IS THE PHOTOJOURNALISM AREA TO THE SOCIETY?
Jérôme Brouillet is one of the representatives of photojournalism in the world, which, with Medina’s photo, makes us reflect about how this area of Journalism is essential to stories being told in a more impactful way.
Images help people to remember things more easily; understand better the dimension of a fact, making it more real; and have the power of putting several pieces of information together, letting people to comprehend, sometimes, more clearly, the entirety of the story at once.
In Palestine, for instance, the photographer Ali Jadallah, who works for Anadolu Agency, made this power even more visible to people by thoughtful and unexpected angles that situate other nations about what is happening in the region. Jadallah denounces the reality, as he simultaneously makes people more empathetic with civil’s living there and being the main victims of a conflict that is not theirs.
Furthermore, images are the main responsibles for building memories, as our imagination and feelings are stimulated by that. This could be seen when the gymnastic Rebeca Andrade climbed to the highest place of the podium to receive the gold medal for her performance in the artistic gymnastic floor exercise and be acclaimed by Simone Biles and Jordan Chiles with reverence.
Even the ones who didn’t watch the Olympic Games can understand the impact of this moment for eternity. However, if this weren’t registered by a photographer, maybe it wouldn’t be interpreted this way and would be seen as just another ordinary instant in life.
With that, it becomes hard not to realize that photojournalists don’t receive the deserved gratitude for their work – especially the independent ones, whose lives are built according to the amount of images they take. With a lens and a sensitive eye to reality, they can captivate from the smallest to the biggest happening and give an unique authority to each of them.
WHAT CAN WE DO TO KEEP VALUING SUCH AN ESSENTIAL JOB?
Catching an eye and giving the credits of a photo to its owner it’s an excellent first step. After that, reflecting about that image can make it even more impactful and relevant, as probably you will share that with another person and so on.
Even more, following photographers on social media can keep them earning money for their job and also, reaching more individuals with the information they are trying to spread around the world. So, to put this into practice and get to know more photojournalists, you should definitely take a look at this page.
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The article above was edited by Clara Rocha.
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