Photojournalism

In July of 2003, Chris Hondros, a free lance photographer for various news sources, captured this photograph during one of his many journeys to Libya.  During a battle with the Liberian rebels and the Liberian government, this photo was taken of one commander of the Liberian militia who jumped in excitement after firing a rocket-propelled grenade into the crowd of rebels.  Hondros was killed during his last trip to Libya this past week.  The New York Times photojournalism section placed this photo on their website and included it in Hondros' section of memorable photographs.  Within this photo, different news values are present.  The two main values are conflict and impact.  Conflict surrounds Libya and anyone who enters and even though this photo was published during the year of 2003, the fighting between the rebels and the government continues.  Impact describes the emotion within this photo and it is still impacting our world today.  With these news values taken into consideration, this photo can be seen as the excitement of the government eventually settling the country to peace.

 On October 13, 2009, photojournalist, Philip Andrew Scott, snapped this photo of students protesting outside the University of Pittsburgh.  Philip Andrew Scott attended Western Kentucky University for his degree in photojournalism and is now working for the Associated Press (AP).  The protests were outside the G20 Summit in Pittsburg and Scott was there to capture the madness of the students.  Within this picture, the contrast of the students and the policeman, shows how divided things can be.  Conflict, proximity, and currency are all present news values throughout this picture.  The conflict is shown between the school and the students.  The proximity is present because Pittsburgh is within the United States and hits pretty close to home.  The last value of currency describes how current this event was.  This photo and story about students protesting was present on Scott's personal blog.

 Tim Hetherington, a photographer for Vanity Fair magazine, captured this image in September 2007.  An exhausted soldier in the war in Iraq takes a break and feels overwhelmed from all of the fighting taking place.  This could reflect the exhaustion of an entire nation and how much this war truly impacts our world.  After this image appeared in Vanity Fair, it soon earned the title of World Press Photo of the Year.  After achieving such a goal, Hetherington continued to go out and capture many images of the wars going on throughout the world.  Last week, he was killed along with fellow photojournalist, Chris Hondros, during a gunfight in Libya.  This photo contains news values that consist of impact, conflict, and currency.  The impact is how much it affects our country to this day.  The conflict is still present and the fight is still being fought.  This photo was just taken four years ago, which makes it a current conflict.  With this photo and the war still going on, this image will continue to represent how much of a toll this war is taking on the families within our country.

 On March 11, 2011, one of the world's greatest disasters hit the coast of Japan, sending a 30-foot tsunami wave crashing into the coastal regions of northern Japan.  Many towns and cities were completely demolished such as the one in the photograph above.  Takashi Noguchi from Getty Images was just one of the many photojournalists that captured the destruction the 9.0 earthquake and tsunami wave in Japan.  This photo shows the town of Otsuchi being completely demolished and a particular body being buried within the rubble.  The man pictured is a Japanese Self Defense Force soldier who is praying for the body he is about to remove from the rubble.  The Chicago Tribune posted this in one of the many stories about the earthquake and tsunami.  This photo contains news values of currency, impact, and timeliness.  This event is both current and timely, due to its recency of happening only just one month ago.  The impact of this event is still spreading through each continent with strangers lending their hands to help out in any way they can.

In 2008, Hurricane Hanna struck Haiti, destroying much of the land and leaving thousands homeless.  Patrick Farrell form the Miami Herald, was on sight to capture the destruction this hurricane left behind.  This photo is of Sonson Pierre, 7, sitting in the mud outside of his demolished home soon after the hurricane.  Farrell captured hundreds of images from this devastation and ended up winning a Pulitzer Prize for the photos he took.  The London Evening Standard ran a story about Farrell winning this prize in 2009 and displayed the roll of touching images that led him to winning his Pulitzer.  Impact, currency, and conflict, are all news values present within this one image.  People within Haiti are still recovering from the hurricane and are trying to rebuild their lives.  This little boy represents the desperation and the pain the country was going through during the point in time and what would lie ahead.