Wednesday, January 11, 2017

Photojournalists and Motivations

Photo by Unknown


Photo by Stacy Pearsall


So many photojournalist have done amazing things and have truly made changes in the world. What’s so amazing about them is that everyone has their own motivation that motivated them to create a change in the world. One photojournalist that Professor Nordell spoke about in module twelve was Stacy Pearsall. She really stuck out to me out of everyone because of her amazing story. She was a combat photographer and while on the job one time they were ambushed and she was seriously injured. Unfortunately, due to the seriousness of her injury she was no longer able to take images of the war, what inspired me so much about her is that she did not let that stop her from doing what she loved, photographing. While sitting at the hospital for so long and after so many appointments she explained that she got to know so many veterans and thought “well maybe I can bring my camera andstart taking portraits of them…I thought if I can’t be a combat photographerthen maybe I can at least share their stories because they are soextraordinary.” There veterans were her motivation when she was told she could no longer be a combat photographer. My favorite thing she said was, “neverfocus on the things that people tell you you can’t do, but rather the ones youstill can accomplish.” I truly love the way she worded this because even when there’s a bump in the road there is always another way to help you accomplish your goals. 


Photo by Devin Dwyer


Photo by Tim Hetherington

Tim Hetherington was a British photographer who was one of the brightest photojournalists of this generation. We all know that many photojournalists put their lives on the line to take their images, well Hetherington was one of those that unfortunately lost his life while working in Libya. That alone shows the true dedication this man had to photojournalism and trying to get such great stories out. His mission was, “to create a betterunderstanding of the world.” This is exactly what this passionate photojournalist strived to do to open people’s eyes and let them see what is truly going on in this world. In one article, he stated, “I want to connect with real people, todocument them in real circumstances, where there aren’t any neat solutions.” I really loved this because his point was not editing anything but really showing the public the truth, and this is all we can ask for from our photojournalists the truth. This in a way reminds me of Gilles Peress when he said,” I don’t care somuch anymore about ‘good photography’; I am gathering evidence for history.” I feel like Hetherington may have cared about his images, but I believe his overall goal was to make a change in the world, to help change history.


Photo by Unknown


Don McCullin is a British photographer who has devoted is career in photojournalism to war. When he first started out photographing he admitted, “Iwanted to take good pictures to show the other photographers… and theprofessional pride of convincing an editor that I was the man to go somewhere,were the most important things to me.” As we can see when he first started off he didn’t have much of good motivations in taking his photographs, besides looking good to everyone else. However, as his years went on his motivations greatly changed. He said, “I should have been making people think the images Iwas making were of things that should be unacceptable in our world. It came tome in a schoolroom being used as a hospital, and I saw 800 childrenliterally dropping down dead in front of me.” It was then that his motivations changed and he knew he had to use his photographs so people could see the ugly of war and that such things that were going on needed to end. Just as what happened with all those children were what inspired him it reminded me of Lewis Hine, who wanted to reform the treatments of children and child labor.


Photo by Ashley Alvarado


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