Photographer - Hugh Cecil, 1926
Source - http://www.etsy.com/listing/91399265/miss-edna-best-art-deco-monochrome
Once upon a time there was no such thing as camera phones and the internet. Photojournalists had to demonstrate a great deal of patience and perseverance to produce one quality image. During 1850’s & 60’s, photogravure and wet plate collodion photography was the newest technology (if you can even call that technology). It was a laborious task just to haul your gear around, let alone the multi-step process that had to be followed, but photojournalist did it because they loved it and it had to be done. The image above was taken in the 1920’s when photogravure made a resurgence due to “the soft, artistic quality of the images.” Little did anyone know what the impact of 70 years of technology had in store?
Can you imagine the look on the faces of the photojournalists from the 1920’s if they lived to see how much their field has changed in 90 years? Now I know, even if they were 20 years old in 1920, they would have to be 113 years old today. But play along with me on this one. I just read an article titled “How Digital Technology has Changed Photojournalism” and it was about a photojournalist who was reminiscing about how much photojournalism has changed in the past 20 years! He mentioned how “Over the years, the Assignments that a photojournalist shoots remain pretty constant, but the technology has changed from 1990 to 2010 and a photo that once took five hours to send to the wire service now takes seconds. The quality level between those 1990 images and now has gotten remarkably better too.” If this photojournalist was blown away by 20 years of technology, can you fathom the look on our 113 year old friend?
Can you imagine the look on the faces of the photojournalists from the 1920’s if they lived to see how much their field has changed in 90 years? Now I know, even if they were 20 years old in 1920, they would have to be 113 years old today. But play along with me on this one. I just read an article titled “How Digital Technology has Changed Photojournalism” and it was about a photojournalist who was reminiscing about how much photojournalism has changed in the past 20 years! He mentioned how “Over the years, the Assignments that a photojournalist shoots remain pretty constant, but the technology has changed from 1990 to 2010 and a photo that once took five hours to send to the wire service now takes seconds. The quality level between those 1990 images and now has gotten remarkably better too.” If this photojournalist was blown away by 20 years of technology, can you fathom the look on our 113 year old friend?
Photographer – Ed Kashi
Source - http://lightbox.time.com/2012/10/30/in-the-eye-of-the-storm-capturing-sandys-wrath/#50
Source - http://lightbox.time.com/2012/10/30/in-the-eye-of-the-storm-capturing-sandys-wrath/#50
Fast forward to Tuesday, October 30, 2012 and look at how photojournalism is done today! This photo was taken by a photojournalist who was asked by Time Magazine “to document the hurricane and its aftermath via Instagram.” The article was titled “In the Eye of the Storm: Capturing Sandy’s Wrath” and it explained how Time placed 5 of its photojournalist across the Atlantic seaboard to capture ordinary people getting ready for the superstorm. When Sandy made landfall they braved the elements to photograph the storm’s impact on several communities using only their Iphones.
Photographer - Michael Christopher Brown
Source - http://lightbox.time.com/2012/10/30/in-the-eye-of-the-storm-capturing-sandys-wrath/?iid=lb-gal-viewagn#1
We can laugh about this photograph taken by another one of Time Magazine’s 5 man crew, but it shows the dependency of today’s society and our technology. Cell phones have not only changed the way photojournalists do their jobs, but they have changed the way people live their lives. Not to mention having a newer cell phone camera enables every person to become a citizen journalist via Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc…
Looking at this evolution we can clearly see how much has changed from the days of photogravure to modern day Iphones. Photojournalist would have needed days and weeks to produce quality photos (often times of people that couldn’t move) to the press, and they went through agony to make that happen. Today Time Magazine can send out 5 of its journalist using only cell phones, and create a masterpiece of an article in a fraction of the time. It almost not fair to compare the two, but technology is what it is; a means to make things easier. I'm pretty sure Robert Capa would have been thrilled to have an Iphone handy, and not have some overzealous photographer ruin most of his shots. Anybody want to travel back in time and give him one?
Photographer - Michael Christopher Brown
Source - http://lightbox.time.com/2012/10/30/in-the-eye-of-the-storm-capturing-sandys-wrath/?iid=lb-gal-viewagn#1
We can laugh about this photograph taken by another one of Time Magazine’s 5 man crew, but it shows the dependency of today’s society and our technology. Cell phones have not only changed the way photojournalists do their jobs, but they have changed the way people live their lives. Not to mention having a newer cell phone camera enables every person to become a citizen journalist via Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc…
Looking at this evolution we can clearly see how much has changed from the days of photogravure to modern day Iphones. Photojournalist would have needed days and weeks to produce quality photos (often times of people that couldn’t move) to the press, and they went through agony to make that happen. Today Time Magazine can send out 5 of its journalist using only cell phones, and create a masterpiece of an article in a fraction of the time. It almost not fair to compare the two, but technology is what it is; a means to make things easier. I'm pretty sure Robert Capa would have been thrilled to have an Iphone handy, and not have some overzealous photographer ruin most of his shots. Anybody want to travel back in time and give him one?
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