Pictures are weightier and more impactful than words, and photojournalism conveys succinct, impactful images that mobilize communities to move mountains. As a result of impactful images conveyed by photojournalists, communities respond to the plight of other communities affected by various calamities. A picture is worth a thousand words, so to speak. Two pages of text make up one thousand words or a little bit more. So, what one picture can convey is equivalent to what two pages of text can communicate.
What is photojournalism? Photojournalism can be defined as the process of using photographs to tell a story, whereas conventional journalists share their information by employing pen and paper (or maybe a keyboard). Photojournalism can be an impactful way to document people’s lives and events that devastate them, and it is a field of journalism practiced by trained individuals called photojournalists. Historian and dean of the School of Journalism at the University of Missouri, Frank Luther Mott, coined the term “photojournalism” in 1924 and played a pivotal role in its development.
Since its inception, photojournalism has gone through stages and kept improving with the advent of modern technological advancements and earned skills. Reportedly, the first photograph published in a newspaper was taken in Paris, France, in 1848. The picture depicted workers’ protests and the barricades they put up; the strike continued from June 22 to 26, 1848. Over time and with technological advancements, photojournalism has evolved, transitioning from sole photos accompanying news articles to a full-fledged career telling stories from different angles and perspectives. Many photojournalists have used their talents and the lenses of their cameras to mitigate disasters or thwart them.
Mohamed Amin, the late renowned Kenyan photojournalist, is one of them. He played a big role in conveying the Ethiopian famine that wiped out entire communities in northern Ethiopia in 1984. Using his camera, he captured the horrors of the famine and how it devastated the Ethiopian people. The famine killed between 600,000 and 1 million people, and it would have killed more if the world had not intervened swiftly. Mohamed Amin’s images were televised on 425 television networks around the world and reached 470 million people, culminating in the fundraising of 150 million dollars.
Another instance of photojournalism that mobilized the international community to respond to Somalia’s famine of 2010–2011, the worst in sixty years, is a case in point. The famine claimed the lives of 260,000 people, half of them children. Photojournalists who captured images of dying people played a role in securing urgent aid for hundreds of thousands of starving Somalis.
Photojournalists have documented a variety of topics in Somalia, including famine, daily life, culture, and conflict. Photojournalism is an effective way of telling stories of people devastated by various calamities. Like skilled print and broadcast journalists, photojournalists ought to be skilled individuals with a knack for creativity and details. Well-researched, captured images move mountains and mobilize the world to act on good causes.