TYPES OF PHOTO JOURNALISM

Photojournalism has grown into a very specialised form of photography and it has many more avenues. This is because news itself has many areas wherein a particular person is assigned to work in. So photographers according to their likes and dislikes have gone into specific areas. When a photographer is gifted with the ability to write in support of his photograph in a few words, he becomes a photojournalist.

Let’s find out the different types of photojournalism.

Sports photojournalism: As sports events are a big part of news, there are photojournalists who specialise in photographing sports. This is also because sports photography requires a specialised skill as well as equipment. Nowadays there are photojournalists who specialise in photographing individual sports.

For example in India, there are photojournalists who are dedicated to cricket photography as it is the most popular sport and is now played throughout the year irrespective of it being day or night.

Fig 2.1 : (a) Sports photography

Fig 2.1 : (b) Sports photography

Fig. 2. 1: (c) Sports photography

War photojournalism: This is the earliest form of photojournalism, where photojournalists have covered wars and sent photos from the centre of action.

In India we see a lot of photographs in newspapers, of conflicts within the country such a terrorist activity or a riot where the photographer is in a dangerous situation and yet he manages to send us pictures, risking his life.

Fig. 2.2: War photography

Glamour photojournalism: Film stars and other famous personalities have become a major part of news coverage as most people want to peep into the lives of the rich and famous. There are photojournalists who specialise in this kind of photography only are also called paparazzi, which is an Italian word.

Fig. 2.3: Glamour photography

Spot news photojournalism: This means covering events that make day to day news, like political events, crime, accidents etc. This is in fact the most common type of photojournalism and is most demanding for a photojournalist.

Fig. 2.4 : (a) Spot news photography

Fig. 2.4 : (b) Spot news photography

Travel photojournalism: This type of photojournalism involves the documentation of an area’s landscape, people, cultures, customs and history. Travel photographs are taken by professionals or even amateurs. Photographs taken by amateurs are shared online with friends, relatives etc through photosharing websites.

Fig. 2.5: Travel photography

Wildlife photojournalism : This is regarded as one of the more challenging forms of photojournalism. Advanced photographic equipment as well as a good knowledge of the animal’s behaviour as well as the terrain is needed to take wildlife photographs.

Fig 2.6: (a) Wildlife photography

Fig. 2.6 : (b) Wildlife photography

Though these are only some of the many specialised categories of photojournalism, each newspaper has its set of photojournalists who cover all affairs that may make news around the globe.

Photojournalists can be of two kinds, those who are employed by the newspaper and the others who work as freelancers i.e. those who work independently and sell the pictures that they take to newspapers and other news agencies. Photojournalism is now no longer limited to newspapers. With the emergence of the internet as a major source of news, the scope of photojournalism has extended itself into what is known as web based photo journalism. Some of you who use the internet would have seen websites that are like newspapers. These sites also employ journalists as well as photojournalists to gather news for their organisations. Now with so many people carrying the camera in their phones, it may be of interest for you to know that newspapers and websites use photos sent by people like us to them, because we as ordinary people may be present with our mobile phone cameras at places when an incident of interest to the newspaper may take place!