ARTICLES: Visual Journalism
Special online collection from the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard - from Frank Baker...
SPRING 2010 | ONLINE EXCLUSIVES
Visual Journalism
Fresh Approaches and New Business Strategies for the Multimedia Age
Photojournalism is changing, propelled by newsroom budget cuts, multimedia possibilities, and the ubiquity of digital images. In Visual Journalism, photojournalists write about emerging digital business strategies and their efforts to expand the reach of their photographs online and on gallery walls. They also share ideas about how to fund projects of personal passion and societal value. Their words tell vital stories about how they do their work; slideshows of their photographs—exclusive to our Web site—and multimedia presentations convey their visual stories. Read and watch as the future of photojournalism unfolds. – Melissa Ludtke, Editor
Visual Journalism
Fresh Approaches and New Business Strategies for the Multimedia Age
Photojournalism is changing, propelled by newsroom budget cuts, multimedia possibilities, and the ubiquity of digital images. In Visual Journalism, photojournalists write about emerging digital business strategies and their efforts to expand the reach of their photographs online and on gallery walls. They also share ideas about how to fund projects of personal passion and societal value. Their words tell vital stories about how they do their work; slideshows of their photographs—exclusive to our Web site—and multimedia presentations convey their visual stories. Read and watch as the future of photojournalism unfolds. – Melissa Ludtke, Editor
- Visual Journalism
- Introduction
By Melissa Ludtke, Editor - Envisioning Digital
- Failing to Harness the Web’s Visual Promise
Today, too many news organizations still don’t take advantage of digital media’s capacity to give readers contextual information and to engage them in finding out more about the story the pictures tell.
By Fred Ritchin - Meditating on the Conventions and Meaning of Photography
By Jan Gardner - Journey to a New Beginning
As the doors of established media slam shut, a photojournalist knocks on new ones to find the promise of more authenticity in his storytelling and greater control over his work.
By Ed Kashi - Multimedia Adds New Dimensions to the Art of Storytelling
By Ed Kashi - A Different Approach to Storytelling
‘… photographs require context to tell a more complete narrative. The best thing for photojournalists to do is to slow down, become a little more engaged, and spend a little more time on their projects in a much more intimate way.’ - 44 Days and the Portrayal of History in Tehran
Words and Photographs by David Burnett - Steps Learned Along the Way: Redefining Photojournalism’s Power
‘Even in the best of times, even when highly recognized within the field itself, our images are only tools, not an end in themselves.’
By Wendy Watriss - Agent Orange: Pressing the Government to Take Responsibility
Words and Photographs by Wendy Watriss - New Pathways
- In Pursuing a Personal Project, Global Dimensions Emerge
‘As photojournalists casting about for creative and meaningful direction in the face of … an industry shifting beneath our feet, we may be best served by following the threads of our own experience and then going deeper.’
By Kael Alford - Finding Common Themes in Louisiana and Iraq
Words and Photographs by Kael Alford - Newspaper Employee to Nonprofit Director: A Photojournalist’s Journey
The idea behind Wéyo ‘was to capitalize on our collective years of journalism experience and turn our narrative storytelling abilities toward work with nonprofits.’
By Christopher Tyree - ‘Lost Boys’ Return to Sudan as Doctors
Words by Christopher Tyree
Photographs by Stephen Katz and Christopher Tyree - The Impact of Images: First, They Must Be Seen
Through photographs transformed into comic images and other creative collaborations, the work of a photojournalist is connecting with new audiences in creative ways.
Words and Photographs by Marcus Bleasdale - Photojournalists Reach Viewers in Different Ways
Using emerging funding strategies and finding fresh venues to display their work, photographers bring foreign news reporting to new audiences.
By Iason Athanasiadis - Shifting Strategies
- Partnership of Photojournalist and Writer
‘With our close collaboration, I felt for the first time as a photographer that I was working with a writer who really wanted to hear what I thought about the story.’
By Melissa Lyttle - Finding an Extraordinary Moment During an Ordinary Ride
Words and Photographs by Melissa Lyttle - Our Emotional Journey—Traveled Together
‘Journalism, at its best, is collaboration. No single reporter can ask every question. No photographer can capture every scene.’
By Lane DeGregory - The Camera—It’s Only the Starting Point to Change
‘So how does a global news organization such as The Associated Press get this technology working for us? In short, how do we train our photojournalists to use it?’
By Santiago Lyon - Crossing the Line: From Still to Video—to Both at the Same Time
Words and Photographs by Julie Jacobson - Gift of Training + Shift in Newsroom Thinking = Multimedia Storytel...
Words and Photographs by Evan Vucci - Being a Photojournalist Doesn’t Equal Job Security
After taking a buyout, a longtime newspaper photographer thinks about her future direction in an industry where multimedia now rules and technological know-how is essential.
By Nuri Vallbona - Recognizing the Special Value of Still Photos in a Video World
By Nuri Vallbona - Visual Literacy
- The Still Photograph: Embedding Images in Our Mind
With his large-scale images, Edward Burtynsky seeks to ‘bring viewers to that point where they begin to grapple with their own consciousness about being in that space.’
Words and Photographs by Edward Burtynsky - A New Focus: Adjusting to Viewers’ Increasing Sophistication About ...
In an age when visual literacy is common, photojournalists may need to bring fresh sensibilities to their work.
By Jörg M. Colberg - The Fluidity of the Frame and Caption (1 comment)
When keywords become invisible captions and cameras increasingly do what darkrooms once did, how photojournalists approach their job changes.
By Venkat Srinivasan - Rethinking
- What Crisis? (1 comment)
‘It’s not about finding new ways to do old things, but time to radically rethink our business models by redefining our products, our partners, and our clients.’
By Stephen Mayes - Too Many Similar Images, Too Much Left Unexplored
Excerpts From an Address by Stephen Mayes - Music Lessons Inform Photojournalism’s Future
‘The record business died as the digital music business was born. Photojournalism finds itself at a similar juncture now.’
By Ian Ginsberg - Demotix: Inventing a New Marketplace
Photographers—amateur and professional—send their images to this Web site and split the fee if they are sold for publication.
By Turi Munthe - Remembering
- Documentary Photography (1 comment)
The impact that photographs can have is illuminated in a look back at iconic images.
Excerpts from a presentation by Glenn Ruga - Documentary Photographers Have Their Say in Words and Pictures
By Glenn Ruga - Words & Reflections
- What Changed Journalism—Forever—Were Engineers
‘Like the other engineer that has succeeded in killing journalism’s economic model—Craigslist’s Craig Newmark—Google’s founders have nothing against journalists, newspapers or our search for truth, justice and the American way.’
By Joel Kaplan - A Journalist Joins the Nigerian Government—If Only for A While
‘I wanted my freedom back—the freedom to be able to tell truth to power.’
By Sunday Dare - When Journalists Were Targets
- Digital Stories Are Being Chosen and Consumed à la Dim Sum
In the absence of a front page—or even a home page, will readers confront a crisis of context? Or will convenience and a self-confidence in judgment triumph?
By Michele Weldon - It’s Not the Assignment: It’s the Lessons That Come From It
By Michele Weldon - Connecting What Happened Then With What Happens Now (1 comment)
‘To focus on Don Hollenbeck’s death is to miss the lessons of his life.’
By Stuart Watson - Are Newspapers Dying? The View of an Aspiring Journalist
‘In The Republican’s newsroom I experienced something of a disconnect between the old vanguard of journalists who filled the paper’s top posts and younger staffers who were frustrated by the few opportunities they had for using multimedia.’
By Sam Butterfield - Moving Across the Border: Teaching Journalism in Hong Kong
‘As a student from Shenzhen, an industrial city just across the border, said: “Once I’ve discovered all the resources out there, I don’t want them taken away from me.”?’
By Michael J. Jordan - Curator's Corner
- Global Health Reporting: Expertise Matters
For three years global health fellows have been a part of each Nieman class, and the great value rendered by their study and subsequent reporting is measurable.
By Bob Giles
Views: 11
© 2025 Created by Ryan Goble.
Powered by
