PHOTOJOURNALISM

War Photography

"Saigon Execution" -
 a photograph taken by Eddie Adams

"The Execution" - Eddie Adams

Eddie Adams has taken a photograph that changed history. A precise moment, the one important frame that lasted less than a second, where two lives were ruined. A photograph that he regrets of taking.

The photograph itself does not give a full story for this terrifying moment. It is deceiving, and tells only half of what really happened. It may seem that a uniformed Vietnamese officer executes a civilian for unknown reasons. However, in reality the civilian is known as Nguyen Van Lem, also known as Captain Bay Lop. He was a leader of a Viet Cong squad who targeted South Vietnamese National Police officers and their families. One of their targets was the shooter himself, who is known as General Nguyen Ngoc Loan. It does not justify the actions of a General Ngoc Loan, but the photograph, on its own, portrays him as a ruthless human being, who executes prisoners without remorse, nor does he give a chance for a trial.

Unlike photograph the video footage shows how a prisoner is being pulled out to the middle of the street, a moment before he was shot, and the aftermath of the execution. The execution itself, the moment that was captured by Eddie Adams, lasts less than a second which makes it impossible to see the executions as it is on the photograph. However, the video footage leaves more shocking experience as it is possible to witness death of an individual in motion, which gives a glimpse of unpleasant feelings that anyone would experience by being there and seeing the execution in person.

Although the photograph does not seem to be as shocking as the video footage is. Both show the emotion of General Loan during the execution, and only on the video it can be seen that he did not hesitate to shoot and how calm he was before and after the execution. Though the photograph shows in more greater detail the execution itself that cannot be seen as clearly on the video.

PHOTOJOURNALISM

War Photography

"If your photographs aren't good enough,
you're not close enough." - Robert Capa

Robert Capa:

Robert Capa was well known war photographer and photojournalist, who worked for 'Life' magazine. Capa went to five different wars: the Spanish Civil War, the Second Sino-Japanese war,  World War II, the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, and the First Indochina War, where he captured different moments of war, as it was happening, inside and outside of battles. He has build his reputation mostly by capturing reality of war.

One of his famous photographs, that he took during the Spanish Civil War, is "The Falling Soldier". On that photo Capa captured a Loyalist fighter at the moment of being shot in the head and killed.

"The Falling Soldier" - September 1936

The photograph has received some controversy that it has been staged, and that it was taken in a different location than Capa has said.

World War II

By working for a "Life" magazine Capa had the advantage of being able to freely enter and leave any war zone that he would choose, and the decision whether to risk his own life and be as close as possible with the soldiers that were fighting or stay behind. Robert Capa had the possibility to capture war outside fighting zones. He could take photographs of people and their life during war to show how it affected them, and what was happening outside fighting zones.

Capa was equipped with a better camera, than American G.I. Soldiers, to be able to capture pictures more efficiently and with better quality. To capture the moments of World War 2, outside and inside fighting zones, Capa used Zeiss Contax II camera.

A camera that Robert Capa has used during WWII

The "Life" magazine gave him freedom of what pictures he could take, knowing that they would not be censored or not published. He also did not need to process the photographs himself, as he only needed to send the film rolls to a publishing magazine that he worked for. The photographs had less chance of being lost, and could be published as soon as possible, but the photographs had a risk of being destroyed, because the photographs been rushed to be processed and printed as soon as possible, increased a chance of a making a mistake.

ITALY. A group of German prisoners of war captured by American troops. July 1943.

Unfortunately that is what happened to Capa's photographs of the Battle of Normandy on Omaha Beach (D-Day). A simple mistake done by the staff who was developing the images, due to pressure the proper procedure was broken, and it destroyed most of those photos, only 11 shots have survived out of 4 rolls of film.


Photographs of "D-Day"

Men of the 16th Infantry Regiment seek shelter
from German machine-gun in shallow water behind
"Chezh hedgehog" beach obstacles, Easy Red sector, Omaha Beach.

Omaha Beach, several days after the landing.

More of Capa's work of WWII

ITALY, Sicily, 1943. A member of the American medical corps treats a German prisoner of war.

GERMANY. 1945. An American soldier killed
during house to house fight against German troops.

GERMANY. 1945. Near Wesel. German farmers fleeing their burning houses.

Tony Vaccaro:

Tony Vaccaro

Tony Vaccaro is a well known photographer, who was drafted to the U.S. army an sent to Europe during World War II, where he started his career as a photographer.
Vaccaro was motivated to take pictures of war to show the world how dreadful it was, as he thought that the people must know shocking reality of war.
Unlike Capa, Vaccaro had a completly different perspective of war, he despised Capa's words, describing the war as "Romantic".

Being involved in fights personally, seeing his friends and fellow soldiers being killed in front of him, Vaccaro captured every moment that he thought was important, despite being shot at. Even though he was not able to choose where to go to take photographs, he had a better position, than Capa, to capture war on the battlefront.

The Last Surprise: German soldier killed in Ardennes. Dec 31, 1944

As a soldier, Vaccaro could only afford an 'Argus C3' camera, which was smaller and more efficient than the standard issued 'Speed Graphic' cameras by the army. The negatives were also processed by Vaccaro himself, using four soldier helmets with water and chemicals that he found in the ruins of a photo shop. It drastically increased a chances of them being damaged. An army had the right to destroy any photograph that the U.S. army thought should not be seen by public.

Argus C3, a camera that Tony Vaccaro called 'Black brick'

Vaccaro's work of World War II

White Death

'The Last Step' Dec. 11, 1945- Vaccaro captured his buddy
just before he was shot and killed. 

Hope for Humanity -
a photograph taken after the liberation of France in 1944

Photojournalism

  

Henri Cartier-Bresson

• Why is he famous?
• Why is his work significant in Photojournalism?
• Find and upload to your blog some work of theirs
• What Camera/Technique did he use

Photojournalism is a type of photography through which news are being told to the public, but it may not always be reliable without any supportive article.

Henri Cartier-Bresson has developed a style in street photography that is called 'The Decisive Moment' and is considered to be a master in candid photography.

His work that has been done with 'The Decisive Moment' style, where he would choose a right place and angle for a photograph while waiting for something unique to happen and take a photo with precise and perfect timing, has influenced a generation of photographers. A 'Photo 1' is a perfect example of  Cartier's 'The Decisive Moment'

Photo 1

He used Leica M4 or 3G with a preferred 50mm Elmar lens to take his photos.

More of his work: