Week 4: Student Response to Discussion One and Two

WednesdayApr 18 at 5:27pm

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JRN412 – Photo Journalism – Discussion 2 [Week 4]

Troy Neal

“A picture is worth a thousand words” the tagline for an Ad agency back in 1921, an Ad agency owned by Fred R. Barnard. The original quote is actually, “one look is worth a thousand words” yet over time the quote has changed slightly but at the same time has kept its true meaning. Words are how we communicate; they allow us to express our feelings both positive and negatively. However, a photograph can conjure up those same feelings and more; we have all had those moments where we just couldn’t find the perfect word or phrase to describe precisely how we feel. A photograph can say absolutely everything we thought we needed to say and then add what we never knew we needed.

All photojournalist are not created equal, I say that loudly for those in the back, because there is a massive difference between someone who takes photos and a photojournalist, regardless of how you classify yourself. A perfect example would be that of a controversial picture, do you take it, do you use it, and if you use it how are you going to portray the situation. Nilüfer Demir is a Turkish photojournalist and photographer based in Bodrum, Turkey. She worked with Doğan News Agency, and she covered the European migrant crisis during the summer of 2015. It was here that her photograph of Alan Kurdi became world famous and on every news station on September 2nd, 2015. She came across the body of Kurdi, a three-year-old Syrian boy who regrettably drowned in the Mediterranean Sea, due to his family fleeing Syria, becoming refugees, and heading toward Europe for safety.

The inevitable question then became, was this necessary to photograph and post? Some people would say yes because it shows the tragedy that is death, which awaits too many people who are fleeing from their terrible, oppressive, and dangerous countries. Others would disagree and say that showing the lifeless body of a three-year-old boy is not something that should be broadcast on the news. These are the situations that photojournalists, unfortunately, have to face more often then they should, and more often than most people think, or care to admit. Brendan O’Neill wrote, "the global spreading of this snapshot ... is justified as a way of raising awareness about the migrant crisis. Please. It’s more like a snuff photo for progressives, dead-child porn, designed not to start a serious debate about migration in the 21st century but to elicit a self-satisfied feeling of sadness among Western observers."

References

O’Neill, B. (2015). Sharing a photo of a dead Syrian child isn’t compassionate, it’s narcissistic. Retrieved from https://blogs.spectator.co.uk/2015/09/sharing-a-photo-of-the-dead-syrian-child-isnt-compassionate-its-narcissistic/ (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.

Syndicated News. [Photo/Image] (2015). Syrian Baby Washed Up On Beach. Retrieved from https://snn.bz/cnn-showed-this-photo-so-will-snn-bz/ (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.

Syrian Boy on Beach.png