We've all heard the worn-out clich: "a picture is worth a thousand words". It may be an overused expression, but when you see a great photograph, it's impossible to argue with. Photography can be a truly powerful medium, both when it is used purely as an artistic tool, and when it is used to document important events taking place in the world. It is the practice of photojournalism, however, that has produced the most profound, insightful and emotive images. The most powerful shots crystallise moments in history and either open the eyes of the world to suffering and injustice or symbolise hope for the future.
Often, when photographers find themselves in warzones or at scenes of natural disasters, they are thrown into a challenging moral predicament. Their journalistic instinct is to document what they see and bring it to the attention of the wider world, but this often means they are watching terrible things happen and not intervening to prevent the suffering they witness. At the same time, photographers often put their own lives on the line, and many have paid the ultimate price in their efforts to get to the centre of the action.
One image perfectly epitomises the moral dilemma war photographers have to struggle with, whilst also giving some impression of the dangers they face. Taken in Vietnam by Nick Ut in 1972, it shows a group of Vietnamese children running in panic from a US napalm attack. At the centre of the photo is an unclothed girl named Kim Phuc, shrieking in desperation having been severely burned. The photo hit a nerve around the world, displaying the shocking consequences of America's tactics, and giving further impetus to the anti-war movement.
It's not just journalists that take photos that shock the world - in 1941, an SS soldier took a photo now known as The Last Jew of Vinnista. Found in his personal album after the war, this truly disturbing image shows an emaciated Jewish man perched on the edge of the open mass grave of a Nazi death camp. Behind him, one of the guards is holding a pistol against the back of his skull with his finger hovering chillingly over the trigger. When WWII began, there were at least 28,000 Jews living in the Ukranian city of Vinnista. None of them escaped.
Whilst photos like these derive their power from their brutal representation of humanity at its worst, images that convey the beauty and promise of the human condition can have just as much impact. Fast forward to the end of WWII, in which so many millions of lives were lost, and behold US Marine photographer Joe Rosenthal's iconic shot of four of his colleagues struggling to raise the American flag on Mount Suribachi in Japan. It was taken under heavy enemy fire, and perfectly conveys the courage of the soldiers fighting for a cause they were profoundly committed to. Whilst some may feel this image is tarnished by America's neo-imperial behaviour in recent times, it nevertheless shows what the ideal of freedom meant to the 4 individuals in the frame, as well as the man behind the camera.
Often, when photographers find themselves in warzones or at scenes of natural disasters, they are thrown into a challenging moral predicament. Their journalistic instinct is to document what they see and bring it to the attention of the wider world, but this often means they are watching terrible things happen and not intervening to prevent the suffering they witness. At the same time, photographers often put their own lives on the line, and many have paid the ultimate price in their efforts to get to the centre of the action.
One image perfectly epitomises the moral dilemma war photographers have to struggle with, whilst also giving some impression of the dangers they face. Taken in Vietnam by Nick Ut in 1972, it shows a group of Vietnamese children running in panic from a US napalm attack. At the centre of the photo is an unclothed girl named Kim Phuc, shrieking in desperation having been severely burned. The photo hit a nerve around the world, displaying the shocking consequences of America's tactics, and giving further impetus to the anti-war movement.
It's not just journalists that take photos that shock the world - in 1941, an SS soldier took a photo now known as The Last Jew of Vinnista. Found in his personal album after the war, this truly disturbing image shows an emaciated Jewish man perched on the edge of the open mass grave of a Nazi death camp. Behind him, one of the guards is holding a pistol against the back of his skull with his finger hovering chillingly over the trigger. When WWII began, there were at least 28,000 Jews living in the Ukranian city of Vinnista. None of them escaped.
Whilst photos like these derive their power from their brutal representation of humanity at its worst, images that convey the beauty and promise of the human condition can have just as much impact. Fast forward to the end of WWII, in which so many millions of lives were lost, and behold US Marine photographer Joe Rosenthal's iconic shot of four of his colleagues struggling to raise the American flag on Mount Suribachi in Japan. It was taken under heavy enemy fire, and perfectly conveys the courage of the soldiers fighting for a cause they were profoundly committed to. Whilst some may feel this image is tarnished by America's neo-imperial behaviour in recent times, it nevertheless shows what the ideal of freedom meant to the 4 individuals in the frame, as well as the man behind the camera.
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