as a fan of both photography and writing, i’m all for photojournalism.
both the written word and the image have their merits, and i think it’s all the more powerful when you can master the art of combining both without detracting from either.
one of the most difficult skills i acquired from some photo classes i attended here in munich was putting images together well. combining some seemingly random images and telling a story with them (with or without accompanying text) effectively is definitely an art.
but photography, just like writing, tells only one aspect of the story. what you see in the photo is just as important as what’s left out of the photo. that should always be taken into consideration.
images also have their own language, and photographers leave their emotional imprint onto their photos – so as much as or if not more than words, images are also laden with subjective signals. a sad person will take sad photos of a party that for most people would’ve been quite a lot of fun. often, with a picture, as it is with a song, emotions can be greatly magnified.
i think the reason photography speaks so clearly to us is because it involves one of the basic senses. sight, sound, smell, taste, touch – those signals get processed immediately by the brain. whereas with written words, you first need to see or feel (braille), then another part of your brain processes the information, then you get a mental picture of what is being conveyed. it’s not as spontaneous as seeing a photo.
a lot can be said with one or two images. so the message can be delivered with much more impact in a shorter time. in today’s ADD world – that could be a distinct advantage.
