Photojournalism

The Decisive Moment encapsulates a moment in time which is naturally pure and has no meaning, agenda or bias. Henri Cartier-Bresson, originally a painter with a great frustration for the 'systematic' and 'rules' surounding the craft and it's creativity, created many images based on this technique to much success and became one of the founding members of the prestigeous Magnum Photos along with Robert Capa, David Seymour and George Rodger.

Cartier-Bresson reffered to his use of his camera (mostly his Leica camera) as being an 'instant drawing', citing the exact moment the photographer pushes the button to open and close the shutter is the most creative part. The processing of the images in a darkroom was never undertaken by Cartier-Bresson himself as he didn't care for it, most, if not all of his photographs were never cropped in the darkroom in order to preserve the image exactly how it had been recorded onto the film (as proved in many exhibitions as the edges would blur slight from where the image was burned onto film).

The image pictured to the left is one of Cartier-Bresson's most renouned photographs; Behind the Gare St. Lazare. This is a very popular train station in Paris which was photographed by Cartier-Bresson showing the wasteland featured behind the station.

The photo show a man running through the water yet neither of his feet are touching the ground/water due to the fast shutter speed, yet it does capture the slight movement of his body. I believe the shutter speed would be set to approximately 1/60 in order to create this effect. The over exposure of the photo shows that the iso must have been around 400 due to the slightly overcast look in the sky.

One of the most interesting things about this photo is the use of the 'Yin/Yang' theory, the man's shadow is reflected in shape yet contrasted in colour giving complete parrallel opposites, this creates a juxtaposition within itself without having to have any other in shot to draw the comparison to. As the subject is so close to the edge of the portrait photo and also shown to be running at quite a speed it is a true testament to The Decisive Moment to say that a second early or late would create a completely different photograph which would never have had the impact of Cartier-Bressons vision.

Pictured left, 'Behind the Gare St. Lazare'

'The Invisible Man' is an interpretation of Ralph Ellisson’s 1952 novel 'Invisible Man' which centres on a black male who accidentally ends up living in a deserted cellar room of a large apartment as a result of a riot. The opening of the story tells us of the 1369 bulbs he has illegally connected in order to light the room.  

"Both persue aims in indifference to perceptual reality, creating the imagized, erotized concept of the world that forms the perception of the subject and makes a mockery of empirical objectivity" 

Laura Mulvey; Representing Reailty by Bill Nichols

The image is a contruct and was created by Jeff Walls own vision of how the imagery should be used in even the tinyest of details yet does this make it no longer objective or personal? I think the quote above demonstrates this question. This personally makes me ask myself; if an artist can 'fake' reality or create a reality does this make it uninspired or not at all spontagneous? To create a meaning, message and/or moral out of something that doesn't truly exist. In the wrong context this technique could be used to create fabricated and bias views potentially, could it be seen as propaganda by some?

One of Magnum Photos controversial figures who sees Brighton as Britain's frontline journalism delivers photojournalism from a variety of issues and themes including food, family, relationships, consumerism and much more.

Parr's images are often very vibrant and saturated in colour to create a very satirical effect and/or juxtaposition. The image pictured to the left shows quite a bleak outlook on what looks like a family's day out, the most colourful aspect of the photo is the the post holding the bin and the rubbish collected at the bottom. All of the colours to the foreground of the picture clash with the bland and dull greyscale of everything in the background. 

Parr's social themes often point out a bleak effect on everyday actions usually using colour as a contrast to juxtapose. The images are constructed  using sets, actors, props and changing general scenery in order to create/repeat a natural occurance rather than wait for one.

This image shows everyone wearing white tops, even the people in the background whereas everything which is supporting a structure to something in the foreground is red which brings out the grey texture of the background even more so making the juxtaposition of what looks like a family holiday being taken over by consumerism from all the food and money theme carried by the business in the bland, dull and grey building. 

'The Last Resort', pictured left

Possibly the very first photojournalist, Brady started out capturing portrait images of America's most prominent figures incuding Abraham Lincoln as one of his admirers. Brady used his success to document the civil war by hiring 18 photographer's and investing heavily.

His photographs shocked America as it was the first time that the cold and bare truth had been released to the public via photographs, journalists at the time apparently romantized the war whereas Brady had capture the raw fact on film. Brady's photographs meant that he had to be up close with the action in the war, this reportedly almost cost him his life when he stumbled too far and was almost either lost, killed or captured varrying reports. The photographic equipment was very basic and required any subject to stay still in order to eradicate any blurring on the photo.

By the time the war ended Brady was certain that the popularity and circulations of his photographs would let him reap the rewards of his hard efforts. Unfortunatly, the general public decided that they wanted to forget about the war one it had ended, this left Brady financially broke. He sold his photographs to the U.S. Government and received a grant from Congress for the rights to his photographs, yet he was still in debt. He died bankrupt, lonely and unappreciated for his efforts to photojournalism until many realised how important his documentation of the civil war actually was.