Photojournalists

What is it about?

In 1862, Alexander Gardner (1821-82) photographed the dead horse of a Confederate colonel during the American Civil War. A century later, Gordon Parks (1912-2006) depicted, close up, the sweat-covered face of prizefighter Muhammad Ali. And in 1994, Mary Ellen Mark (1940-) photographed Ku Klux Klan members as, in darkness, they raised a wooden cross before burning it. From world capitals to small towns and in between, photojournalists since the beginnings of photography in the nineteenth century visually have provided information, inspiration, entertainment, and–above all–timely and meaningful news. Photojournalists, John Szarkowski of the Museum of Modern Art wrote, "give us the look and the smell of events that we did not witness" (Szarkowski 1999, 142). The content of these images, historian Michael Carlebach has said, is "as varied as journalism itself" (Carlebach 1992, 2). From wars and disasters to breaking political news to photo stories about how people live their lives, photojournalists document the commonplace and the surprising.

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